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Chavez’s decree move enrages foes in Venezuela

14 December 2010 21:35 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez moved on Tuesday to bypass parliament and govern by decree for a year in South America’s biggest oil-producer, prompting opposition charges he is acting like a dictator, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com website.
Having used such powers three times before during his 11-year rule, the socialist leader says he needs them again to respond to a national emergency caused by floods that have killed about 40 people and left nearly 140,000 homeless.
The head of parliament said the "Enabling Law" allowing Chavez to rule by decree was expected to be approved by Thursday. The text of the law says the president can issue decrees across a wide range of areas including infrastructure, public services, housing, land, finances and security.
Private banks and property owners braced themselves for another wave of nationalizations by Chavez, who takes delight in taunting them and stoking their fears.
"He’s winning time with the tragedy to put limits on the new National Assembly," opposition politician Pastora Medina told Reuters. "He is consolidating himself as a dictator."
A freshly united opposition coalition won about half the popular vote in a September parliamentary election to take 40 percent of seats in a new National Assembly that will convene on January 5, when they hoped to put a check on Chavez’s power.
In a move to outflank his rivals -- and with an eye on the next presidential vote in 2012 -- Chavez on Tuesday asked the outgoing Assembly, which is dominated by his ruling Socialist Party, to grant him fast-track decree powers for 12 months. Chavez had said on Monday the powers could extend for up to 18 months.
Chavez, a former paratrooper, has taken Venezuela down a steadily more radical route in an effort to entrench "21st century socialism" and eradicate capitalism.
Leading opposition newspaper Tal Cual denounced the decree move, along with a package of laws being rushed through, as a "totalitarian ambush ... a Christmas ambush" for Venezuelans.
"It is a brutal attack, without anesthetics, against democratic life," Tal Cual’s editor Teodoro Petkoff said.
Wall Street took the latest development in its stride.
"This news is not completely surprising and the market is reflecting that," said Bret Rosen at Standard Chartered, adding that the balance-of-power implications were more worrying than the anticipated fast-track fiscal measures.
Venezuela’s benchmark global 9.25 percent 2027 paper, one of the world’s most-traded emerging market bonds, rose 0.687 points to bid 74.063 on Tuesday.
SALE TAX
Outside parliament, several dozen opposition demonstrators protested against the measure, while supporters of the president rode past on motorbikes shouting "Long live Chavez!"
The president has said one of his first moves will be to hike Venezuela’s sales tax to raise funds for reconstruction.
He has used decree powers in the past to pass about 100 laws, including measures to nationalize part of the oil sector and increase the number of Supreme Court judges.
Although Chavez is within his constitutional rights to ask for an Enabling Law, opponents argue that his real agenda is to marginalize their gains at the parliamentary elections and stop them trying to block his agenda after they take their seats.
Anticipating such criticism, Chavez lambasted and mocked his foes in an address on state television late on Monday, saying they were "crazy" and "in need of Valium" for suggesting that he was trampling on the country’s constitution.
"This is the desperate bourgeoisie who will never come back," said Chavez, who has cast himself as a savior of Venezuela’s poor after decades of right-wing rule.
The populist president, who has inherited Fidel Castro’s mantle as Latin America’s leading U.S. critic, still has a strong power base among the poor, although his approval ratings have slipped from the highs of previous years.
Despite foes’ view of him as an autocrat gradually ushering in Cuban-style communism, supporters say he has brought greater democracy through more participation of grass-roots groups.
Chavez made the decree move right before Christmas, when Venezuelans disappear en masse to the beach and on holidays and it would be hard for the opposition to mobilize big protests.
But Diego Moya-Ocampos, an analyst at IHS Global Insight think tank, said a major political showdown was brewing. "This will no doubt generate an institutional crisis," he said.