Mr. Chavez, who has been in power for 10 years and vows to rule for decades, pledged to repay his poor backers for Sunday’s victory by combatting their No. 1 concern — crime that has given the OPEC nation one of the world’s worst murder rates.
The fragmented opposition, which was spearheaded by an inexperienced and underfinanced student movement, said the former paratrooper’s win was secured with huge government funding and blanket state television coverage.
“Another sham” was the editorial headline of leading opposition newspaper El Nacional, which complained that Venezuela’s electoral commission favored “a military regime that promotes hatred and divides Venezuela in two halves.”
Does anyone expect Hugo Chavez will ever relinquish power peacefully? Venezuela is sliding into the darkness, and will soon be joining the likes of Cuba and North Korea, whose people suffer under the oppression of a dictator who will use any means necessary to cling to power.
And of course, America will be to blame.