Word: chavez
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...revolutions are first and foremost about power, and the most dramatic reform that Chavez may seek - and the most worrisome to his foes - is a constitutional change to remove term limits on the presidency and allow him to run again in 2012. He also says he could create a single party out of the many that support him. The president denied last week that such reforms pointed to increasing authoritarianism, and assured that any constitutional reform would have to pass through a national referendum. "This isn't a dictatorship," he said. "It's democracy...
...Chavez's staying power, however, could depend on the opposition's ability to rebound from a demoralizing loss and maintain the unity it established on the campaign trail to end years of self-defeating bickering among its various parties. Rosales' brief concession speech suggested the opposition may have resolved to accept that Chavez won't be ousted any time soon, and to instead take the long view and strengthen their movement through grassroots organizational work - a counterintuitive option for a movement that has its origins in two parties of the political and economic elite that had maintained a lock...
...government of rigging the vote in the two previous elections. Supermarket shelves in the capital had been emptied last week in anticipation of chaos sparked by a contested election result. Instead, the streets of Caracas were quiet on Monday. The opposition may finally be abandoning the claim that Chavez can stay in power only by cheating. "The truth is that even with a tighter margin we recognize that today they defeated us," Rosales said Sunday night. "But we'll keep fighting...
...Chavez's bedrock support among the poor, shored up by the government programs that ensure cheap food and free health care, that once again ensured his victory. Unless the opposition is able to find a message and policies that resonate with the impoverished majority, it will remain in the political wilderness...
...nearly 40% of Venezuelans who voted for Rosales on Sunday still have no representation in the legislature. "I want a change, above all for my son," said Fabiola Pereira, a hairstylist, after voting for Rosales in the upper-middle-class Caracas neighborhood of Altamira. "If Chavez takes more power we don't know what else he'll invent. It scares me. Anything can happen in six years...