Venezuela 'headed toward a dictatorship, disguised as a democracy,' critics fear
CARACAS -- President Hugo Chavez was granted free rein yesterday to accelerate changes in broad areas of society by presidential decree, a move critics say propels Venezuela toward dictatorship.
Convening in a downtown plaza in a session that resembled a political rally, lawmakers unanimously gave Mr. Chavez sweeping powers to legislate by decree and impose his radical vision of a more egalitarian socialist state.
"Long live the sovereign people! Long live President Hugo Chavez! Long live socialism!" said National Assembly President Cilia Flores as she proclaimed the "enabling law" approved by a show of hands.
The law gives Mr. Chavez, who is beginning a fresh six-year term, more power than he has ever had in eight years as President, and he plans to use it over the next 18 months to transform broad areas of public life, from the economy and the oil industry in particular, to "social matters" and the very structure of the state.
His critics call it a radical lurch toward authoritarianism by a leader with unchecked power, similar to how Fidel Castro monopolized leadership in Cuba.
"If you have all the power, why do you need more power?" said Luis Gonzalez, a high-school teacher who paused to watch in the plaza, calling it a "media show" intended to give legitimacy to a repugnant move. "We're headed toward a dictatorship, disguised as a democracy."
"What kind of a dictatorship is this?" Vice-President Jorge Rodriguez asked the crowd, saying the law "only serves to sow democracy and peace.
"Dictatorship is what there used to be. We want to impose the dictatorship of a true democracy."
Mr. Chavez, a former paratroop commander re-elected with 63 per cent of the vote in December, has said he will nationalize Venezuela's largest telecommunications company and the electricity sector, slap new taxes on the rich and impose greater state control over oil- and natural-gas industries.
The law also allows Mr. Chavez to dictate unspecified measures to transform state institutions; reform banking, tax, insurance and financial regulations; decide on security and defence matters such as gun regulations and military organization; and "adapt" legislation to ensure "the equal distribution of wealth" as part of a new "social and economic model."
Mr. Chavez plans to reorganize regional territories and carry out reforms aimed at bringing "power to the people" through thousands of newly formed communal councils designed to give Venezuelans a say on spending an increasing flow of state money on projects in their neighbourhoods, from public housing to potholes.
Historian Ines Quintero said that with the new powers, Mr. Chavez will achieve a level of "hegemony" that is unprecedented in the nation's nearly five decades of democratic history.
Mr. Chavez has requested special powers twice before, but for more modest legislative changes.
After he was first elected in 1999, he used it to push through two new taxes and a revision of the income tax law after facing fierce opposition in congress. In 2001, invoking an "enabling law" for the second time, he decreed 49 laws including controversial agrarian reform measures and a law that raised taxes on foreign oil companies.
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The Globe and Mail. February 1, 2007
(Canadian Newspaper) Original link:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070201.VENEZUELA01/TPStory/International
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