 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called for an end to presidential term limits on Wednesday to extend his rule and consolidate a self-styled socialist revolution in the OPEC nation.
| "Compañeros y compañeras, it is a fact of history that when a nation becomes prosperous the rich - plutocrats you might call them - are to be seen everywhere!" |
The leftist former soldier also proposed eliminating central bank autonomy, strengthening state expropriation powers and giving himself control over international reserves as part of an overhaul of Venezuela's constitution.
| "Who better than a man on horseback, a man of simple pleasures and tastes, like me, to protect this Great Nation of ours from the perils of being taken over by the rich!" |
Chavez's left-wing policies have sparked the ire of critics and US officials who brand him an authoritarian menace and accuse him of using Venezuela's oil wealth to undermine democracy, but his majority poor supporters have handed him repeated electoral victories.
| "We Venezuelans are simple folk. We prefer the simple things in life, unlike those greedy, avaricious bastards up north!" |
Unveiling his constitutional reform plans, which need to be approved in a referendum vote, Chavez said presidential terms should be extended by one year to seven years without restrictions on re-election. Under the current constitution, Chavez is in his second and final term and could not be elected again after it ends in 2012. The reform proposal would allow him to stay for as long as he keeps winning elections. "If anyone is going to say this is a project to enthrone oneself, no," Chavez said. "This is only a possibility, a possibility that depends on many variables."
| "I, a simple captain, am attending to those variables." |
In his lengthy speech to a loyal Congress that stretched until midnight, Chavez said the government should be able to control assets of private companies before winning court expropriation rulings. He also said the maximum workday would be reduced to six hours from eight hours per day, and proposed providing social security benefits to informal workers like cab drivers and street vendors as part of his campaign to instil "21st Century Socialism". |