Coming to terms with Chavez’s resounding victory.

Venezuela

The Bolivarian Revolution has triumphed, said Guillermo Garcia Ponce in the Caracas Diario Vea. President Hugo Chavez won re-election over challenger Manuel Rosales by such a large margin—capturing 63 percent of the vote—that no one can doubt the will of the people. "We have shown that Venezuela is red," Chavez said, addressing the cheering crowds when the results were announced. "Down with imperialism! We need a new world!" Chavez has already begun building a new Venezuela. Under his leadership, tens of thousands of poor people have been given free health care. University education is now open to all, not just to the rich. And Venezuelans are now living in "houses with three or four rooms, not the little zinc-roofed matchboxes of old." With this victory, Chavez will be able to continue his socialist reforms.

Chavez is not a real socialist, said José Toro Hardy in Caracas' El Universal. He's a "petroleum socialist." The economic system he's been trying to impose on Venezuela is more closed than that of the socialist countries of Scandinavia. It shares some of the "asphyxiating" elements of Soviet communism, such as the limitations on political dissent and press freedom. But the whole thing is based on high oil prices. As long as oil is selling for $60 a barrel, Chavez can afford to bribe voters with state largesse. Once the price drops, though, the system will implode. And it will be much harder for Venezuela to recover than if we had done the prudent thing now and ended the Chavez era.

Instead, we'll "suffer through six more years" of an increasingly authoritarian leader, said the Caracas Tal Cual in an editorial. Sure, some of the poor have been given new perks. But most haven't. Chavez isn't really interested in making Venezuela thrive. He wants to be the next Fidel Castro, a symbol of resistance to American hegemony. To that end, he is "plundering the state" to give away oil to other Latin American countries, buying their support as he bought the voters.

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One good thing came out of this election, said Miguel Pérez Abadin Miranda's La Voz. The country "regained some of the basic elements of democracy" that had been slipping away under Chavez's rule. The vote was free and fair, as even the opposition acknowledged. And "despite the terrifying predictions of many, there was no bloodshed." Instead, Venezuela demonstrated "political maturity, tolerance, and public-spiritedness." This is progress. Maybe next time we'll have matured enough to choose someone else.