[Media-watch] Venezuela's Chavez Survives Recall Referendum:58 percent to 42 percent, based on 94.5 percent of the ballots counted

[iain c]

If it's reported as true in bloomberg one of the media
outlets who really hates him then it must be true!
Iainc2005 11.00am Aug. 16 (Bloomberg)

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a former paratrooper
who survived a military coup and a two-month strike by
oil workers, overcame a referendum to remove him from
office two years before his term expires. 

Chavez defeated the vote 58 percent to 42 percent,
based on 94.5 percent of the ballots counted, National
Electoral Council President Francisco Carrasquero said
in a televised press conference in Caracas. The ballot
lasted more than 18 hours and drew more than 60
percent of the nation's 14 million voters. 

``Today's victory is a victory for the constitution,''
Chavez, 50, said after singing the national anthem
from a balcony of the presidential palace draped with
Venezuela's red, blue and yellow flag. In the square
below, supporters wearing red berets and T- shirts
danced, sang and set off fireworks. 

Crude oil futures fell from record highs after Chavez
won the vote. Prices had climbed on concern the
referendum could prompt violence and disrupt supplies
from Venezuela, the fourth-largest exporter of oil to
the U.S. 

Oil for September delivery fell 38 cents to $46.20 a
barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New
York Mercantile Exchange at 9:16 a.m. London time.
Earlier it had risen to $46.91 a barrel, the highest
intraday price since oil futures began trading in
1983. 

Bonds to Rise 

Venezuela's benchmark bond due 2027 probably will rise
from a six-month high on Chavez's victory, said
Jonathan Mann, who manages $1.5 billion of
emerging-market debt at Standard Asset Management in
London. The bond rose 0.1 cent on the dollar to 91.4
cents on Friday on expectations Chavez would win the
vote and keep up interest payments on the nation's $22
billion foreign debt. 

``While a Chavez victory probably isn't a long-term
positive, in the short term there can be more
certainty about the current policy track which
includes a commitment to servicing debt and building
up sovereign reserves,'' Mann said in an interview. 

Ezequiel Zamora and Sobella Mejias, two of the five
members on the electoral council, said in televised
remarks that they didn't approve of the release of the
results at about 4 a.m. in Caracas, because voting was
still continuing in some parts of the country. 

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Secretary
General of the Organization of American States Cesar
Gaviria, who were in Venezuela as international
observers for the vote, visited the council's
headquarters before the results were announced and
left without making public comments. 

Voting Extended 

The council had extended voting hours twice to
midnight because of record turnout and said polls
would stay open until the last voter in line cast a
ballot. 

``This is a victory for the opposition,'' Chavez said
as a drizzle began in Caracas. ``They defeated
violence, coup-mongering and fascism. I hope they
accept this as a victory and not as a defeat.'' 

A gunman shot at voters at a polling station in
Caracas, killing one person and injuring 12, the
city's Fire Chief Rodolfo Briceno said in an
interview. Bullets sprayed from a vehicle passing by a
poll in the Petare neighborhood of Caracas at about 5
p.m., said Briceno. The shooting probably was an
attempt to disrupt the vote, he said. 

Voters, who began casting ballots at 6 a.m. yesterday,
still were standing in line at some polls in the
capital city after midnight. 

``I've never seen so many people voting in my entire
life,'' said Manuel Navarro, 72, after he stood seven
hours in line at a polling station in Caracas' Chacao
neighborhood to cast his vote to recall Chavez.
Navarro voted for Chavez in 1998. 

``He hasn't lived up to any of his promises,'' said
Navarro, whose neighbors brought him food and water
while he waited. ``The constitution doesn't mention
anything about a revolution.'' 

Picnics, Dominoes 

Venezuelans had picnics, played dominoes and blared
music from boom boxes to pass the time as their
relatives waited in line to vote. Alvaro Atias, a
29-year-old economist, said he waited from 6 a.m.
until 4 p.m. at a polling station in the La Lagunita
neighborhood of Caracas. 

Chavez, who counts Cuban President Fidel Castro among
his friends, said in his weekly televised speech Aug.
8 that the recall vote was an attempt by the U.S. to
replace him with a pro-American government. The U.S.
purchases 60 percent of Venezuela's oil exports. 

The opposition, led by Miranda State Governor Enrique
Mendoza and Julio Borges, national coordinator for the
First Justice Party, gathered 2.44 million signatures
to force the referendum on Chavez more than two years
before his term ends. Mendoza said at a press
conference Friday that Chavez failed to combat crime
and create jobs since taking office in 1999. 

Venezuela's unemployment rate rose as high as 20.7
percent in March 2003 from 11 percent in 1998, and was
at about 16 percent in March this year, government
figures show. The nation's capital had the
third-highest murder rate of any city in the Americas
between 1999 and 2003, according to the Inter-American
Development Bank. 

`Status Quo' 

``A government win is the status quo from a credit
standpoint and the market could go up because
uncertainty will be behind us,'' Raphael Kassin, who
helps manage about $1.4 billion in assets, including
Venezuelan bonds, at ABN Amro Asset Management in
London, said in an interview. 

Petroleos de Venezuela SA, the state oil company,
doubled security staff at oil fields, refineries and
storage tanks ahead of the vote. It was operating
normally during yesterday's voting, a company
spokesman said in an interview. Soldiers stood guard
at Venezuela's almost 9,000 polling stations. 

Venezuela was the fourth-biggest source of U.S.
crude-oil imports during the first five months of the
year, according to the U.S. Energy Department. 

Previous attempts to oust Chavez, including a military
coup in 2002 and a national strike last year, sparked
deadly protests. 

Concern about the next move by the opposition may
affect oil prices, said Pieter Bruinstroop, who helps
oversee $2.3 billion in resource company investments
for APS Asset Management Ltd. in Singapore. The
opposition is represented by the Democratic
Coordinator, which includes more than a dozen
political parties, the Confederation of Venezuelan
Workers and the Federation of Venezuelan Chambers of
Commerce. 


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