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CARACAS - Venezuela's Congress has granted President Hugo Chavez powers to rule by decree for 18 months as he tries to force through nationalizations key to his self-styled leftist revolution.
The vote allows anti-US leader Chavez, who has been in power since 1999, to deepen state control of the economy.
The lawmakers, all loyal to Chavez 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 Chavez 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. Chavez is forging a single party to lead his radical reforms, stripping the central bank of autonomy and seeking indefinite re-election.
Chavez has targeted the oil industry and utilities, affecting many foreign owners and shareholders.
The opposition accuses Chavez of being a tyrant in the making, taking a slow-burning approach to following Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Chavez 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.
"When our enemies say we are granting dictatorial powers to Chavez, they know that they are lying," he said.
- REUTERS
