This article was originally posted by El Universal

Although the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) did not reach the 110 seats it needed to have a supermajority at the Venezuelan National Assembly and only won 100,000 votes more than the opposition, government leaders said that they won the legislative elections held last Sunday.

However, some people do not have a positive perception of the results. On the contrary, they warn that President Hugo Chávez can be defeated in 2012, when he is expected to seek a third consecutive presidential term.

One of the analysts who have warned against a bleak outlook for Venezuela’s ruling party is Heinz, a German sociologist and a political analyst residing in Mexico. Dieterich said in an article entitled “Venezuela must change the model or it will collapse like the Cuban model,” that President Chávez has eight months to change the course.

In his article, Dieterich claimed that the Venezuelan Head of State has been unable to “dismantle the opposition electoral group, despite having conditions to do so, such as skyrocketing oil prices, an absolute Executive and legislative power, no opponents at the National Assembly and a fragmented opposition lacking a national project and prominent leaders.”

Dieterich advised Chávez to follow the steps of Cuban President Raúl Castro who is abandoning the 20th century socialism. “Otherwise, the system will collapse,” he warned.