Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez wins a third term in office, much to the consternation of the US, writes Gamal Nkrumah Galling though it may be for United States President George W Bush, his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez was swept to victory in an electrifying show of strength. In fact, the fortunes of the two presidents could not be more different. This is Chavez's moment in the global spotlight. He has taken centre stage in Latin America, in large measure because of his charismatic personality and popular appeal across the region, and in part because Venezuela has the richest reserves of oil outside the Middle East. His rivals would no more think of resisting him than a zebra would gainsay a lion. President Bush, in sharp contrast, is bitterly reaping the tainted products of his failed overseas misadventures. The contrast has been brought into sharp focus right at this moment. Even as Chavez's victory was trumpeted at home and abroad, the Bush administration's John Bolton tendered his resignation as US representative to the United Nations because he could not secure the requisite US Senate backing to keep his post. The sweeping victory of Chavez will itself alter the political spectrum within Latin America and the Caribbean. This new "Bolivarian" self- confidence will have consequences both for Venezuela and for its neighbours. Chavez was the choice of Venezuela's 28 million people, but his success at the polls will have tremendous ramifications throughout the Americas. Characteristically, Chavez did not miss the opportunity to lash out against the United States. "It is another defeat for the devil, who tries to dominate the world," he bellowed triumphantly. "Today a new era has started with the expansion of the revolution." After polls closed in the capital Caracas, it soon became apparent that Chavez was heading for a landslide victory. He scooped some 62 per cent of the vote. Even before the final tally was counted, Chavez had registered a huge lead, much to the delight of the country's poor and disadvantaged. Most importantly, the elections passed off relatively peacefully. Chavez is a leader the Venezuelan electorate can identify with -- he is also popular throughout the developing world. He was the first foreign head of state to visit Saddam Hussein's Iraq since the 1991 Gulf War. More recently, he has become a close friend and political ally of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. In order to escape the US stranglehold, he concluded a $3 billion arms deal with Russia. The Venezuelan opposition is mired in a quagmire and likely to simply tread water and feebly oppose the government. They will no doubt continue to resist Chavez's revolutionary structural overhauls. His main rival is social democrat Manuel Rosales, governor of the wealthiest and most populous Venezuelan state, the oil-rich, western region of Zulia. As Mayor of Maracaibo, Venezuela's oil capital and second largest city, he attempted to follow in the footsteps of Chavez and court the country's poor. Obviously his overtures did not wash with Venezuela's underprivileged masses. For Rosales it must seem like the torture of Tantalus, whose punishment by the gods was to have goodies always just out of his reach. It was a dreadful week for a man with his presidential ambitions. The political calculations of Rosales were less clear-cut than those of Chavez. He underestimated the popularity the incumbent president has with the Venezuelan population, who lap up his every word. Rosales was quick to apportion blame, but he soon conceded defeat. In a desperate bid to outdo Chavez, he pandered to the country's poor, but these people continue to regard him with suspicion. The Bush administration was banking on a Rosales victory. He had a chequered political career and is popular with the business community in the country; his working relationship with them is far smoother than Chavez's. After quickly rising through the ranks of the Democratic Action -- the party that dominated Venezuelan politics for much of the second half of the 20th century, at the turn of the century, Rosales founded his own Un Nuevo Tiempo: New Era Party. Obviously, the time has not come for a new era as far as Rosales is concerned. Chavez remains more in touch with his people in spite of Venezuela's economic ups and downs. Chavez's party, the Movement of the Fifth Republic, is a broad-based political organisation. Chavez survived a short-lived coup d'état in April 2002 and was reinstated amid much pomp and ceremony. "His ability to survive ferocious attacks from the Right -- Venezuelan and international -- show his political skill," Margarit Lopez Maya, a historian at the Central University of Venezuela, explained. "What surprised me the most was his interpretation of Venezuelan history -- his notion that, for the poor, nothing had changed since independence in 1830," she added. Of course, not everything is rosy in the garden of Venezuela, but the endemic problem of fluctuating oil prices will not dampen Chavez's revolutionary zeal. Venezuela's economic growth rate stands at four per cent -- slightly higher than the Latin American average of 3.8 per cent, but lower than Sub-Saharan Africa's 4.9 per cent and the Middle East and North Africa's 5.6 per cent. The Venezuelan economy has persistently defied its naysayers, and Chavez realises all too well that the more successful Latin American economy is, the more effective the developing continent will be able to pursue its interests in the international arena. He also knows that social justice and regional integration are the surest means of strengthening the Latin American economy and its international political standing. Latin America is obviously in a restless, rebellious mood. The Venezuelan incumbent president has vowed to fortify his "Bolivarian Revolution". Chavez does not shy from international attention. He has made a special effort to court African and Arab countries and has cemented ties with Cuba and his mentor, Cuban leader Fidel Castro. He has also deepened relations with the host of other left-leaning democratically-elected Latin American leaders such as Evo Moralez of Bolivia, Luiz Inàcio Lula da Silva of Brazil, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua and even centre-leftists such as Chile's President Michele Bachelet. The outcome of the Venezuelan elections ought to be seen in a regional context. On Sunday, Felipe Calderon was sworn in as Mexico's president. Again, as in Venezuela, the turnout for the presidential elections was high. However, unlike the orderly Venezuelan presidential inauguration, his Mexican counterpart's swearing-in ceremony was marred by rowdy brawls amid accusations that the poll was rigged. Left-wing deputies accused the right-of-centre National Action Party (PAN) of winning by fraud. Mexico leftist rival Lopez Obrador has strong popular support in Mexico City. Obrador's Party of the Democratic Revolution (PDR) accused PAN of electoral fraud. The federal electoral Institute announced the official vote count, noting a narrow margin of 0.58 per cent for Calderon over his closest contender of the PRD. It also acknowledged minor irregularities, even though it said that they were not enough to invalidate the election. Caldoron's PAN advocates free enterprise, privatisation, reduced government and less taxation. Precisely the policies Venezuela's Chavez eschews. The Venezuelan people stood behind Chavez even though the country's economy is said to have contracted by 7.2 per cent in 2005. Chavez has decried the "savage neo-liberalism" that America wants to impose on the rest of the world, and especially the continent it once regarded as its own backyard.
