Cubadebate

Already the results of several centers were announced throughout the parroquia of 23. Caravans of flag waving Chavistas drove through the rain soaked streets as music blared and homemade fireworks raced across the sky.

Still, after midnight, the national results were not known.  Chavistas began arriving at the seat of the Presidential Palace of Miraflores, where Chavez had said they would meet in "el balcon del pueblo" the people's porch.  The streets of Caracas echoed with
fireworks, music and the chants of the Chavistas.  At approximately 3:30 in the morning, the initial results were announced: with 94% of the vote counted, "el NO"
had triumphed with 58% of the vote, a resounding victory and devastating blow to the Opposition, who was hanging on with the desperate hope that they could manipulate a close outcome.

Already the Opposition, in dispirited disarray, announced that the entire process, where virtually an entire electorate body had been mobilized in a way never before seen in the history of Venezuela, perhaps in the entire Hemisphere, was a "gigantic fraud."
They are demanding a manual recount of the paper votes which the electronic voting machines print out and voters deposit in ballot boxes.

But they are completely without any kind of moral authority, and all of Venezuela, even those who voted SI, recognizes this, as even Jimmy Carter stated the voting process was "impressive" and more satisfactory than the one in the US. Paramilitary opposition forces, headed by Cuban exile terrorists, trained in Southern Florida by the CIA, continue to threaten violence.

For the time being, with the US war against the Iraqi people going not as well as the Pentagon cronies and the Bushite oligarchy had so arrogantly predicted, the US and its global elite allies need to stabilize oil prices.  So for now, Chavez is better than a wildcard. Venezuela in crisis.  But make no mistake about it, as the CIA met in Chile just days before the election, they will intensify their efforts to kill Chavez.

US dominance, seemingly engraved in stone since the 1803 Monroe Doctrine, has been shaken to its core and there is a block of progressive nations in Latin America, most outstanding among them Cuba and Venezuela, who will continue to hound these 21st
century imperialists at every turn.  As Chavez said in his victory speech on the "peoples porch", the Venezuelan people have hit a home run, and ball has fallen straight in the middle of the White House - a gift for Bush.

The neoliberal project imposed by the US on Latin America is morally bankrupt and a humane vision for the people of the Americas has been strengthened.  The shark is fleeing from the sardines.

Today the streets are quiet, kissed by the cleansing rain that has fallen steadily over Caracas since midnight. Today people are resting, after two months of the fierce intensity of a two month campaign.  But tomorrow begins the real work, the solidify the gains of the Bolivarian Revolution, to expand the work of the literacy campaigns, Missiones Robinson, Sucre and the all important Mission Barrio Adentro, where thousands of Cuban doctors are giving medical attention to multitudes of Venezuelans, the work of the rural land takeovers, where peasants are gaining title to the land they have tilled for generations that was neglected by its oligarchic owners, some of them British royalty and the work of the urban land committees, local citizens recuperating their houses, repairing and building homes with their neighbors.

Tomorrow the real battle begins, but for now, for those who love justice and crave peace, we savor the true taste of a people's victory.