TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Chavez Begins Oil-Fueled Socialism

ADVERTISEMENT

By SIMON ROMERO, The New York Times

Published: November 17, 2007

CARACAS, Venezuela - In two weeks, Venezuela seems likely to start an extraordinary experiment in centralized, oil-fueled socialism. By law, the workday would be cut to six hours. Street vendors, homemakers and maids would have state-mandated pensions. And President Hugo Chavez would have significantly enhanced powers and be eligible for re-election for the rest of his life.

A sweeping revision of the constitution, expected to be approved by referendum on Dec. 2, is both bolstering Chavez's popularity among people who would benefit and stirring contempt from economists who declare it demagoguery. Signaling new instability, dissent is also emerging among his former lieutenants, one of whom says the president is carrying out a populist coup.

"There is a perverse subversion of our existing constitution under way," said Gen. Raul Isaias Baduel, a retired defense minister and former confidante of Chavez who broke with him in a stunning defection this month to the political opposition.

"This is not a reform," Baduel said. "I categorize it as a coup d'etat."

Chavez loyalists already control the National Assembly, the Supreme Court, almost every state government, the entire federal bureaucracy and newly nationalized companies in the telephone, electricity and oil industries. Soon they could control even more.

This is an upheaval, however, that would be carried out with the approval of the voters. Although opinion polls in Venezuela are often tainted by partisanship, they suggest the referendum could be Chavez's closest electoral test since his presidency began in 1999, but one he may well win.

"We are witnessing a seizure and redirection of power through legitimate means," said Alberto Barrera Tyszka, co-author of a best-selling biography of Chavez. "This is not a dictatorship but something more complex: the tyranny of popularity."

One of the 69 amendments allows Chavez to create new administrative regions, governed by vice presidents chosen by him. Critics say the reforms would also shift funds from states and cities, where a handful of elected officials still oppose him, to communal councils, new local governing entities that are predominantly pro-Chavez.

"The comandante should have more power because he is the force behind our revolution," said Egda Vilchez, 51, a pro-Chavez activist, as she campaigned in favor of the new charter this week at a busy intersection in Cacique Mara, an area of slums in eastern Maracaibo.

Marisabel Rodriguez, the president's ex-wife and former first lady, came out against the new charter this week, saying it would lead to "absolute concentration of power." Previously pro-Chavez governors such as Ramon Martinez of Sucre State, sensing their power could be curtailed, have begun criticizing the measures.

Under the project, term limits would be abolished only for the president, not for governors or mayors. Another item raises the threshold for collecting signatures to hold a vote to recall the president, effectively shielding him from one option voters have to challenge his power under the existing constitution of 1999.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT