Word: vez
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...regional voting in Venezuela on Sunday was ostensibly about gubernatorial and mayoral contests. But for the past decade, every election held in the Western hemisphere's richest oil nation has boiled down to one thing - a referendum on left-wing President Hugo Chávez. The balloting this time was no different. The bottom line: Did Chávez's party win big enough for him to rebound from a stunning defeat in last year's constitutional plebiscite? That vote reaffirmed the presidential term limits that Chávez had hoped to eliminate - and he needed a huge win this...
...vez's United Socialist Party (PSUV) did pick up 17 of 22 state governorships, including Chávez's home state of Barinas, on Venezuela's poor llanos, or plains, where the president's brother Adan held off a strong challenge from a breakaway Chávista candidate. The PSUV also took about two-thirds of the total national vote and kept the opposition from winning the seven or eight states it needed to stun Chávez. If the radical, anti-U.S. firebrand showed anything, it's that his red-beret power and popularity are relatively intact...
Still, though Chávez crowed that his country was back on "the road to socialism," Venezuela isn't quite "dressed all in red" this week. Until the vote, the opposition had held only two governor seats. Of the five it won Sunday, three control some of the nation's largest population centers, including western Zulia state, the heart of Venezuelan oil production and home to the country's second largest city, Maracaibo. Perhaps worse for Chávez, the socialists lost the mayor's seat in the largest city, Caracas, the nation's capital - even after Chávez...
...seems doubtful that Chávez, whose second and final six-year term ends in 2012, emerged with sufficient palanca, or leverage, to again seek a constitutional amendment that would allow him to be re-elected indefinitely, without risking a dangerous national uproar. Critics see his effort to nix term limits as a veiled bid for a Castro-style dictatorship - and even supporters suggest that with oil prices plummeting, battering an economy already hit hard by inflation, Chávez should set other priorities. What's more, now that the U.S. is about to replace Chávez's archenemy...
...action about Darfur. Looking south, the U.S. must remember Latin America, which the Bush administration decided to forget well before 9/11. In those latitudes, the “missing neighbor” policy has only relinquished influence to populist leaders such as Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, who have done more harm than good with their neo-socialist mirages. In the region, Obama should actively support democratic, liberal, and free-trading leaders, which will hopefully bring about democratic stability and decreased anti-Americanism...