And, that's all there was to the story when I posted it. No details yet.
Earlier tonight I heard it was an anti-Chavez landslide. Who knows?
Now comes the violence as Chevez tries to destroy his opponents. Look for TV stations and newspapers to be nationalized just before the bloodletting goes wholesale.
Remember this is Reuters.
16 August 2004
The Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, looked to be losing his grip on power last night as exit polls showed him to be trailing the opposition by almost a million votes.
The figures were early indications that, for the first time in the country's history, the President may have his term in office cut short by a referendum.
The mid-morning results showed that the opposition, already boasting an enormous 1,758,000 votes to Chavez's 798,000, is well on its way to reaching the target of 3.76 million votes it needs to oust the authoritarian, left-wing President. Turn-out for the referendum was high, with millions of Venezuelans queuing from the early hours at polling stations all over the oil-rich country to decide the political fate of the firebrand Mr Chavez.
The Venezuelan people are tensely awaiting a close-run and disputed result. In the capital, Caracas, government vans equipped with speakers drove through the poor residential districts in the east of the city at 5am, playing a military wake-up call before piping out popular pro-Chavez songs to voters, some of whom had in any case been up all night letting off fireworks, anticipating victory.
"Our commandante has already won," said Eric Caldera, a student queuing to vote against Mr Chavez's recall. "The rich people and TV stations are the only ones who say the opposition is going to win. They want to regain the power and privilege they had before, and loot the country. You can count the rich people on your hand, the poor you can't. They are too many. And they are with Chavez."
A clamorous cluster of opposition voters in Parroquia El Recreo voting station, central Caracas, rejected the pro-Chavez voters' arguments against them. "If Chavez wins we will paint the walls with 'No Future'. As no one will have a future, not us nor our children. We don't want a Cuba here," added Elsie Billar, 54, an accountant.
If, as looked likely last night, Mr Chavez loses, Vice-President Jose Rangel will take over until general elections are held in a month's time.
Chavez wouldn't dare cheat with Jimmeh lookin' on.
I've got a really bad feeling on this one. Even if Chavez loses, we all know there are plans to fix the vote. There is no way that the leftists are going to leave power without a lot of bloodshed.
Call Jimmy Carterrrrrrr
I bet he and his buddy Michael Moore know who won.
lol
Looks like the DNC has been helping count the votes.
I was reading Spanish-language papers late last night saying that they were extending the voting for a second day (today), because there were so many people trying to get to the polls. I'm not sure this is over yet.
As seen on another post (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1192332/posts)
Venezuela's Chavez May Overcome Recall Vote on Sunday (Update3)
by Alex Kennedy
Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gained support in opinion polls ahead of a weekend recall vote, prompting some investors to bet he will survive the referendum as he did a military coup in 2002 and an oil strike last year....``Our victory is simply inevitable,'' Chavez said during a press conference in Caracas yesterday.
"Nothing can stop it...' (Excerpt)
Chavez Declares Recall Victory; Foes Claim Fraud
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1192514/posts
Maybe we should consider the same...