KEY POINTS:
Hugo Chavez has served notice that foreign dignitaries visiting Venezuela will be deported without ceremony if they presume publicly to criticise him as he attempts to transform the country into a single-party state dedicated to his vision of "21st Century Socialism".
"How long are we going to allow a person from any country in the world to come to our own house to say there's a dictatorship here, that the President is a tyrant, and nobody does anything about it?" Chavez asked during his weekly television and radio programme, Alo, Presidente.
Chavez, who is preparing to submit next month to Congress a radical overhaul of the country's constitution, did not name names. But the outburst was widely thought to have been prompted by critical comments of his leadership made by Manuel Espino, the president of Mexico's ruling conservative party, while speaking at a recent democracy forum in Caracas.
His six-hour broadcast on Monday contained numerous hints as to the content of the reform, which opponents fear will largely be an exercise in tightening his control over Venezuela and hastening its transition to a fully socialist state. With all the deputies in the Congress allied with him, the changes are certain to be approved and will then be tested in a national referendum set for early next year.
Among them was a confirmation that Chavez, who was re-elected by a large margin to a third term in December, will seek term limits on all elected officials in Venezuela with the exception of himself.
"If there's indefinite re-election here, it should only be for the president of the republic, not for governors and mayors," Chavez confirmed. "They have governing methods that don't have anything to do with revolution and integration."
Since December, Chavez has moved swiftly to advance what he has called his Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, named after Simon Bolivar, the hero of the South American independence movement. He has taken steps to nationalise the telecommunications and energy industries, notably forcing foreign oil exploration companies to accept state control of their operations or leave the country.
He has also launched an ambitious effort to unite the various leftist factions already supporting him into a single new party to be called the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). Officials claim that as many as six million citizens have already declared allegiance to it, although some of the parties belonging to the coalition now supporting Chavez have pointedly declined to support its creation.
All of these moves have emboldened critics within and beyond Venezuela's borders to accuse Chavez of returning his country to authoritarianism. He insists that his aim is to shift control of the country's destiny to the grassroots citizenry and the poor. His reforms are expected to transfer more power to a network of local community councils at the expense of regional governors and city mayors. Hunger and poverty rates have been slashed under his rule while education and health opportunities have been greatly expanded.
He sought to soften some of the alarm being felt by the richer elite, denying rumours that the new constitution would allow the state to seize private property, like yachts or second homes. "Private property will be respected," he said.
- INDEPENDENT
