Chavez Socialist State Utopia Is Shot Down

Venezuelan voters decided that they didn't want a socialist state. The amazing thing is that only 51% of the people voted no.

President Hugo Chavez suffered a stinging defeat Monday in a vote on constitutional changes that would have let him run for re-election indefinitely and solidify his bid to transform this major U.S. oil provider into a socialist state. Voters defeated the sweeping measures by a vote of 51 percent to 49 percent, said Tibisay Lucena, chief of the National Electoral Council, with voter turnout just 56 percent. She said that with 88 percent of the votes counted, the trend was irreversible. "This was a photo finish," Chavez said immediately after the vote, adding that unlike past Venezuelan governments, his respects the people's will.