Assembly allows Chávez to pass laws by decree for 18 months

Venezuela's National Assembly passed an "enabling law" on Jan. 31, which will allow President Chávez to pass laws by decree in eleven different areas for a period of 18 months. Chávez had asked for the enabling law earlier this month, saying it is needed to accelerate the process of transforming Venezuela's state and economy into "21st century socialism." This is the third time Chávez has received such authorization during his presidency and Chávez is the fifth Venezuelan president to take advantage of this power, which both the 1961 and the 1999 constitutions permit. The enabling law, which Chávez has called the "mother law" for the laws that are to help bring about "21st century socialism," was passed in an outdoor meeting of the National Assembly. In the course of the meeting, to which the public had open access, various representatives of the pro-Chávez coalition explained why they supported the law. Most legislators talked about how they trusted Chávez to pass laws that would increase democracy in Venezuela and the need to act rapidly because this is what the Venezuelan people are expecting. The second vice president of the national assembly, Roberto Hernandez, said: "We are living in a revolutionary time and a revolution is characterized by having as its fundamental objective social justice and social justice, for revolutionaries, cannot wait.… We are promising justice for today and not for the future." Hernandez added, "We in the National Assembly do not vacillate in giving the president the enabling law to legislate.… The laws that Hugo Chávez will decree are laws destined to satisfy the immense majority [of Venezuelans]." Venezuela's vice president, Jorge Rodriguez, also attended the session, in representation of the president, who had first proposed the enabling law three weeks ago. Rodriguez belittled the opposition's notion that the enabling law would provide Chávez with dictatorial or totalitarian powers. Instead, Rodriguez asked: "What kind of a dictatorship is this?" The enabling law "only serves to sow democracy and peace," said Rodriguez in allusion to the law's many references to increasing grassroots participation in the state. "Dictatorship is what there used to be," he added. "We want to impose the dictatorship of a true democracy." Various representatives of social movement groups were also given an opportunity to express their support for the law, such as a representative from a women's association, another from a disabled persons' association, one from a cooperative association and one from a student association, among others. After the law was passed, various opposition leaders stated that this law now definitely makes Chávez into a dictator. For example, the president of the former governing Christian Democratic party Copei, Eduardo Fernandez, said on Globovision TV, "The enabling law converts the congress into a house of seconders and the president of the Republic into a dictator." Other opposition leaders, such as Antonio Ledezma of the party Brave People's Alliance , took the issue to country's Supreme Court with the argument that it is unconstitutional because enabling laws are supposed to be passed only for emergency situations. This interpretation of the constitution, though, is not supported by a close reading of article 203 of the constitution, which merely provides a definition of enabling laws and that it has to be passed by a three-fifths majority, without specifying anything about emergency situations. According to The Associated Press, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, Thomas Shannon, took the matter far more casually. When asked about the enabling law while in Colombia, Shannon told reporters: "It's something valid under the constitution.… As with any tool of democracy, it depends how it is used," he added. "At the end of the day, it's not a question for the United States or for other countries, but for Venezuela." The last time Chávez was granted an enabling law was in the year 2000 to adjust the country's laws to the just passed 1999 constitution. At that time 49 laws were passed as law decrees. Vice President Jorge Rodriguez, who is in charge of overseeing the development of the law decrees suggested last week that a similar number of laws could be passed this time around. He also said that the first drafts of the new laws would be ready in three months.