Hugo Chavez: Venezuela's 18 Month Dictator

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Hugo Chavez has moved one step closer to being a full blown socialist dictator with unchecked powers. Obama has got to be jealous. The move to give Chavez "decree powers" was given to the Venezuelan president by the nation's parliament with an 18 month life-span of unlimited power. Chavez's opposition is outraged, accusing the leader of turning the oil producing nation into a dictatorship.

The move gives Chavez unchecked powers that will enable him to nationalize more of the private industries in Venezuela. Chavez says he needs the powers so that he may better deal with a national emergency that has resulted from floods that has driven nearly 140,000 people from their homes.

He asked for only a year, but he was given a year and a half.

These new powers will allow Chavez to rule by decree, keeping all opposition out of the legislative process until his re-election campaign in 2012. The parliament claimed they gave Chavez the powers in order to be compassionate to the poor families afflicted by the floods. The move also accompanies another law that makes it easier for the government to nationalize banks and trim their profits.

The "Enabling Law" will allow Hugo Chavez to issue decrees across a wide range of areas including housing, land, finances and security. The move to gain these powers happened during a lame duck session, just before the socialists opposition takes 40 percent of the seats in the next Assembly, where the more conservative politicians had hoped to put a check on the president's powers.

Considering Chavez's move towards making Venezuela a dictatorship, concern has arisen on if he would be willing to step down as president should he lose the 2012 election.

Venezuela's economic situation is also in dire straights, and Chavez has been criticized as being an autocrat ushering in Cuban-style communism.

Just another example of how liberalism fails wherever it is tried.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Venezuela assembly gives Chavez decree powers - Reuters