It was the unthinkable, and now, two days later, Venezuelans and those mired in Venezuelan intrigue are still reeling.
On Sunday, Venezuela voted in a referendum that could have handed their President Hugo Chavez a vast buffet of political tools on a clean-edged, silver platter. From the option to seek presidency for life to increased power to seize private property, Chavez could have become a super-president, all via democracy.
Or so he says. Before Sunday, when the sharp-tongued military man’s proposals failed in a 51 to 49 percent divide, the opposition vehemently swore that votes were fixed, particularly the 2006 vote when Chavez won re-election.
So sure was the opposition that their votes would count for nothing that many planned to boycott the ballot box. But as the referendum drew near, opposition leaders urged everyone to vote, saying that their numbers were large enough to have a chance at winning.
The idea was that the election may or may not be fixed, but if the opposition didn’t turn out, the loss was guaranteed.
Now, the opposition must grapple with the apparent probability that the country’s government is run on a democratic system – that Chavez’s 2006 re-election was not fixed; that it was the will of the people that placed in him in power.
Or was it?
In a country that has long suffered under a string of corrupt despots, where rumors run as wild as petty thieves, no one seems to know what the truth really is.
Chavez responded by bussing tens of thousands of supporters from around the country into massive rallies in Caracas. With the promise of pocket money and a day-long visit to the nation’s capital, people poured into the city to march – and go shopping. While it’s clear that there are true Chavistas, it’s impossible to know the number. When the opposition marched, they shouted, “We choose to be here!” and “Without busses!”
Some Venezuelans said Chavez’s proposals went too far. Chavistas would follow him, they said, but only to a point. When rumors began circulating that the new constitution could dictate that children born in Venezuela would not be allowed to leave the country until the age of 18, some Venezuelans drew the line. Some real estate investors spent the months leading up to the referendum frantically selling their properties, certain that if the proposals passed, the government would seize them.
Others said Chavez is worthy of every Venezuelan’s trust. People who worried they would lose their children to the government were alarmists, they said, adding that if Chavez only wants to ensure every child’s education.
Chavez is a man who sought, in Sunday’s election, the power to call indefinite states of emergencies, during which he could detain Venezuelan citizens without charge. He is given to impromptu dress-downs of other world leaders, and violent rhetoric threatening to “raze to the ground” Caracas’ upper class neighborhoods.
Did he truly concede?
Or does he have another plan in place – one that will allow him to push forward despite popular vote?
Already, he has promised that he will not change “a single comma” of the proposal.
“I continue making the proposal to the Venezuelan people,” he said in a speech Monday. “The proposal is alive, not dead.”
As an opposition Venezuelan friend told me, “We’re safe – for now.”
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