CNN is announcing that Hugo Chavez has conceded a narrow loss on his bids to amend the Venezuelan Constitution to allow him to run for endless re-election runs, setting longer terms for his elected office, and dozens of other amendments intended to push forward what he claims are needed for his socialist state. Elections were held Sunday, December 2, on these issues.

Before and during the election, Chavez stated repeatedly that he would accept the voters' decision, whatever that may be. He also praised the voting system as being the best, etc, and kept out many traditional outside observers.

However, he spent a considerable portion of the time making the US his piñata for pushing his agendas. He consistently framed and blamed the US as the bogeyman and plotter against him and his agendas--and of course the Venezuelan people--including accusing any 'no' voters of being Bushbots, accusing the US of interferences (including a 'discovered CIA memo'), accusing CNN of trying to encourage his assassination due to a coverage glitch where his face was left on the camera but a byline was still covering a murder, and threatened that any interference by the United States in the election would lead him to halt sales of oil to the United States.

It will be interesting to see if he exploits the loss over the next few days or later by blaming US 'interferences,' etc, and takes any actions against the US that it seems he wants to do anyway or will accept the result honestly.

Voters reject Chavez's referendum - CNN.com