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Chavez Gives Himself Power To Rule By Decree

From his fans at Al Jazeera:

Chavez set to rule by decree

FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 2007

Members of Venezuela’s National Assembly have given initial approval to a measure that would allow Hugo Chavez, the country’s president, to enact laws by decree.

The proposed law, which is valid for 18 months, is described by Chavez’ allies as a key step in their self-styled socialist revolution.

But the president’s opponents have described it as a "totalitarian" abuse of power.

It was approved unanimously in its first reading on Thursday and is expected to win final approval next week in a second session of the legislature which is dominated by Chavez supporters.

"We welcome this enabling law, with the support of the National Assembly, which backs our leader," Cilia Flores, the legislative president, said after a unanimous how of hands in favour during the four-hour session.

But Flores said: "There will always be opponents, and especially when they know that these laws will deepen the revolution."

Chavez, in power since 1999, began serving a new term a week ago after a conclusive election victory in December.

Nationalisation programme

Among the new measure he is expected to introduce if the special law is passed are the abolition of the independence of the central bank and the nationalisation of Venezuela’s telecommunications and electrical industries.He has already announced Venezuela will acquire 51 per cent shares in foreign oil operations and on Thursday Nicolas Maduro, the country’s foreign minister, said the government was also considering nationalising the mining industry.

Left-wing politician Juan Montenegro Nunez told the National Assembly: "This process is unstoppable. This process is an historic necessity."

The latest measure comes after Chavez called for a constitutional amendment to remove any limit on presidential terms.

Gerardo Blyde, an opposition politician criticised the proposed law, saying: "What is becoming evident is that all the powers are one single power in Venezuela - Hugo Chavez."

Teodoro Petkoff, the campaign manager for Chavez’ defeated presidential opponent Manuel Rosales, said: "In an environment of obsequiousness and servility, ‘I, the Supreme [Chavez] am ready to legislate, backed by this far-reaching, enabling law."

The law, Petkoff said in a column published in the daily Tal Cual, allows Chavez to legislate "without any debate in the country."

Just like Hitler.

(But without Hitler’s quiet dignity.)

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This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Friday, January 19th, 2007 at 9:46 am. You can leave a response.

8 Responses to “Chavez Gives Himself Power To Rule By Decree”

  1. 1sttofight
    January 19th, 2007 at 12:08 pm

    Bout time for Hugo to wake up in the wee hours of the night feeling the business end of a .22 silenced pistol pressed to his temple while an American accented voice whispers in his ear telling him how it is going to be.

  2. jscrump
    January 19th, 2007 at 1:04 pm

    Ayn Rand was right on the money in her massive tome Atlas Shrugged.

    The first of the Peoples’ states has arisen. And our own Democratic party and may Republicans are looters, social agitators are moochers, and we have our own peoples committees (like Center for Science in the Public Interest). Even the sterile academics are falling into predictable patterns.

    Odd that the left accuses the right of fascism, but I can’t think of one protester who has been thrown in jail for making political statements. Trespassing and violence doesn’t count. However, the global climate peoples committees are trying to silence opposing opinions and research. With universal health care on the horizon, who knows what’s next?

    Who is John Gault?

  3. AmericanIPA
    January 19th, 2007 at 2:45 pm

    Pelosi must be so jealous. It seems so easy for Chavez but these damned republicans are still in her way.

  4. Phil Byler
    January 19th, 2007 at 9:37 pm

    Chavez is the replacement for Castro in Latin America. He is very dangerous. Watch him establish alliances with radical Islam.

  5. BillK
    January 20th, 2007 at 2:09 am

    Democrats are looking on with tears of admiration.

    They’ll try the same when the next President is inaugurated in 2009…

  6. wardmama4
    January 20th, 2007 at 9:55 am

    I have to wonder how Cindy’nevermetadictatorIdidn’tlove’ Sheehan is going to spin this little twist of reality (which those of us have known since this scumbag ‘kept’ getting ‘fairly elected’ for decades) - since her main claim to cozying up to Dictatorwannabe Hugo was that he was ‘FAIRLY’ elected all those gazillion of times.

