I suspect that there has been some vote rigging in most of the past USA elections (sometimes it benefited one side, sometimes the other, sometimes both)...and I bet there's been vote rigging in a great many Latin American elections, if not most of them. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Chavez rigged some of the votes. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if his enemies did so either, but it's always a lot easier for the government that's already in power to rig votes than it is for a challenger. Why? Well, the government has more connections in place to do it, that's why.

Incumbents tend to have special advantages when it comes to rigging the game, and they will always use them if they think they can get away with it.

Is Chavez an angel? Ha! Hell, no! And what about the people who'd like to bring him down? The people in league with the CIA and US business interests. Are they angels? Hell, no! I think they're probably quite a bit worse than Chavez, but that's always open to debate, of course, isn't it, Sawzaw?