A postcard from the end of the world: "It's 11:30 in Chile, and I'm watching TV.

Pundits and politicians are hard at work breaking down the triumph of Michelle Bachelet in today's Presidential elections. Instead of wondering why results are still missing in spite of very expensive electoral machinery, Chileans had official results with 99% of the votes counted by 9 pm local time. Instead of claims of fraud, they are breaking down the vote by gender line -in Chile, men and women vote separately, so it's possible to break down voting patterns- and by counties. All the information is already on the government's website. All this thanks to a transparent system based on a piece of paper, a pencil, a glass urn and an impeccable voter registry - a system that, in spite of being handled by the Interior Ministry, is impartial and trustworthy.

Is it healthy envy to ask myself why? Why can Chile have a working electoral system that everyone trusts, while Venezuela's citizens have en masse been forced to abandon the vote as an alternative? How can two countries with similar cultural circumstances have such different systems, with such vastly different outcomes? Only Jorge Rodríguez and his conscience can answer this.

In the meantime, I am amazed to see the international chavista brigade celebrate Bachelet's triumph as another swing to the left in "