    BTW, you ought to read mamma lunatics spewings on mm.com - I can only say, she would know lunacy when she reads it. I would love someone at LA JR college, or where ever the wise and wonderful BSCS went to ‘college’ get her grades and exactly how long she attended (since in the article she once again repeats the moronic lefts line - C student).
    You know, when I was in college (long ago and far away) I got one C - does that make me a C student? Am I forever scarred for life of not being worthy of the lefts admiration or consideration - naw I just think it is because I support the Troops, life, God, America and FREEDOM.

  7. BillK
    January 21st, 2007 at 6:45 am

    Very simple - she’ll note that Chavez was elected this time too, his ruling by decree being no different than Bush exercising his “Presidential powers” to have the NSA “listen to all of our phone calls” and to use his powers to “read all our mail.”

    There’s no claim too outlandish for the left.

  8. SG
    January 22nd, 2007 at 8:41 pm

    From Investor’s Business Daily:

    A Dictatorship Rises

    Posted 1/22/2007

    Chavez’s declaration last week that he’ll suspend Venezuela’s constitution and congress for 18 months and rule by decree will turn Venezuela into a dictatorship. Checks and balances of democratic power sharing will end, and anyone who thinks Chavez will voluntarily return to democracy is a wishful thinker.

    Chavez openly calls himself a communist and has ambitious plans to expropriate even more businesses, farms and buildings. He’s giving himself carte blanche to meddle with the food supply and will create shortages. He intends to bulk up the military to intimidate his neighbors. That heralds a whole new level of trouble for the region because it’s unlikely to stop at Venezuela.

    The consolidation parallels how another democratically elected leader, Adolf Hitler, seized power in Germany’s weak democracy. It also vindicates the much-derided observations of Donald Rumsfeld, who first compared Chavez to Hitler last year.

    Chavez isn’t even trying to conceal the similarities. He called his move to rule by decree the “Enabling” Act, the same term Hitler used. Yet, as in the years preceding Hitler’s rise to absolute power, no one seems to notice a problem.

    Venezuela remains nominally a democracy, and the moves Chavez has made have some technical basis in the Venezuelan constitution — again, like Hitler. The nation also remains a member of the Organization of American States, shielded from censure because of Venezuela’s democratic facade.

    The U.S. response has been distressingly mealy-mouthed. A State Department spokesman over the weekend was almost apologetic. Before admitting that Chavez’s plans “have caused us some concern,” he took pains to acknowledge that Chavez “is the elected president” and has a “sovereign right” to rule by decree.

    Chavez’s response was what could be expected from a predator sensing weakness — a torrent of abuse. “Go to hell, gringos!” he shouted on his Sunday TV show, adding a menacing, sex-tinged and degrading tirade against Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

    His wild response to mild criticism from the U.S. shows he’s too far gone to respond to dialogue from the one democracy that questions his autocratic actions. But at least the State Department is saying the right things. Far worse are Democratic Party freelancers playing at foreign policy.

    Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd, for example, justifies any autocratic action out of Venezuela with the watery “yes-but” pablum that “Chavez was elected democratically.” As if democracy ends on election day.

    This is dangerous because Latin America has just had an 11th election that seated many left-wingers who are unsure of the value of democracy. They don’t know whether they want to be social-democratic or totalitarian, and are most likely to take the path of least resistance. Chavez’s emergence as dominant leader of the region is likely to drive them in the totalitarian direction.

    This is already occurring in Bolivia and Ecuador, where left-wingers are working to end their legislative and constitutional bases of power in favor of one-man rule. We wouldn’t be surprised to see it happen in Nicaragua as well. With much of Latin America bound by a common language, history and culture, the states often move in political tandem.

    Whether the U.S. can tolerate a hostile new axis of leftist states, led by a tyrant with Hitler-like aspirations, is problematic. But tolerating dictatorships under facades of democracy is a road we’ve been down before.

    The U.S. needs a strong plan of action for countering Chavez’s dictatorship, because too many of his neighbors stand to be sucked into the vortex with him.

    http://www.investors.com/edito.....2522784194


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