Caracas - Venezuelans yesterday overwhelmingly approved President Hugo Chavev's plans for a new assembly that will rewrite the country's 1961 constitution and have the power to dissolve its Congress.
After an unprecedented referendum, official results showed at least 82 per cent of votes cast backed the centrepiece of Mr Chavez's plans for a "peaceful revolution" in one of Latin America's oldest democracies.
But abstention, traditionally high in Venezuela, ran at 61 per sent.