Venezuela: Hugo Chavez Granted Special Powers for 18 Months · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

On December 17, Caracas Gringo wrote that President Hugo Chavez “was granted special powers to rule by  presidential decree until June 2012.” An Enabling Law that Venezuelan Analysis reports was passed “in order to bring rapid relief to 130,000 flood victims and to further engrain 21 Century Socialism in the nation’s legal structure.” But according to Juan Cristobal in Caracas Chronicles, “Chávez had absolute power before, and he has absolute power now. There is little in these laws that changes that.”