"Victoria de Mierda"

No beat yes on Sunday. Despite what the polls said, I was surprised. Chávez accepted his defeat gracefully, as I wrote in Tuesday´s Lat-Am Watch. Meanwhile though he has changed his tone. Yesterday he called the opposition win a "shit victory". He also promised to relaunch his proposal for constitutional reform, this time via a popular petition. I guess the agreeable Chávez was too good to be true.

I´m off to Barinas this evening, the president´s home state. I was there last year and reported on some of the Chávez family mischief. This time I´m not sure what I´ll find. After that I plan to head to Brazil and then up the Amazon to Ecuador...