Heads of state of Mercosur member countries are meeting in the Brazilian capital today, marking the first time that Venezuela will participate as a full member in the South American trade bloc after Paraguay’s suspension in June paved the way for its membership. But health concerns are preventing Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez from joining his counterparts from Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, with Minister of Petroleum and Mining Rafael Ramirez participating in his place.

The Venezuelan president arrived in Venezuela this morning after 10 days of medical treatment in Cuba. Chávez, 58, was diagnosed with cancer in mid-2011, and since then, has had three cancer surgeries on the island. His prolonged absences have triggered rumors around his health, and bonds have surged as a result of increased uncertainty over Venezuela’s future. When asked about his absence, Chávez explained that his departure from Cuba was delayed by a conversation with Fidel Castro, with whom he had been discussing poetry. He also asserted that Venezuela is “eight days away from the next victory,” referring to the upcoming regional elections that will take place on December 16.

Chávez has been absent from every regional meeting in the past year, including the Summit of the Americas held in Cartagena, Colombia, in April and the Ibero-American summit held in Cadiz, Spain, in November.

One of the central points on today’s agenda is Paraguay’s suspension from Mercosur, following the impeachment of former President Fernando Lugo in June. Paraguay’s suspension will likely continue after the meeting and will likely be extended until a newly-elected president takes office in August 2013.

Caracas, Venezuela - On Sunday, 8,044,106 voters in Venezuela granted incumbent President Hugo Chávez a fourth consecutive term in the nation’s highest political office. The latest official numbers indicate an unquestionable victory for Chávez, who won 55 percent of the votes and all but two of 24 states.

The results extend Chávez’ mandate until 2019. By then he will have governed the country for nearly two decades and will have the possibility of running for yet another six-year term as president.

Chávez’ main opponent, Henrique Capriles Radonski, obtained 44 percent of the votes, falling more than 10 percentage points behind Chávez despite obtaining a record 6,461,612 votes for the Venezuelan opposition.

The margin of difference between the two candidates (1,582,494 votes, as of Monday evening) was larger than expected. Leading up to Election Day, most polls—beyond their disparate projections—foresaw a tightly contested election and gave Capriles a decent shot at obtaining the presidency. Sunday’s results upset those predictions, drawing a new map of a country’s political make-up that will keep analysts writing for months to come.

A record voter participation rate (81 percent) points both to the perceived importance of Sunday’s electoral contest among Venezuelans and to the highly politicized voter population. There was no big surprise there, however: this presidential election was expected to draw a massive number of voters.

*This post originally appeared on the Revista Perspectiva blog and is being republished with permission of the author.

Caracas, Venezuela - Con una participación histórica, equivalente al 80,94% del censo electoral, Presidente Hugo Chávez ha ganado su cuarta elección presidencial consecutiva con más de un millón de votos de diferencia frente a su contendor, el candidato por la Mesa de la Unidad Nacional (MUD), Henrique Capriles Radonski. Chávez se dio su ya tradicional baño de multitudes al pie del balcón del Palacio de Miraflores, y los fuegos pirotécnicos que preparó el oficialismo no pararon de iluminar el cielo caraqueño por cerca de dos horas. Me pregunto ¿qué hubiese pasado con tantos preparativos de no haber conseguido la victoria?

Pese al llanto y las caras largas de casi la mitad de los votantes, la jornada ha sido un hito sin precedentes que demostró la enorme vocación cívica y democrática de la sociedad venezolana. Muchos se agolparon a los centros de votación desde las 4 de la madrugada y las filas en muchos colegios electorales se hicieron “eternas” en horas de la mañana. La alegría, el positivismo y los mensajes de servidores públicos, políticos experimentados y líderes juveniles, que a través de la televisión y la radio repetían invitaciones a votar en paz, fueron la constante.

