Jimmy Carter urged Venezuelans to trust the NEC that he helped to set up.

Under the auspices of the NEC, the referendum failed to get enough signatures, as there were a substantial number of irregularities including thousands of forms of signatures which seemed to be filled individually by the same person and signatures of apparently deceased individuals.

NEC President Francisco Carrasquero is quoted as saying "just 1.83 million of the 3.4 million collected signatures were valid‚ far fewer than the required 2.4 million." The council said another 876,000 signatures could be deemed valid if citizens confirmed that they had indeed signed their names to the petition (Sanchez,AP/Yahoo! News). The council proposed setting up 1,000 verification centers for five days, from March 18 to March 22, where citizens could confirm their signatures (AFP II/Yahoo! News, March 3).

Whether some in the US administration like it or not, Chavez is an "autonomous" Venezuela's President and so far, under the auspices of the NEC, the recall has failed to meet requirements set out by provisions in that country's constitiution.

Chavez initially had about 80% of the popular vote, which is proving a bit hard to overcome. What % of the popular vote did Bush have? Can the US citizens recall their president before his term is up if enough people don't like him anymore?

Will Chavez's government continue to survive for its full term? I rather doubt it. Aristide's and Allende's certainly didn't. What the US wants, it usually gets, one way or another.