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Venezuela's Hugo Chavez Wants a No Limit Dictatorship
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is announcing a proposed change to his country’s constitution that would remove term limits and allow him to serve indefinitely. At a press conference on Tuesday, Venezuela’s Communications Minister William Lara said Chavez would unveil the proposal before the Chavez-controlled National Assembly on Wednesday. Chavez was re-elected in December to a third term, which expires in 2012. Lara said the proposal is designed "to guarantee the people the largest amount of happiness possible.”
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The move would enhance Chavez’s "authority to accelerate a socialist-inspired transformation of Venezuelan society,” the New York Times reports. Chavez has already nationalized his nation’s electricity, telecommunications, and oil companies and forged alliances with Cuba and Iran. He recently said that citizens in Venezuela "should be given the right to keep a president in power as long as they like, whether it be for five years, 12 years, 40 years.” The proposal is also expected to include new limits on the authority of elected governors and mayors. A vote on the constitutional change is likely to take place within two or three months, according to the Times. The National Assembly in January gave Chavez the power to make law by decree. Not everyone in Venezuela is happy about Chavez’s expansion of power, however. Critics within the Catholic Church have spoken out against the term limits proposal, with one cardinal, Rosalio Jose Castillo Lara, calling Chavez a "paranoid dictator.” © NewsMax 2007. All rights reserved. Editor's note:
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