Election Diary, Venezuela: Tears of the Escualidos

The early hours of Saturday were characterized by uncharacteristic calm for a city the size of Caracas. Both sides maintained hope, and began to line up at polling stations. I spend much of the day travelling between radical barrios: first to 23 de Enero, where Chávez voted in the presence of a compact crowd of several hundred, prominently including the revolutionary collective Alexis Vive, named for a martyr lost in the 2002 coup. After voting, Chávez climbed into a small, red Volkswagon bug and drove off to spend time with family. Despite "dry laws" being in effect, beer is not entirely difficult to come by, even at 11am.

We move on to Caricuao, a barrio situated to the southwest of Caracas, to visit a local radio station. Caricuao, unlike 23 de Enero, has a sizeable opposition: around 20-30 percent, compared to something less than 5 percent in 23 de Enero. Organizers in Caricuao tell me that despite some concern Friday evening, when the opposition attempted to mount a guarimba, stacking tires outside voting centers to burn, they managed to defuse the situation. As we speak, they maintain a perimeter with walkie-talkies while following news reports and transmitting updates: it is this sort of grassroots management of information that reversed the 2002 coup.

As evening fell it began to rain, first lightly and then progressively heavier. So too did denunciations of the electoral process fall from the sky. On the one hand, we saw opposition supporters gathering outside voting centers, shouting to be let in to "audit" the process. Somehow, the opposition had instilled in their followers the asinine idea that the constitutionally-protected right to observe the electoral process meant that anyone at all could demand to be let in to watch the members of voting tables count the votes and transmit the data. On the other hand, a spokesperson for the Rosales campaign issued a denunciation of the forcible re-opening of voting centers, allegedly at the point of the National Guard's guns, and for the purpose of allowing busloads of Chavistas to vote (buses figure prominently in hysterical opposition lore). Minister of Communication and Chávez campaign team member William Lara denied categorically that this had occurred at all.

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