Chavez gets dictator’s powers

Chavez, who is beginning a fresh six-year term, says the legislation will be the start of a new era of “maximum revolution” during which he will consolidate Venezuela’s transformation into a socialist society. His critics, however, are calling it a radical lurch toward authoritarianism by a leader with unchecked power.

The former paratroop commander has already said he will use the law to decree nationalisations of Venezuela’s largest telecommunications company and the electricity sector, slap new taxes on the rich and impose greater state control over the oil and natural gas industries.

The law will also allow 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 organisation; and “adapt” legislation to ensure “equal distribution of wealth” as part of a new “social and economic model.”

Chavez plans to reorganise regional territories and carry out reforms aimed at bringing “power to the people” through thousands of newly formed Communal Councils, in which Venezuelans will have a say on increasing flow of state money on neighbourhood projects from public housing to road repaving.

Chavez’s opponents, however, argue the law dangerously concentrates power in the hands of single man. “If you have all the power, why do you need more power?” said Luis Gonzalez, a high school teacher. “We’re headed toward a dictatorship, disguised as a democracy.”

Vice-President Jorge Rodriguez ridiculed the idea and argued democracy is flourishing. He thanked the National Assembly for providing “gasoline” to start up the “engine” of societal changes. “Dictatorship is what there used to be,” Rodriguez said. “We want to impose the dictatorship of a true democracy.”

Historian Ines Quintero said that with the new powers, Chavez will achieve a level of “hegemony” unprecedented in Venezuela’s nearly five decades of democratic history.