Chavez seeks longer term

2007-08-16 09:05

Caracas - President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday proposed changes to Venezuela's constitution to remove presidential term limits and consolidate his vision of "21st Century Socialism".

Addressing a National Assembly stacked with loyalists, the leftist leader offered a reform plan that would also end autonomy of the country's central bank and put its international reserves under the president's control.

In addition to an end to term limits, Chavez, who was re-elected to a second six-year term in December, called for the president's time in office to be extended to seven years. His current term ends in 2013.

The opposition has denounced his proposal as a "fascist" plan modelled after Cuba, which is a close ally of Chavez. The president rejected the opposition's demand to create a constitutional assembly to debate amendments.

Chavez defended his constitutional reform plan, denying that he was seeking to "enthrone" himself and saying a president's re-election was ultimately in the hands of Venezuelan voters.

"They accuse me of planning to remain in power eternally or to concentrate power," he said. "We know that is not the case."

'Birth of the new state'

Chavez wants to amend 33 of the constitution's 350 articles, which were already rewritten under him in 1999, to make changes in the political, military, economic and social spheres.

Chavez told lawmakers his reform seeks to "complete the death of the old, hegemonic oligarchy and the old, exploitative capitalist system, and complete the birth of the new state".

His proposals will likely sail through the single-chamber legislature, as all 167 seats are held by Chavez loyalists thanks to an election boycott by the opposition in 2005. The reform would then have to be ratified in a referendum.

Chavez, whose country is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, wants to create a new political and economic order that he has also dubbed "oil socialism".

- AFP