In Venezuela, the populist president Hugo Chávez appears to have won Sunday’s referendum vote surviving the latest attempt by his opponents to oust him from office. With 94 percent of the ballots counted, the National Electoral Council said Chávez had an insurmountable 58 percent of the vote. The result has left the opposition in shock. Many of their private exit polls indicated that Chávez would be defeated. Some opposition members on the electoral body rejected the partial result as a fraud, claiming their side had won. If Chávez does survive the referendum, he will remain in office until January 2007.