Posted on 12/06/2007 4:20:40 PM PST by NormsRevenge
CARACAS (AFP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Thursday he will govern until 2013 when his mandate ends, now that voters rejected constitutional reforms that would have allowed him to seek endless reelection.
"The shouting is one thing, the reality another ... The reform was not approved, so I have to leave the government in the year 2013. I will work tirelessly until the last day I have left here," Chavez said at an event in the capital.
He also told his supporters: "You have a debt with me, you will tell me if you will repay it or if you won't repay it. You have a debt with me, the nation and the future."
"It doesn't matter if at the end I am left with four or five revolutionaries, welcome, but not two-bit revolutionaries," he told followers at a ceremony where Bolivian and African militants graduated from the state-funded "Che Guevara" education program.
He said the "no" triumphed in Sunday's referendum on the constitutional reforms (with 50.7 percent of the votes) because of "blackmail" suggesting there would be violence if the "yes" option won.
"It is blackmail, blackmail of the imperialism and its lackeys ... there was fear that violence would be unleashed and that even if we won by 80 percent against 20 percent they would not recognize the victory," he said.
The crowd chanted "Nooo" when Chavez evoked the possibility that "those who won the 'No' would return to govern the country, which is what they want."
"We are not confronting the 'petit-Yankees from here, but the empire of the United States, the most powerful empire on Earth," he said.
"Didn't you see the president of the United States celebrating the victory of the 'No'?" he asked in reference to a statement by Bush who said Venezuelans voted for democracy.
"However much you shout, it is the truth," he told the crowd.
"We lost in Caracas, we lost in the neighborhoods, millions did not go to vote. They can say what they want, there is no excuse."
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez speaks during a meeting with sympathizers in Caracas. Chavez said on Thursday he will govern until 2013 when his mandate ends, now that voters rejected constitutional reforms that would have allowed him to seek endless reelection.(AFP/PRESIDENCIA)
¿Por qué no te callas?
After he has been stealing the oil industry's equipment and operation, who does he expect will back him?
What did Bush do to celebrate the vote? Turn cartwheels in the Rose Garden? I didn’t see any pics of him hi-fiving Condi...
Hugo sounds like a petulant spoiled brat, blaming everyone else because they wouldn’t give him the present he wanted for his birthday.
No permita el golpe de puerta usted en el asno
(Don’t let the door hit you in the ass)
Riiigt. Sure you will. We believe you.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez reacts during a news conference at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, December 3, 2007. (Francesco Spotorno/Reuters)
How does "next Tuesday" work for you, chump?
2013 is 5 years too many!
I wonder if there’s anything to stop him from having another referendum ?
It worked for the EU with Ireland....
And, for anybody who believes that, I have here the deed to Angel Falls; the bidding is now open.
Chavez is your garden-variety socialist dictator. He isn't leaving office until they take him out feet first. But he will have ruined the country first.
Chavez will be dead before 2013..
The jerk even shows where the bullet is supposed to go.
For crying out loud, what else do they need??
I cannot find ANY coherant thought running through this rant. Either you lose something in translation or the guy is psychotic. Or maybe (probably?) both.
Now all Venzuela needs is a “Credible” Opposition Leader running on a reform Agenda to repeal all..if not most of what Chavez has done to that nation!!..
No, Hugo, you made a fatal mistake. When you closed the favorite TV channel with the soaps, you awakened the sleeping Venezuelan people, the ones who would have remained neutral to all the things you were doing. Had you not taken that action out of your paranoia, chances are those people would be sitting in their living rooms last Sunday, watching their favorite diversions, not standing in line to vote against you and your "reforms."
We would hope so.
Nice Observation.. I doubt it was his wondering if his union card would still be valid in 2013.
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