Destaca también la efectividad y la sencillez del sofisticado sistema de votación, aunque no por ello del proceso en general, que lució lento por cuenta de las varias instancias que había que superar para llegar finalmente a las mesas. De acuerdo con Federico Pinedo, diputado argentino del Partido Propuesta Republicana (PRO), que ejerció como observador internacional, el trámite de anotar el documento de identidad a la entrada de los centros de votación tuvo que ser levantado en la tarde—en muchos sitios—para agilizar la dinámica.

El proceso de observación tampoco estuvo exento de dificultades. Convertido más en un acompañamiento que en una observación formal con entidad para cuestionar posibles irregularidades, en algunos puntos no permitieron la entrada de los “acompañantes;” en otros fueron supervisados por efectivos de la Fuerza Armada Nacional Bolivariana (FANB), y en otros más intimidados por la presencia de manadas de motociclistas simpatizantes del chavismo que llegaron a muchos centros gritando consignas con megáfonos.

*This post originally appeared on the Revista Perspectiva blog and is being republished with permission of the author.

Caracas, Venezuela - Con una participación histórica, equivalente al 80,94% del censo electoral, Presidente Hugo Chávez ha ganado su cuarta elección presidencial consecutiva con más de un millón de votos de diferencia frente a su contendor, el candidato por la Mesa de la Unidad Nacional (MUD), Henrique Capriles Radonski. Chávez se dio su ya tradicional baño de multitudes al pie del balcón del Palacio de Miraflores, y los fuegos pirotécnicos que preparó el oficialismo no pararon de iluminar el cielo caraqueño por cerca de dos horas. Me pregunto ¿qué hubiese pasado con tantos preparativos de no haber conseguido la victoria?

Pese al llanto y las caras largas de casi la mitad de los votantes, la jornada ha sido un hito sin precedentes que demostró la enorme vocación cívica y democrática de la sociedad venezolana. Muchos se agolparon a los centros de votación desde las 4 de la madrugada y las filas en muchos colegios electorales se hicieron “eternas” en horas de la mañana. La alegría, el positivismo y los mensajes de servidores públicos, políticos experimentados y líderes juveniles, que a través de la televisión y la radio repetían invitaciones a votar en paz, fueron la constante.

Destaca también la efectividad y la sencillez del sofisticado sistema de votación, aunque no por ello del proceso en general, que lució lento por cuenta de las varias instancias que había que superar para llegar finalmente a las mesas. De acuerdo con Federico Pinedo, diputado argentino del Partido Propuesta Republicana (PRO), que ejerció como observador internacional, el trámite de anotar el documento de identidad a la entrada de los centros de votación tuvo que ser levantado en la tarde—en muchos sitios—para agilizar la dinámica.

El proceso de observación tampoco estuvo exento de dificultades. Convertido más en un acompañamiento que en una observación formal con entidad para cuestionar posibles irregularidades, en algunos puntos no permitieron la entrada de los “acompañantes;” en otros fueron supervisados por efectivos de la Fuerza Armada Nacional Bolivariana (FANB), y en otros más intimidados por la presencia de manadas de motociclistas simpatizantes del chavismo que llegaron a muchos centros gritando consignas con megáfonos.

Madrid, Spain - Today is an incredibly important day for Venezuelans: we have to choose between two contrasting proposals for our country’s future. On one side we have Twenty-First Century Socialism. On the other hand, there is a democratic candidate who has managed to unite the different groups among the opposition for the first time in 14 years. It is a day that represents hope of change, progress and a better Venezuela for supporters of both parties. I am proud to say I participated, from thousands of miles away and in a different time zone.

Madrid is the world’s second-largest voting center outside of Venezuela, with 7,600 people registered to vote and an expectation that 5,500 Venezuelans will actually vote here today. Despite all the confusion that has surrounded the elections, organization in Madrid has proven to be smooth, with fast and efficient voting tables. The Comando Exterior Venezuela (CEV) even organized a group of volunteers to stand guard at the Venezuelan consulate in Madrid to guide uninformed people to the site where the voting is being held. What impressed me the most is voters' active, happy and energetic participation—all making their best efforts to feel as if they were in Venezuelan soil.

