Chavez victory consumes media

Happy and relieved after achieving victory

While pro-government TV and radio stations in Venezuela continue to broadcast developments after the resounding referendum victory of President Hugo Chavez, the opposition media appear wary.

Leading opposition TV stations such as Globovision are presenting both sides of the argument, carrying speeches and comments from triumphant government officials - including the president - as well as cries of fraud from the opposition.

The press, overwhelmingly pro-opposition, is similarly reporting the numerous statements from the government side and international observers on the force and legitimacy of the result, while at the same time revealing its distaste for the state of affairs in subsidiary reports and articles.

"Unmasked violence", says a caption in the major daily, El Universal, under a picture of three men it describes as "believed linked to government circles" opening fire on a group of opposition protesters.

A cartoon on the paper's web site has several Simpson family look-alikes, with one saying "We've just won a gold medal in Greece". "In what discipline?", asks another. "Democratic exercises," comes the response.

The daily nevertheless reports regular updates of post-referendum developments, including the statement by international observers that the voting was fair and the result legitimate.

El Universal commentator Leonardo Carvajal says Venezuela has always veered between the "civil-democratic and military strong-man society", locating Mr Chavez firmly in the latter.

Another commentator in the same paper accuses the president of "following the dictator's path" and "manipulating the plebiscite".

'Follow Mandela'

A translated commentary by Michael Rowan in El Universal argues that millions of Venezuelans who oppose Mr Chavez nevertheless seek to change the system democratically and without violence.

He calls for the emergence of opposition leaders who reject the path of violence and "agree with Nelson Mandela" that inclusion in the political system is the answer to violence.

"Otherwise, there will only be one voice in Venezuela; the one in the Miraflores presidential palace."

Alberto Garrido, writing in the same paper, also urges the opposition to get a grip on the situation, stop talking at cross-purposes and use the democracy that exists in Venezuela to forge a united front against a president who knows where he wants to take the country.

"The battle between Chavez and the opposition is one between two distinct ways of life, two political models, two world views."

The front page in El Nacional carries a banner headline highlighting the fact that former US President Jimmy Carter and Organisation of American States chief Cesar Gaviria endorsed the result, going on to say that the opposition organisation which promoted the ballot "has serious doubts".

A front-page banner headline in El Mundo declares: "Carter endorses Chavez triumph", with the last two words in red.

An opinion poll in the tabloid Tal Cual has the greatest number of respondents believing the referendum has changed nothing, with just over a quarter thinking political conflict will diminish.

A Tal Cual editorial on Monday, when the initial result was announced, spoke of a "Dawn Raid" by the authorities in making the announcement "when the country was sound asleep".

"The suspicion that electoral fraud might have occurred will only keep growing stronger," it concluded.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.