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When President Hugo Chávez first asked Venezuelans to eliminate presidential term limits in December 2007, they told him no. But on Sunday, as if resigned to the idea that he would keep on asking until he got the answer he wanted, voters said yes. Venezuela's second constitutional referendum in 14 months was approved by a resounding 54% to 45% margin, allowing Chávez to run for a third six-year term in 2012 and perhaps others after that...
...Standing on the balcony of the Miraflores presidential palace to declare victory Sunday night in his trademark red shirt, the socialist firebrand shouted: "Today we opened wide the gates of the future!" Chávez may well have opened another kind of gate. For much of the latter half of the 20th century, it was the norm in Latin America to limit presidents to one term, a safeguard against the lifetime rule so many caudillos had set up for themselves in the past. As democracy gained a stronger foothold on the continent, many countries voted to allow their leaders...
...immediate threat, though, is economic. Venezuela relies on oil and gas for 93% of its export revenues. López says Chávez is rushing the term-limits question to the polls again before the drop in oil prices hammers the economy and shrinks his checkbook. Inflation is more than 30%, and the country faces shortages of staples such as milk. Chávez insists his government has stored away reserves to cushion the looming pain and recently pledged that "even if the price of oil drops to zero," the social largesse will keep flowing...
...even as Chávez puts a gloss on the economic outlook, some Chavistas wonder if venality has seeped into his own government - including millions of dollars in alleged payoffs to officials described last year at the Miami trial of a wealthy Venezuelan businessman. (Chávez officials deny the charges.) "Chávez needs to know that we see the tremendous houses and cars these so-called socialists have," says Isabel de Lemus, 70, a shop owner in La Silsa who sits on a revolutionary community council...
People close to Chávez concede privately that the corruption issue has hurt him. Perhaps that's why he recently warned supporters who have benefited from the oil boom that "this isn't a revolution of Hummers." As for the soaring crime rate, Chávez says that a major overhaul of the police and judiciary is coming. He'll have to hope that's enough to eke out a victory in a few days' time. "We will recognize the result, as we always have, whatever it is," he said last week. And if it doesn...