US welcomes Chavez's defeat, many see lessons for others (Roundup)

Dec 3, 2007, 20:31 GMT

Washington/Bogota/La Paz - The United States on Monday welcomed Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's defeat in a referendum that would have allowed unlimited re-election for the anti-US leftist firebrand.

Opposition parties across Latin America, meanwhile, saw the result as a 'lesson' for other leaders.

'It looks like the people spoke their minds,' White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. 'They voted against the reforms that Hugo Chavez had recommended and I think that bodes well ... for freedom and liberty.'

Nearly 51 per cent of the voters on Sunday rejected a proposal that would have allowed the unlimited re-election of the president, lengthened the presidential term from six to seven years and ended the autonomy of the country's central bank. Chavez conceded defeat shortly after the results were announced.

Colombian opposition Senator Juan Fernando Cristo said Chavez should 'hold his tongue' after the defeat of his proposal in the referendum and work towards a normalization of bilateral ties in the wake of a recent high-profile spat between the two countries.

Bilateral relations have been in crisis for almost two weeks, after Uribe terminated Chavez's role as mediator toward a hostage swap with leftist rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Both presidents exchanged insults, and Chavez called the Venezuelan ambassador in Colombia for consultations.

Cristo noted that the rejection of a proposal 'leaves many lessons for Colombia,' and noted that people in Latin America do not like presidents to remain in power for too long.

Some supporters of the ruling party in Colombia have started to collect signatures for a constitutional amendment that would allow a second re-election of President Alvaro Uribe, who had already changed the Constitution once to be able to seek a second term in office.

Efrain Cepeda, a political ally of Uribe, proposed an urgent meeting between foreign ministers Fernando Araujo of Colombia and Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela.

Several leaders in the region, including Bolivian President Evo Morales and Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, appear to be following similar steps to those taken by Chavez after he gained power. Efforts to draft new constitutions are in place in both Bolivia and Ecuador, prompting comparisons with the Venezuelan vote by opposition legislators in those countries.

'The defeat of Hugo Chavez is a sign in the sense that authoritarianism will not prevail in Venezuela, and neither will it prevail in Bolivia,' said opposition Senator Fernando Rodriguez.

'These totalitarian projects - the moves to prolong mandates and re-election for life, what Chavez sought, and also what Evo Morales seeks - are not going to prevail,' constituent assembly member Jose Antonio Aruquipa told Bolivian television.

The Bolivian government gets major support from Chavez, which the opposition has said amounts to 100 million dollars each year.

The Nicaraguan opposition asked President Daniel Ortega - another close ally of Chavez - to re-think his most controversial proposals in the wake of the Venezuelan referendum.

'This is a lesson that President Ortega should study in detail,' right-wing former presidential candidate Eduardo Montealegre told Nicaraguan radio.

Chavez's plan would have set the oil-rich South American nation on the path to socialist government and lifted term limits for the country's president. Chavez, already re-elected once, would have to step down following elections in 2012 under current rules.