2004: With the poem Florentino and The Devil, Chávez called for the second Battle of Saint Agnes (+20 years old)

On June 3, 2004, Commander Hugo Chávez evoked the emblematic poem “Florentino and the Devil”, by Alberto Arvelo Torrealba, to name the electoral campaign for “No” as the second Battle of Saint Agnes, given the call for a recall referendum, activated against him on the initiative of right-wing leaders.

20 years ago, the electoral campaign for the presidential recall referendum began in Venezuela, which took place on August 15, 2004.

This was the first democratic test of its kind in the political history of the Republic. To try it before the arrival of the Revolution led by Hugo Chávez would have been impossible, because legally that right did not exist. It was the Constitution approved in free elections on December 15, 1999, that made it possible for the nation to learn about this new electoral mechanism.

It is important to mention that at the end of May of that year, the opposition, after the failure of several coup maneuvers, submitted nearly 3.5 million signatures to request the referendum. After the review of the National Electoral Council (CNE), only 1.9 million were valid, a figure that covered the quota required to activate the consultation.

The call was celebrated by the Leader of the Revolution, because he reaffirmed the new democratic model in the Homeland, with the novel mechanism established in the Constitution of 1999, and removed the opposition from the coup shortcuts.

“We are going to a recall referendum, that should fill us with a deep sense of national victory,” Chávez said the night of that June 3, on national radio and television channels, from the Miraflores Palace, according to an article published by the MIPPCI portal.

Two months later, the Leader of the Bolivarian Revolution won an overwhelming victory: 5,800,629 people (59.1% of the voters) supported Hugo Chávez's continued presidency, compared to 3 million 989,008 people (40.64%), who protested against it. For the fifth time, the son of Sabaneta de Barinas had managed to win an electoral contest.

Mazo News Team