VENEZUELA: Democracy's Day

This week, for the first time in 118 years of national independence, the people of Venezuela picked a president in a free democratic election. In jungle towns along the Orinoco, in grimy oil settlements on the Caribbean coast and in the flower-lush capital of Caracas, voters by the thousands trudged to the polling places. There they dropped small colored cards* in urns to indicate their choices, then had their fingers stained with indelible ink as a check against voting twice.

The choice of Venezuela's men & women for president of the republic was...

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