Posted on 01/31/2007 2:39:12 PM PST by meg88
January 31, 2007 - 8:41 PM
Chavez gets powers to rule by decree By Christian Oliver
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's Congress on Wednesday granted President Hugo Chavez powers to rule by decree for 18 months as he tries to force through nationalizations key to his self-styled leftist revolution.
The vote allows anti-U.S. leader Chavez, who has been in power since 1999, to deepen state control of the economy and other sectors of public life such as defence and security.
Chavez's increasing centralization of power in the No. 4 oil exporter to the United States prompted rare public comments from U.S. President George W. Bush.
"I'm concerned about the Venezuelan people, and I'm worried about the diminution of democratic institution(s)," he said in an interview with Fox News to be broadcast later on Wednesday, after being asked about Chavez's nationalizations.
Afternoon headlines in the anti-Chavez press were more scathing. Tal Cual splashed with "Heil Hugo" and equated the enabling law with powers granted to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. El Mundo had the headline "Superchavez enabled."
The lawmakers, all loyal to Chavez after opposition parties boycotted the 2005 congressional elections, flaunted their populist credentials by taking the unusual step of holding their vote in public in a square in downtown Caracas.
"We in the National Assembly will not waver in granting President Chavez an enabling law so he can quickly and urgently set up the framework for resolving the grave problems we have," said congressional Vice President Roberto Hernandez.
The economic reforms are set to work in tandem with increased political centralization. Chavez is forging a single party to lead his radical reforms, stripping the central bank of autonomy and seeking indefinite re-election.
The vote was applauded by hundreds of Chavez supporters in red T-shirts, carrying placards such as "With Chavez, the people rule" and "Venezuela towards socialism."
Chavez has targeted the oil industry, power utilities and the country's biggest telecommunications firm for takeover, affecting many foreign owners and shareholders.
STEP Towards TYRANNY?
Washington's direct response to the law itself was muted, saying the United States would wait to see what Chavez does with his new powers.
"We, along with the rest of the hemisphere, will be keeping a close eye on how the enabling law is used. But at the end of the day, this is not so much a question for the United States and other nations as for the Venezuelan people," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon told reporters in Bogota.
Chavez's opponents at home were more cutting.
The opposition accuses Chavez of being a tyrant in the making, taking a slow-burning approach to following Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Chavez argues he will always tolerate opposition and will step down if he loses an election.
Julio Borges, leader of an opposition party Primero Justicia, said he found the vote worrying.
"Unfortunately, what I think we are going to see in the next 18 months is a still greater separation between power and the Venezuelan people," he said.
Opposition politician and newspaper editor Teodoro Petkoff wrote in Wednesday's Tal Cual: "The enabling law is designed to consolidate and reinforce the autocracy that has been developing for eight years."
Hernandez, of the Venezuelan Communist Party, rebuffed such charges.
"When our enemies say we are granting dictatorial powers to Chavez, they know that they are lying," he said.
(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick in Washington, Patricia Rondon and Fabian Andres Cambero in Caracas and Patrick Markey and Luis Jaime Acosta in Bogota)
Reuters (IDS)
Time for certain people to get out of Venezuela or lose their lives.
Hillary, Harry Reid and Bela Pelosi are green with envy.
why does the press use the anti-U.S. label as its first description of Chavez? Doesn't what he is doing here warrant a more serious and descriptive adjective such as "dictatorial" or "communist" or "facist"?
The Hero of the left both ours and theirs
Where's that picture of Jimmy Carter shaking his hand with an ear to ear grin?
Welcome to Cuba part II.
I hear the women in Venezuala are pretty hot, I'm sure Venezualens will be flooding into the U.S. pretty soon, just think, we'll be able to pay more for car insurance, health insurance, and property taxes to educate their kids, ahhh diversity.
"I hear the women in Venezuala are pretty hot, I'm sure Venezualens will be flooding into the U.S. pretty soon, just think, we'll be able to pay more for car insurance, health insurance, and property taxes to educate their kids, ahhh diversity."
Yeah, but look at the bright side: their women are hot, and they'll be here too.
They always do well in Miss Universe.
to be brutally honest, like miserable cubans, they will soon be selling themselves cheap for american currency
Judging by the Venezuelans I've seen here in Florida, they have a lot more money than I will ever have - and I doubt that most of their kids are going to darken the door of any public school. They'll be paying the property taxes to educate your kids.
Those responsible for the "Heil Hugo" have,if they're smart,already left the country.
I am surrounded by Venezuelans at my place of work. They are talented, and serious; we consider ourselves lucky to get them, and so do our clients.
They grieve for their country; but Venezuela's loss is our gain.
...and so it begins
Allow the mob to vote - and they'll elect a mobster...
The same thing is already happening in America..
When uneducated, unaccomplished, drunken, drugged, welfare dependant leaches vote -- this is what happens...
Semper Fi
Bush: "YEAH, Yeah, yeah, WHATever... just fill'er up MonkeyBoy!"
Um, no they won't, I will be happy if any new immigrants PAY taxes and come here legally. It's quite a stretch to say that someone coming here tomorrow will pay for my kids to do anything since I've already contributed about a half million in taxes in my lifetime, and I'm still not a millionaire.
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