Venezuela's would-be dictator

When Hugo Chavez lost a referendum to make himself president for life, it appeared that the dictatorial president of Venezuela had been thwarted in his efforts to turn the oil-rich South American nation into a Cuban-style totalitarian state.

But the former Col. Chavez has not given up. He has since used sweeping decree powers, granted him by his rubber-stamp National Assembly, to enact a package of 26 laws that will enforce measures that voters rejected in December 2007.

The newly decreed laws are not as far reaching as the 97 constitutional amendments that President Chavez tried to force on the Venezuelan people by referendum. They would have given Mr. Chavez iron-fisted control over the armed forces, the economy, the central bank and almost every aspect of national life. He would also have been empowered to seek re-election for successive seven-year presidential terms without any term limits. Before the referendum, which was rejected by 51-49 percent, he told voters, "If God gives me life and help, I will be at the head of the government until 2050" — when he would be 95.

His presidential decrees may not fulfill his lust for unlimited power, but they will undermine Venezuela's constitution, transferring more power to the presidency with centralized government control over food production and trade.

Ominously, the new Chavez laws will change the name of Venezuela's armed forces to the Bolivarian National Armed Forces and also create a citizens' militia. Apparently, President Chavez' objective is to strengthen military support for him while creating a second armed force in case the military turns against him.

Despite massive social spending, funded by huge oil revenues, Mr. Chavez's popularity among Venezuela's poor, who represent the base of his movement, is waning. Reacting to violent crime, more than 30 percent inflation, food shortages and inefficient government services, more and more people are moving into the opposition camp.

Venezuela was once the most stable democracy in Latin America, but under Chavez, democracy has been whittled away as he advances his "Bolivarian revolution" under the slogan that he adopted from the Castro Cuban dictatorship: "Socialism or Death." Democracy hasn't given up the ghost in Venezuela, but neither has President Chavez given up on his aspirations to turn the country into a socialist dictatorship.