Today, we weep Update: Celebrate for Venezuela

Early reports said that a proud people oppressed, had confirmed the reign of Hugo Chavez.

Update: But in a stunning move, have rebuffed the bid of leader Hugo Chavez to extend his term and pass Constitutional reform to abolish term limits.

From the NY Times (H/T Michelle):

Voters in this country narrowly defeated a proposed overhaul to the constitution in a contentious referendum over granting President Hugo Chávez sweeping new powers, the Election Commission announced early Monday.

It was the first major electoral defeat in the nine years of his presidency. Voters rejected the 69 proposed amendments 51 to 49 percent.

The political opposition erupted into celebration, shooting fireworks into the air and honking car horns, when electoral officials announced the results at 1:20 a.m. The nation had remained on edge since polls closed Sunday afternoon and the wait for results began.

The outcome is a stunning development in a country where Mr. Chávez and his supporters control nearly all of the levers of power. Almost immediately after the results were broadcast on state television, Mr. Chávez conceded defeat, describing the results as a “photo finish.”

“I congratulate my adversaries for this victory,” he said. “For now, we could not do it.”

Opposition leaders were ecstatic. “Tonight, Venezuela has won,” said Manuel Rosales, governor of Zulia State and the opposition’s candidate in presidential elections last year.

Update II: (h/t Ann Althouse) from the Washington Post:

“He wants a blank check, and that’s impossible. We’re not stupid like he thinks. It’s that simple. There are conscious, thinking people here, too.” Venezuela says no to Hugo Chavez:

Venezuelan voters delivered a stinging defeat to President Hugo Chávez on Sunday, blocking proposed constitutional changes that would have given him political supremacy and accelerated the transformation of this oil-rich country into a socialist state….

The victory for the “No” vote represents the first electoral setback for Chávez, 53, a former lieutenant colonel who won the presidency in a 1998 landslide and, until now, had trounced his opponents in one referendum and presidential election after another.

To phrase it like a Spanish king, they told him to shut up.