{"id":14722,"date":"2012-10-09T06:20:44","date_gmt":"2012-10-09T10:20:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theredphoenixapl.org\/?p=14722"},"modified":"2012-10-09T06:20:44","modified_gmt":"2012-10-09T10:20:44","slug":"here-to-stay-chavez-wins-venezuelan-presidency-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2012\/10\/here-to-stay-chavez-wins-venezuelan-presidency-photos\/","title":{"rendered":"Here to stay: Chavez wins Venezuelan presidency (PHOTOS)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Photo from twitter.com user @PresidencialVen)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Incumbent President, Hugo Chavez, has won Venezuela\u2019s tightly-contested presidential elections, clinching a fourth term with over 54 per cent of the vote, according to the National Electoral Council.<\/span><\/p>\n

With more than 90 per cent of the ballot counted, election officials claim Chavez has won beyond doubt, with rival Henrique Capriles managing just 44,97 per cent of the vote.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThank you God! Thank you to everyone,\u201d Chavez said on his Twitter account.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chavez will take office for a six-year term beginning February 2013.<\/span><\/p>\n

The election appears to have seen an impressive turnout, with Tibisay Lucena, the National Electoral Council president, stating 81 percent of nearly 19 million registered voters, cast ballots.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Supporters of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez celebrate outside the Miraflores Palace in Caracas.(Reuters \/ Jorge Silva)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Capriles has congratulated Chavez on his victory and told followers not to feel defeated. “We have planted many seeds across Venezuela and I know that these seeds are going to produce many trees,” he told supporters in a speech late Sunday, AP reports.<\/span><\/p>\n

Joyful crowds of Chavez supporters cheered as the results were announced. Fireworks have been heard around the capital, Caracas. \u201cAbsolutely incredible. Everywhere I look fireworks are going off. The city won’t sleep tonight,\u201d RT\u2019s Lucy Kafanov tweeted from the Venezuelan capital.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some regional leaders have already congratulated the president-elect with Bolivian leader, Evo Morales \u2013 a personal friend of Chavez \u2013 saying on his Twiiter feed, \u201cYour victory is also ours. It is of South America and the Caribbean. Congratulations President Chavez!\u201d Cuban President Raul Castro was also among the first to congratulate Chavez, the freshly-reelected leader told the audience in a speech.<\/span><\/p>\n

Addressing to his supporters, Chavez pledged: \u201cVenezuela will never return to neoliberalism, it will continue transition to the democratic socialism of the 21st century!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The post-election night turned into a big party for Chavez supporters. Some of them went over the top, riding motorbikes and drinking too much alcohol, reports RT\u2019s Lucy Kafanov. Venezuelan riot police have been deployed to prevent possible violence, she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo by Lucy Kafanov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Asia Times correspondent Pepe Escobar explained to RT that there are in fact two elections going on in the country. There are \u201cinternal Venezuela elections,\u201d he says, and the geo-political ones.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is basically urban middle class, which would love to spend more \u2013 go to the malls all the time and sip Martinis in Miami like they always do, in fact in Venezuela, against the poor,\u201d he stated. \u201dForty-three per cent of Chavez government\u2019s budget goes to social policies. So he has been building in past years a more [egalitarian] society. If you compare this to other countries in the developing world, it is a great achievement.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem with Chavez is very personalized by the president himself,\u201d Escobar added. \u201cAnd there is a lot of corruption built in the system. Much of what Capriles is saying is not strictly neo-liberal or right wing, he is neo-liberal right-winger, not exactly a democrat, but what he has been saying about corruption is correct. This is something that happens not only in Venezuela, but in Argentina and Brazil as well. And this opposition between the poor and the middle class that aspire to live like the middle class in Europe or the US, you find the same in Venezuela, Argentina or Brazil. There is class struggle, there is very hardcore all over these important countries in South America.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Apart from these internal elections there are another elections, he explained, which is \u201cChavizmo\u201d (as Chavez is called in Venezuela and all over Latin America) against Washington.<\/span><\/p>\n

Escobar says that the US would love to see Venezuela as it was before Chavez\u2019s years in power. Instead, Chavez\u2019s new presidency will mean a \u201cdecrease of power of Washington\u2019s agents or Washington itself in the integration of South America.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Supporters of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez celebrate outside the Miraflores Palace in Caracas.(Reuters \/ Jorge Silva)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Six candidates competed for the presidency in the current elections, however, since the very beginning opinion polls suggested the race was between just two potential leaders.Incumbent President Hugo Chavez, representing the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, has proven prominent, but opposition candidate Henrique Capriles, representing the Coalition for Democratic Unity, was biting at his heels throughout campaigning. Capriles is the first opposition candidate in Chavez\u2019s 13 years in power. The current leader and his young pro-US rival were neck-and-neck in opinion polls.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chavez was first elected in 1998 and since then has been waging what he calls a \u201cBolivarian revolution\u201d towards socialism. He has received a lot of negative coverage from Western media, many regarding him as a reactionary, seeking to cling to power for another presidential term. His controversial foreign policies have provoked the anger of the US on more the one occasion.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has condemned the support of the opposition in Syria and advocates Iran\u2019s right to enrich uranium. In addition, he has been a key figure in the movement for Latin American integration and the exclusion of the US regarding internal policies.<\/span><\/p>\n

In contrast, 40-year-old Capriles resolved to radically change Venezuelan foreign policy upon election, heralding a possible strengthening of ties with the US. Born in 1972, Venezuelan politician and lawyer Capriles was mayor of Baruta Municipality of Caracas. Since November 2008 he has been governor of the country\u2019s Miranda state.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Supporters of Venezuela’s opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles react to the results of the election that pitted him against President Hugo Chavez, at Capriles’ press center in Caracas.(Reuters \/ Christian Veron)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Source<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Incumbent President, Hugo Chavez, has won Venezuela\u2019s tightly-contested presidential elections, clinching a fourth term with over 54 per cent of the vote, according to the..<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,43],"tags":[289,347],"class_list":["post-14722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-media-culture","tag-venezuela","tag-workers-struggle"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenix.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ief636a3cc2522fbc9ce761419f709f99_40_14722_9f0fe.jpg?fit=640%2C480&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}