Heidegger

Albert Einstein: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over
and over again and expecting different results.”

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Chavez to Get Powers to Remake Venezuela
Jan 31, 7:45 AM (ET)
By FABIOLA SANCHEZ

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - President Hugo Chavez is set to assume unbridled
powers to remake Venezuelan society as the National Assembly prepares to
grant him authority to enact sweeping measures by presidential decree.

The assembly, which is completely controlled by Chavez supporters, is
scheduled to meet Wednesday in a Caracas plaza to approve a so-called
“enabling law” that will give Chavez special powers for 18 months to
transform 11 broadly defined areas, including the economy, energy and
defense.

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 nationalizations 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.

A final draft of the law shows Chavez will also be allowed to dictate
unspecified measures to transform state institutions; reform banking, tax,
insurance and financial regulations; decide on security and defense matters
such as gun regulations and military organization; and “adapt” legislation
to ensure “the equal distribution of wealth” as part of a new “social and
economic model.”

Chavez also plans to reorganize 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 spending an
increasing flow of state money on neighborhood projects from public housing
to road repaving.

Lawmakers were scheduled to formally approve the law Wednesday in an outdoor
session in Caracas’ Plaza Bolivar, next to the National Assembly.

Chavez’s supporters deny the law constitutes an abuse of power and argue
radical steps are necessary to accelerate the creation of a more egalitarian
society.

National Assembly President Cilia Flores said the special powers will enable
Chavez to enact new laws that “will benefit the people, those who were
excluded their whole lives. They are laws for inclusion and social justice.”

Others say the enabling law is dangerously concentrating power in the hands
of single man.

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

She said the effects will be “exponential” because Chavez will wield
“extraordinary powers” in a context where state institutions are weakening
and the division of powers is not being respected.

Chavez has requested special powers twice before.

In 1999, shortly after he was first elected, he was only able to push
through two new taxes and a revision of the income tax law after facing
fierce opposition in congress. In 2001, by invoking an “enabling law” for
the second time, he decreed 49 laws including controversial agrarian reform
measures and a law that sharply raised taxes on foreign oil companies
operating in Venezuela.

This time, the law will give Chavez a free hand to bring under state control
some oil and natural gas projects that are still run by private companies -
the latest in a series of nationalist energy policies in Venezuela, a top
oil supplier to the United States and home to South America’s largest gas
reserves.

Chavez has said oil companies upgrading heavy oil in the Orinoco River
basin - British Petroleum PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), Chevron Corp. (CVX),
ConocoPhillips (COP) Co., Total SA (TOT) and Statoil ASA (STO) - must submit
to state-controlled joint ventures, as companies have already done elsewhere
in the country.

The law gives Chavez the authority to intervene and “regulate” the
transition to joint ventures if companies do not adapt to the new framework
within an unspecified “peremptory period.”

Posted on Wednesday, January 31st, 2007 at 8:00 pm
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