Caracas, Venezuela - Some Venezuelans have trouble explaining to their American counterparts what the country is currently going through. The reason, they say, is that some Americans take for granted a political system that guarantees rights such as freedom of speech. Americans seem to have no trouble identifying the antithesis of their democracy: outright dictatorships like the regime in North Korea. But they have a harder time understanding the nature of governments who fall in the gray area of neither democracy nor dictatorship.

Fear over the continued direction of Venezuela and the opportunity to observe the domestic voting process at home is why I traveled from New York City to Caracas yesterday, arriving after a long journey that involved multiple flight delays. For me, like other Venezuelans who are living abroad, this election is an historic opportunity to begin to change the unfortunate direction of our country.

London, England – The energy around the Consular Section of the Venezuelan Embassy in London is beyond expectations, with Venezuelan flags everywhere after an exciting day of voters coming out to express their hope for a new direction for the country. It is now midnight in London (7:00 pm EDT/ 6:30 pm in Caracas) and hundreds of Venezuelans are still here waiting to make sure that every vote cast is being fairly and accurately counted.

For me and many others, the day started at 7:00 am as I was responsible for conducting exit poll interviews. After eight hours of speaking with Venezuelan voters, the choice was clear: of 150 voters interviewed, all except for five people said they had voted for Henrique Capriles.

Caracas, Venezuela - At of 9:45pm (local) on Sunday an undisclosed number of voting centers across Venezuela had remained open for continued voting. These are centers that due to high voter turnout or to delays at the beginning of the day still have voters lined up outside their doors waiting to cast their ballot.

But now the results are in: the Consejo Nacional Electoral (National Electoral Council—CNE) announced that Chávez won with 54.42 percent of the votes—a nearly 10 percentage point lead over Henrique Capriles who received 44.97 percent of the votes according to the first CNE report.

A wide array of minor irregularities have been reported in polling centers throughout the day in all corners of the country from technical malfunctions of the machines to isolated incidents of voter violence. Despite these reports, this historic day of elections has by all accounts been a smooth, civil and massively participatory democratic event.

The Venezuelan electorate has chosen to give President Hugo Chávez another six-year mandate. Last night, the Consejo Nacional Electoral (National Electoral Council—CNE) announced that with 90 percent of ballots counted, Chávez earned 54 percent of votes while challenger Henrique Capriles Radonski took in about 45 percent.

The CNE also announced that the participation rate of eligible voters was nearly 81 percent, one of the highest in recent history. However, not all votes were factored into the quick count. As AQ guest blogger Mariana Marval reported from London, “[CNE] changed the rules so that the votes from abroad will now not be counted at the same time as the votes in Venezuela.”

The uncounted votes nevertheless will not surpass Chávez’ large margin of victory. At a closing campaign rally in Caracas last week, Chávez vowed to redouble his socialist policies, stating, “We’ve laid the foundations of 21st-Century Socialism and […] we’ll launch the second socialist cycle, from 2013 to 2019, with much more strength.”

Caracas, Venezuela - The presidential campaign is officially over as of Thursday night at 11:59p.m., as dictated by the law here in Venezuela. After the chaos and euphoria that spread through Caracas in the days leading up to the close of the campaigns, a tense and eerie calm reigns over the city.

Across the country, 13,683 polling centers are now ready to receive the millions of eager voters that will stand in line from 6:00a.m. onward tomorrow to cast their ballots. Local authorities have asked voters to refrain from wearing political paraphernalia during the voting process, both to ensure their compliance with electoral law and to mitigate tensions that may arise at the centers.

Despite a few minor setbacks, the preparation for tomorrow’s election unwound with calm and order. The only major incident occurred in the central state of Carabobo, where the authorities had to replace 47 voting machines that malfunctioned due to power shortages in the region.