Venezuela has decided...

[Zhukov]

... No to a recall!

A crushing blow to the counterrevolution!

There were 4,991,483 "no votes ", representing 58.95 percent of those voting, against 3,576,517 "yes" votes, representing 41.74 percent (anounced on the 16th). Manual count of votes from rural districts and poor urban areas where Chavez has widespread support, and where automatic machines were not used, will increase the Presidents margin of victory!


The participation was around 90 percent. This voter turnout stands in contrast to the participation in elections in UK or the US. This is what happens when the people feel that they have something to vote for. It is what happens when people feel that politics really matter and that voting can make a difference.

This is the eighth electoral victory of Chavez and the Bolivarians in the last six years. Yet the opposition still describes him as a "dictator".

Defeated in every election, the opposition has tried to remove Chavez from power through a coup in 2002, followed by a management led shutdown of the state oil company PDVSA. When these attempts failed the opposition put all their weight behind the recall referendum to oust the democratically elected President before the end of his term.

This is rich! The constitutional right to a recall referendum only exists thanks to the new Constitution drafted during Hugo Chavezs first year in office, and approved by popular referendum. The recall of elected officials was an idea proposed by Chavez to the popular assembly, and it was supported by the majority and rejected by the opposition, which then hypocritically used that right to attempt to oust the President.

By the way, if these "democrats" had won the recall, the first thing they would have done is to abolish the right of recall referendum! Before the results both sides promised to accept the outcome, yet some opposition leaders have called for "civil rebellion".

So Chavez is staying, does this mean that everything is solved and that the opposition has been decisively defeated? No! The counterrevolutionaries will not stop their campaign against the Venezuelan revolution on the international plane, or drop their claims that that Chavez has authoritarian tendencies. With the aid of organizations like Sumate (The one who the US pays to help fake election results), they will publish fake exit polls that directly contradict the official results to show that the result was based on fraud. They will continue to sabotage and obstruct the progress of the revolution, attempting to cause economic and social chaos. They will never be satisfied until Chavez has been overthrown and the gains of the Bolivarian revolution completely destroyed.

The class war is intensifying all the time. The workers and peasants, encouraged by the result of the referendum, will demand more reforms and a deepening of the revolutionary process. The bourgeoisie and the imperialists will demand a halt and a reversal. There is no going back, fuckers!