For those of you who have been following the situation in Venezuela, Chavez had been seeking to repeal term limits, lengthen his term in office and take other steps that would allow him to stay in power indefinitely and take more of the economy into state ownership. This referendum has failed, by a very slim margin, 50.7% against to 49.3% in favour. From the reporting surrounding the vote, it's clear a lot of Chavez supporters were queasy about giving their guy that much of a blank check, and stayed home.
While I think Chavez has been beaten up a bit much in the U.S. press, I thought that the referendum/constitutional changes were an overstretch by him, and a threat to liberty, and so I'm happy they failed. Any thoughts from you guys?
Update: Chavez is still speaking, and it sounds like he'll try again. He's saying the constutional plan is `still alive.' Yikes.