South Florida's Venezuelans say 'No' to Chávez
BY ILEANA MORALES
One-year-old Gabriel Quintero sat in his stroller patiently waiting with his father, who was in a long line Sunday at Miami Dade College to vote in the Venezuelan elections. Gabriel had the word ''No'' sewn on the hat protecting him from the hot sun. The ''No'' is in response to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's efforts to do away with term limits by simply asking Venezuelans to vote Yes or No.
The No vote lost.
''I'm very disappointed,'' Javier Quintero said of Chávez's win to abolish term limits. ``Unfortunately, there is not too much to do. I don't know what is going to happen with my country.''
Quintero and others who are among the 16,000 Venezuelans registered in Florida, Georgia and North and South Carolina to vote in their country's election stood in line outside the college's gymnasium starting at 6 a.m.
With the Yes vote win, Chávez now has the right to seek reelection in 2012 and remain in power so long as he keeps winning elections.
But in Miami-Dade, where many of those voting oppose Chávez and left their country because of him, the No votes appeared to be ahead early in the day.
Crowds of supporters chanted ''No'' when Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, arrived at the Kendall Campus to show support to the Venezuelans who came to help decide their country's controversial referendum.
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