|
|
Change Your Life! |
"Nothing's gonna stop you now": Fidel Castro |
|||||||
|
News
|
||||||||
August 1, 2000
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuelans set off fireworks and danced in the streets Monday to celebrate the re-election of President Hugo Chavez, whose "social revolution" has given new hope to the country's poor and whose fiery rhetoric has terrified the wealthy. Still pending were results of congressional races, which were crucial to Chavez's plans to complete his overhaul of Venezuela's political and social landscape. Partial results from Sunday's vote indicated his allies captured 13 of the country's 23 governorships and the capital's mayorship. A clearer picture of the opposition's ability to maintain a voice in Venezuelan politics was expected to emerge later Monday with results of the congressional races. With 77 percent of the votes counted, the National Electoral Council gave 59 percent to Chavez and 38 percent to his main challenger, former Zulia Gov. Francisco Arias Cardenas. Turnout among the 12 million eligible voters appeared higher than expected, although no official numbers were released. "Hugo, I am sure that nothing and no one can stop you now," Cuban President Fidel Castro told his friend Chavez in a chummy telephone conversation Saturday. Outside the presidential palace, a nine-piece salsa band lit up and people danced in the streets, hugging complete strangers and yelling "We won!" Thousands more, many of them wearing the president's trademark red paratrooper's beret, swarmed through the gates, screaming Chavez's name. "You really love me, don't you?" a smiling Chavez asked from a balcony draped with the Venezuelan flag. To the cheers of the crowd, he pledged: "Everything I have in life, I give to you."
In an emotional victory speech in which he often broke into song, Chavez pledged to refocus his "social revolution" from the dismantling of Venezuela's old political order to the rescue of the economy and social services. Chavez was remarkably conciliatory to the business community, which he decried during the campaign as part of the "rancid oligarchy." "Fear no more," he told business leaders. "We need to put fear behind us and save the Venezuelan economy." Whether he can win back those leaders will be a key test of his new term. Most wealthy Venezuelans supported his main challenger, Arias, calling Chavez a dictator who was driving the country to ruin. Since Chavez took office in February 1999, living standards for the country's poor majority have fallen and the economy has gone into a tailspin. The gross domestic product shrank by 7 percent last year despite a quadrupling in the price of oil, Venezuela's main export. And Chavez's rhetoric of class struggle and talk of following Cuba's path terrified the business class. Thousands of wealthy Venezuelans have fled to Miami, and dlrs 8 billion in capital has flown overseas. "Our young people are going to the United States by the thousands and thousands," said Alberto Franceschi, an opposition candidate for a Caracas borough presidency. "Nobody opens a business. Nobody wants to invest anything. Nobody buys anything." Arias refused to concede defeat in a speech early Monday. He cautioned: "This is not the final event in the history of our country" and vowed to "maintain the civic struggle." "This country wants and seeks to live in freedom," he said. "It wants and seeks democracy." In addition to the presidency, the voting determined the makeup of a new, 165-member unicameral legislature, governors, mayors and other offices - all institutions that had to be "re-legitimized" under a new constitution Chavez pushed through after taking office last year. No results were available on the congressional races, but the president's movement was expected to win at least a simple majority in the legislature. Still, Chavez could fall short of the two-thirds needed to rubber-stamp presidential appointments and proposed laws. Those results will be crucial for the opposition's ability to maintain a voice in Venezuelan politics as Chavez tries to parlay his overwhelming support into even deeper reform.
|
