Friday, January 19, 2007

CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP): Venezuela's legislature voted unanimously to grant President Hugo Chavez the power to rule by decree for 18 months, in the initial vote on a bill Thursday.

The bill authorises Chavez to "rule by decree ... with the force of law," legislative president Cilia Flores said after a unanimous show of hands in favor.

Chavez, in power since 1999, began serving a new, six-year term a week ago, with his allies controlling Venezuela's unicameral legislature.

"We welcome the ... law, with the support of the National Assembly, which backs our leader," said Chavez, the president of the legislature.

Opponents called the special law a "totalitarian abuse" of power.

Flores said "there will always be opponents, and especially when they know that these laws will deepen the revolution" - a term Chavez uses to describe his socialist movement.

Chavez is expected to nationalize Venezuela's oil, telecommunications and electrical industries. He has also called for changing the constitution to lift a limit on presidential terms, allowing him to run again for re-election when his new six-year mandate runs out, and seek as many consecutive terms as he wants.

Leftist parties backing Chavez announced earlier this week talks to form a single political party.

The secretary general of Podemos, Ismael Garcia, told reporters that the leftist group and the Communist Party were discussing creation of a United Socialist Party to back Chavez' program of "socialism for the 21st century."

"We must debate creation of a united front to lend support and efficiency to the process," he said.

To that end, Chavez in December asked the 21 political parties backing him to join in a broad coalition.

Chavez has piqued the ire of the United States with his fierce anti-US rhetoric, his affinity for Cuban leader Fidel Castro and his warm relations with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who visited Venezuela over the weekend.

The United States accuses Chavez of destabilising Latin America, where presidents of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Peru and Uruguay all have leftist leanings.

Venezuela is a top oil producer and exporter to the United States.

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