Posted on 11/02/2004 8:04:20 AM PST by JesseHousman
President Hugo Chávez threatened to use the army to take control in states where governors refuse to accept defeat in Sunday's national elections.
CARACAS - The Venezuelan government warned Monday that it would use the army to restore order if opposition state governors persisted in their refusal to recognize the results of Sunday's regional elections.
Preliminary figures gave candidates loyal to President Hugo Chávez victory in 20 of 22 state elections. But in several areas, including the important central states of Carabobo and Miranda, governors belonging to the opposition disputed the accuracy of the results.
Miranda Gov. Enrique Mendoza, a leading opposition figure, continued to insist that vote tallies gave him 52 percent to 53 percent. He declared that while he would not refuse to leave the governor's mansion, he would, ''defend in the street or wherever I have to'' his right to continue in office.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Jesse Chacón said the results were ''irreversible.'' His cabinet colleague Andrés Izarra, minister of information, said the army was ready to take action if the opposition continued to ``manipulate public opinion and deny the triumph of the people.''
Jorge Rodríguez, chairman of the National Electoral Council, called for calm and said he would go Tuesday to two of the regions where conflicts persisted over the vote.
Despite the disputes, the country remained largely quiet and there were governors who conceded defeat, even if some -- as in the case of Antonio Rojas Suárez of Bolívar state -- did so ``under protest.''
Already reeling from the result of the August recall referendum against Chávez, which the president won by a 20 percentage point margin amid cries of fraud, the opposition must now start to rebuild almost from scratch.
Leaders of one of the newer parties, Justice First, said Monday that the opposition had made many mistakes in the campaign against Chávez and that recovery would take a long time.
The lost ground would not be won back ''in the medium term or the short term,'' said Liliana Hernández, a Justice First legislator who withdrew her candidacy for mayor of central Caracas after the breakdown of talks on a united opposition candidacy.
Party leader Julio Borges said the opposition had, in many cases, lacked, ``the responsibility and the maturity to achieve unified candidacies, and we were punished for that yesterday.''
But political analyst Alberto Garrido said high levels of abstention were a warning to both sides.
''It's not just the mediocrity of the opposition leadership: That didn't need demonstrating,'' he said. ``It's the mediocrity of the Chavista leadership, too. The only leader they have who moves people is Chávez himself.''
Thanks to Jimmie Karter!
Now communism is alive and flourishing in our hemisphere. But then we've had Castro for over four decades!
W needs to remove this tick from South America early in his second term.
I honestly do not believe this could ever happen here.
There are way too many of us with the ability and the means to stop this in it's tracks.
Switch to decaf. And move this out of Breaking.
I know it's early, so I'll just call this the mid-morning winner of the dumbest add-on to a headline. We'll be picking winners throughout the day.
JHC, don't we have enough on our plate right now. Going after some tin horn idiot in S. America who doesn't threaten us at all (unless he intends to attack with killer salsa) would be ridiculously stupid.
ROFLMAO!!!
Never happen here for two reasons:
1. 90 million gun owners
2. The military would have to be willing to do that for Kerry.
Unlike Venezuela, we have the Second Amendment.
This is why I fear Kerry.
"I honestly do not believe this could ever happen here. There are way too many of us with the ability and the means to stop this in it's tracks."
The Republicans have been rolling over for Democrat election and court-driven anti-constitutional illegalities for generations. Why expect that the Republicans will do anything other than what they've always done when faced with these kinds of atrocities, which is, whine and complain about Democrat depradations, all the while sitting on their Republican arses and letting the blood of the innocents flow unchecked. How many abortions have been done in the past forty years? How much of our social fabric has been torn in tatters under the auspices of the Democrats in the past forty years? And this continues unabated to this day!
I'm so sick and tired of listening to the Republicans bray like jackasses about their gun rights and the need for people to appreciate them for the defense of liberty. I'll believe the Republicans have REAL conviction when they decide to lift up their firearms to finally put a stop to the on-going Democrat bloodless coup! Bloodless, that is, for the Democrats!
Kerry will have to win this election to wake up the other half of an increasingly decadent America!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.