February 16, 2008 Victory for Chavez; Venezuela passes amendment to end term limitsLos Angeles- The AJLPP learned from media sources that  Venezuelan voters gave President Hugo Chavez a resounding victory Sunday on a constitutional amendment that will allow him to run for reelection indefinitely.With 94% of votes counted, the National Electoral Commission said "yes" votes outnumbered "no" by nearly 1 million, 54.3% to 45.7%.The AJLPP hailed Chavez victory as a victory for the people of Latin America and all countries that want to be independent and self-determined.Speaking from the balcony of the presidential Miraflores Palace, Chavez told the thousands of people assembled that the vote was a victory of "truth against lies, dignity of the homeland versus those who would deny the homeland.""This is another memorable page in our history," Chavez said. "We raise the flag of victory, popular victory."A kindergarten teacher who spoke after voting in the working-class Las Minas section of eastern Caracas. She said she voted "yes" for her "children, for the country and for the future.""President Chavez is the first president who cared about the poor, who truly loves his country and its people," said Plaza, 60, adding that through Chavez's medical assistance program, she now gets free exams and medicine for her heart condition that used to cost a big portion of her meager income.He has stridently criticized the United States as an imperialist power sucking the lifeblood from Latin Americans. But he has established a solid base of support among the poor by using Venezuela's oil wealth to finance programs to deliver education, healthcare and cooperative ownership of businesses.In December 2007, Chavez lost a similar plebiscite in which the abolition of presidential term limits was bundled with 68 other constitutional amendments. Analysts said his cause was helped this time by simplifying the vote to just the term limits issue and by extending its benefits to all elected officials, not just himself, thereby motivating politicians across Venezuela to get out the vote.At a news conference Saturday, he told reporters that staying in office more than 10 years was not unusual, citing U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, France's Jacques Chirac and Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, all of whom governed longer than a decade."He has made us feel good as persons with self-respect, irrespective of our color, age or economic class," said Mariela Vasquez, an office manager from Las Minas who said she is studying for a law degree, thanks to Chavez's Mission Sucre, which pays for adults to go to college.At the Saturday news conference, Chavez said he was "disposed" to talk to Obama at any time and said a good forum might be the Summit of the Americas scheduled in Trinidad and Tobago in April.Diplomatic sources said Improving relations with Chavez would help the United States improve ties with all of Latin America, she added. "It's important for the United States to play a role . . . in which the U.S. is perceived as a positive influence."***********