Hugo Chavez, winner of three general elections and two referendums since he was first sworn in to power in 2000, received his comeuppance last Sunday. In a tense referendum in Venezuela, nine million voters, out of 16 million eligible to vote, rejected by 51 per cent to 49 per cent a total of 69 amendments to the Constitution. A survey poll conducted on the eve told a different story: 48 per cent opposed the amendments, 39 per cent supported.
Had the referendum gone his way it would have given him a level of power akin to a dictatorship. One of the amendments proposed the abolition of limits on presidential terms, which would have allowed Mr Chavez to run again for office in 2012.
In fact, the referendum was all about the concentration of power in his hands.
Vocally aware of this and lined up against it were his ex-wife, who campaigned against him, the 88-year-old Luis Miquilena, who was the man behind Mr Chavez's first electoral victory, and a former defence minister, who called the proposed reforms a "coup d'etat". That people so close to him turned against him gives some suggestion of how dangerous he has come to be seen by those who really knew him and once fought on his side. During the past seven years, the Venezuelan leader has shown a remarkable propensity for strutting on the world stage as the saviour of his people. Why do dictators invariably regard themselves as saviours?
Not so long ago, at a summit meeting held in Chile, Mr Chavez repeatedly interrupted a speech being made by the Prime Minister of Spain by shouting insults at the previous Spanish prime minister. He was eventually told by the King of Spain to "shut up". His colourful reaction to this was two-fold. He remarked that the King had "got mad like a bull... but I am a great bull-fighter - Ole"! And as if that were not enough, he was reported as saying that if he were to keep quiet "the stones of the people of Latin America (sic) would cry out". Just in case anybody had not twigged, a Venezuelan spokesman quoted the chapter and verse in which Christ uttered the original line.
It is the burning ambition of Mr Chavez to construct "a new socialist Venezuelan conscience and the formation of a new generation of standard bearers for it" (we heard that sort of thing uttered by a minister in Malta in 1981). He likes to think that he will create "Socialism for the 21st century" as if the Socialism of the 20th century created by Lenin, Stalin and Mao had not provided enough proof of the danger and emptiness of this slogan.
Mr Chavez has already given indications of what this means. Property rights have already been restricted. Government appropriations are a feature of his rule. He wants the Central Bank to be under his direct control. He has formed something in the region of 1,700 Community Councils. These are seen by Venezuelan opponents as potential cadres to be used, should it become necessary, to exercise more direct control of dissidents should these be seen as a danger to his government.
Mr Chavez has made it clear he wishes to take over the mantle of the dying Cuban leader Fidel Castro. When the result of the referendum was announced, he congratulated his opponents, claimed that his concession of defeat demonstrated his democratic credentials and added, ominously: "For now, we could not do it". Those infamous amendments to the Constitution have not passed - yet.