In 1999, Hugo Chavez assumed the power of Venezuela, and since then , the country has been Cuba’s principal political, economic, and commercial ally.
On October 7th, Venezuelans elected Chavez for his fourth term which –constitutionally speaking – will begin on January 10th 2013 and end until 2019. The president was reelected with 54,66% of the popular vote, which is 8% less than the ones he gained on his 3rd reelection. His political rival Henrique Capriles had on 44,97%, according to the National Electoral Council.
This past election in Venezuela has shown the biggest electoral turnout that the country has had in any other elections. Nearly 15 million Venezuelans voted this October to decide if Chavez’s term should be prolonged six more years, for a total of 20 years. These means an increase of almost 6 percentage points from the turnout of last elections. Chavez won the elections, with a promise of a renewed and more profound “socialist revolution”.
Although international transparency agencies were present in Venezuela, their job was made difficult due to the country’s governmental officials high bureaucracy, making a lot of non-“Chavist” Venezuelans skeptic about the final results.
Even though they are beaten by the result of the elections, opposition members took the result in a pacific way, and keep their eyes set in the future. They keep struggling to remain united and rally its followers to the regional elections on December.