Chavez Extends Socialist Rule With Venezuelan Election Win

 

Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez extended his self-declared socialist revolution for six more years by winning yesterday’s presidential election, overcoming a battle with cancer and his most formidable opponent since he took office 14 years ago.

With 90 percent of the votes counted, the former paratrooper received 54 percent support, the national electoral council said last night. Henrique Capriles Radonski, the former governor of Miranda state, conceded the race after taking 45 percent. Fireworks erupted across Caracas as Chavez supporters partied in the streets downtown.

“It was a perfect battle all the way down the line,” Chavez, 58, told a throng of supporters from a balcony at the presidential palace near midnight. “I congratulate from my heart the more than 8 million Venezuelans who voted for Chavez. More than 8 million compatriots who voted for the revolution, who voted for socialism.”

Chavez solidified his support by tapping the world’s biggest oil reserves to subsidize food, provide low-cost housing and expand health care among the poor. Questions about his health following three cancer-related surgeries mean attention will now shift to who would succeed Chavez if he gets too sick to remain in office, said former Brazilian Foreign Minister Luiz Felipe Lampreia...

Chavez, who has seized more than 1,000 companies or their assets since taking office, will probably pursue more expropriations and extend state control over the economy in his next six-year term, said Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas in New York.

“Every time he’s won elections he’s tried to use it to claim a mandate and he now has a ticking clock against him in terms of his health,” Farnsworth said in an interview. “It’s quite conceivable that he’ll try to implement his vision even quicker now because he’s not sure how long he’ll be around….”

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