Venezuela's Chavez enacts decrees to increase state control

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez aims to set up neighborhood-based militias and increase state control over agriculture under a package of laws enacted by decree on the final day of an 18-month period during which lawmakers had granted him special legislative powers, reports the Associated Press.

Changes in areas as diverse as the military and small business loans were pushed through in 26 laws released Monday in the official gazette.

Critics fumed that Chavez did not consult with major business groups before issuing the decrees, and some warned that the laws would scare off private investment and further weaken private enterprise.

This latest development follows Chavez's announcement last week that he plans to nationalize Spanish-owned Banco Venezuela, the country's third-largest financial institution. Chavez said during an afternoon telecast that he was seizing the bank because its owner, Banco Santander, was planning to sell it anyway.

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-- Deborah Bonell in Mexico City

Comments

[Laurel Altman]

Ms. Bonell: You've done a fine job of underreporting what is a cataclysm of major significance to the unfortunate citizens of Venezuela. The decrees he wrote into law represent the abnegation of every wish of the citizenry and the beginning of a totalitarian regime without equal in the western hemisphere.
Or maybe you believe that Cuban-style communism is the key to freedom and happiness.