Chávez

CARACAS (Reuters):

Venezuela's Congress yesterday gave approval to the first part of President Hugo Chávez's plan to rule by decree for 18 months as he tries to force through nationalisations key to his self-styled leftist revolution.

Congress overwhelmingly passed by a show of hands the initial stage of the legislation, in which they agreed to call the measure an 'enabling law".

If the 11 sections of the bill are passed as expected, the final vote would allow anti-U.S. leader Chávez, who has been in power since 1999, to deepen state control of the economy.

The lawmakers, all loyal to Chávez after opposition parties boycotted the 2005 congressional elections, flaunted their populist credentials by taking the unusual step of holding their vote in public in a square in Caracas.

"We in the National Assembly will not waver in granting President Chávez an enabling law so he can quickly and urgently set up the framework for resolving the grave problems we have," said congressional vice-president, Roberto Hernandez.

The economic reforms are set to work in tandem with increased political centralisation. Chávez is forging a single party to lead his radical reforms, stripping the central bank of autonomy and seeking indefinite re-election.

Chávez has targeted the oil industry and utilities, affecting many foreign owners and shareholders.

The opposition accuses Chávez of being a tyrant in the making, taking a slow-burning approach to following Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Chávez argues he will always tolerate opposition and will step down if he loses an election.

Opposition politician and newspaper editor Teodoro Petkoff on Tuesday wrote an editorial in his Tal Cual newspaper drawing parallels between the enabling law and Cuban Communism and European fascism in the 1930s.

Hernandez, of the Venezuelan Communist Party, rebuffed such charges.