Depending on where you get your news, you might think that either Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez has further consolidated his petrostate, or perhaps that the opposition succeeded in a breakthrough victory, by winning four of the most important regions in the latest election.  I’ll take it from Alvaro Vargas Llosa, who has a very interesting piece on the election results in the New Republic today:

Nationwide, the opposition won 52 percent of the popular vote against the government’s 48 percent. This is of particular significance because Chavez, who lost a referendum last December that would have given him the ability to seek permanent re-election, intends to put his megalomaniacal designs to the vote once again. Given Sunday’s results, in all likelihood he would lose a new referendum.