Chávez given broad new powers

HAVANA — In an unusual outdoor meeting in downtown Caracas, the Venezuelan National Assembly voted Wednesday to give President Hugo Chávez broad powers to accelerate this oil-rich nation's push toward socialism.

The National Assembly, which is dominated by Chávez supporters, unanimously approved La Ley Habilitante, or the enabling law, which will give Chávez the authority for 18 months to issue decrees in 11 key areas ranging from the economy to defense.

Chávez and his supporters say the new authority is vital to forge a new, more egalitarian economic and social order in Venezuela. Critics say it will speed Venezuela's slide into authoritarianism.

"The enabling law will turn the Congress into a house of followers and the president of the republic into a dictator," Eduardo Fernandez, president of the opposition COPEI Party, told the Venezuelan cable-news channel Globovision.

But Venezuelan Vice President Jorge Rodriguez told legislators gathered in the Plaza Bolivar that the new law will lay the groundwork for "democracy, peace and, in the end, socialism."

"Dictatorship is what we had before, a dictatorship of the few," he said. "Of course, we want to install a dictatorship, the dictatorship of a true democracy. You, us, together [are] building a different country."

Since winning re-election in December to a new six-year term, Chávez has announced plans to nationalize Venezuela's electrical industry and its largest telecommunications company and he has refused to renew the broadcast license of RCTV, the television station most critical of him.

The passage of the legislation Wednesday is likely to worsen the already tense relations between Venezuela and the United States, which have been rocky ever since the Bush administration appeared to back an aborted coup against Chávez in 2002.

Since then, Chávez has denounced the U.S. as the worst terrorist nation on Earth, and he described President Bush as the devil in a speech last year at the United Nations.

Chávez also has forged close ties to such U.S. foes as ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to whom Chávez played host in January.

American officials have accused Chávez of undermining Venezuelan democracy and destabilizing Latin America. But the U.S. continues to bankroll Chávez's revolution by purchasing large quantities of Venezuelan crude oil.

First elected president in 1998, Chávez has survived a tumultuous eight years in office that has included the aborted coup in 2002, a devastating opposition-led national strike several months later and a recall referendum in 2005 that failed to garner enough votes to unseat him.

Aided by opposition missteps and high oil prices, Chávez has soared in popularity as he has funneled tens of billions of dollars into social programs.

In addition to nationalizing the telecommunications and electricity sectors, Chávez has said he would use his new authority to reform banking and other financial regulations while raising taxes on the rich and bringing the oil and gas sectors under greater state control.