Chavez to Venezuelans: I want another term

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez exhorted his followers to back his plan to be reelected to the presidency.

"Chavez is not leaving. Chavez is staying, if God wants and gives me life, I will be with you until 2019 or 2021," he said during a political rally yesterday.

He lost a referendum on reelection and several issues last year which means that he’s scheduled to stand down in 2012. Yet it appears as if Chavez is reacting to last week’s local elections where the opposition made some gains in urban areas including the capital, Caracas.

Chavez’ allies may opt to push the plan forward, though that will have to be ultimately decided in another national referendum. Unlike the 2007 vote where Venezuelans rejected a package of 69 constitutional amendments, the possible new referendum may hinge solely on the reelection issue.

During his speech, Chavez also railed against Colombia's consul in Maracaibo after an incident that may reopen diplomatic wounds between the neighboring countries:

Venezolana de Television, the state news channel, played the tape and said it was of Carlos Galvis Fajardo, Colombia’s consul-general in the second-largest city in Venezuela, talking with Jose Obdulio, an aide to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

Comments by the person identified by the TV station as the consul included that the new governors of Zulia and Tachira states are “very good friends and I think that for our work there, it has to be marvelous.” He later referred to Tachira’s new governor, Pablo Perez, as “a very, very special friend here of ours.”

The television station didn’t say how it got the tape.

Image- BBC News
Sources- BBC News, CNN, Bloomberg, AP, Xinhua, New York Times, The Latin Americanist