Word: vez
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Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has given his rubber-stamp National Assembly the green light to fashion yet another constitutional referendum on whether presidential term limits should be eliminated in the western hemisphere's largest oil producer. "We're going to achieve it," the left-wing Chávez declared to thousands of supporters in Caracas on Sunday. "We're going to demonstrate who rules in Venezuela. If God gives me life and health, I will be with you until 2021" - the bicentennial of Venezuela's independence from Spain. "Uh-ah, Chávez no se va," he sang...
...incoming Obama Administration - and who knows how many U.S. Administrations after Obama's - may need to prepare for lifetime re-election for Chávez, because this time he could very well get it. And no matter how passionately the anti-U.S. firebrand keeps working to thwart Washington's interests in the hemisphere, there is very little Washington can do about it, since the U.S. gets almost 15% of its oil imports from Venezuela...
...vez most recently tried to nix term limits in a constitutional plebiscite last year, but in a stunning rebuke, Venezuelans voted down the idea. Few, however, really believed the radical Chávez, whose second and final six-year term ends in February 2013, would let the matter die there. Most assumed he would wait for the outcome of last week's regional elections. He was hoping his United Socialist Party (PSUV) would crush Venezuela's dysfunctional opposition so badly that he'd meet little resistance raising the term-limits question again...
That wasn't quite the result Chávez got. The PSUV did win 17 of 22 state governorships, the lion's share of mayoral posts and 53% of the total vote, proving that Chávez and his Bolivarian Revolution are still the nation's most potent political force. But el comandante's celebration was blunted by the fact that the opposition won governor seats in three of the most populous states, including Zulia, the nation's oil powerhouse, and Carabobo, an important automobile producer. (Earlier last month, Chávez had threatened to send in tanks...
...record 65% of eligible Venezuelan voters turned up to cast ballots in fiercely contested state and regional elections on Nov. 23. Candidates opposed to leftist President Hugo Chávez won the coveted mayor's post in Caracas as well as governorships in three key states, bringing their total to five and prompting boasts that Chávez's popularity was waning following a failed 2007 bid to extend his presidency. Chávez's Socialist Party remained in control of 17 states, however, which his supporters said reaffirmed Venezuelans' confidence in his leadership...