The victory of the Venezuelan opposition in the referendum pushed for by President Hugo Chavez to reform the Constitution and create a totalitarian Cuban-style "socialist" state was far more significant than the official margin of 50.7% to 49.3% could ever indicate. Andres Oppenheimer analysed the Venezuelan elections in "El Nuevo Herald", and here follows a translation of his article.
Chavez has certainly kept a firm grip on power and has assured his government is not under threat in the short-term. However, the opposition's triumph changed the country's political panorama overnight, and will make efforts by the leaders of Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua- supported by Chavez- to change their own laws with the aim of enabling 'Presidency for life' significantly more difficult.
Amongst the evidence to support the claim that the opposition victory is far more significant than at first glance is: firstly, the opposition's victory could have been by a wider margin than the government claims. Whilst Venezuelan electoral authorities annouced defeat of the reform by a difference of 1.4% with 90% of the votes counted, Ojo Electoral ('Electoral Eye'), the independent body supervising the electoral process with the endorsement of the Venezuelan government, indicated that the opposition won by a margin of 3.8%.