Venezuela: Chavez victory backed by Carter

Venezuelans voted overwhelmingly to keep President Hugo Chavez in office, dealing a crushing defeat to a splintered opposition that waged a long and bitter campaign to oust him.

Scattered protests erupted yesterday in Caracas as stunned opposition leaders refused to accept results showing Chavez won with 58% of Sunday’s referendum, even after former US President Jimmy Carter and the Organisation of American States endorsed the outcome.

Chavez managed to convert one of the biggest challenges of his presidency into an even broader mandate to carry on his ”revolution for the poor.”

And it has underscored the resilience of a leftist firebrand who has bluntly challenged “imperialist” US foreign policies and cultivated Cuban President Fidel Castro.

Venezuela has the largest oil reserves outside the Middle East, is the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter and provides almost 15% of US oil imports. Chavez once said the two countries were “condemned” to have good relations.

News of Chavez’s victory settled some fears that the country would plunge into chaos and affect oil exports, driving down crude oil prices from record highs yesterday.

Polling stations stayed open into the early hours as voters waited up to 12 hours in lines. Close to an unprecedented 10 million citizens voted in the South American country of 24 million, Carter said.

Carter, a Nobel Peace laureate, urged “all Venezuelans to accept the results and work together for the future”.

“Our findings coincided with the partial returns announced today by the National Elections Council,” Carter said.

OAS Secretary-General Cesar Gaviria said that observers did not find “any element of fraud in the process”.

Opponents who accuse Chavez of vilifying the middle class and trampling on democratic institutions have fought for months for the recall referendum.

Chavez’s victory was all too reminiscent of their past failures to oust the president.

In April 2002, Chavez survived a military coup that ousted him for two days until he regained power after widespread street protests. Last year, he withstood pressure to resign during a two-month general strike that crippled the economy and paralysed oil exports.

Despite an economic recession and 15% unemployment, he won widespread support among Venezuela’s poor majority by spending millions of dollars to teach adults to read, send Cuban doctors to slums and give loans to farmers and small businesses.

The opposition – splintered into small parties with contrasting ideologies - never came up with a clear plan for running Venezuela or even a candidate to succeed Chavez.

Chavez, whose six-year term ends in January 2007, has now gained momentum ahead of September's regional elections and 2005 congressional elections. His allies already control the National Assembly and most state governments.