CARACAS (AFP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has enacted an aggressive package of 26 laws increasing the state's power over the economy ahead of key regional elections.
Some of the laws claim to aim to fight food shortages, market speculation and inflation, scourges which remain in the South American country despite enormous profits from its oil industry in recent years.
Other laws, in a resumption of Chavez's drive to create a socialist state, significantly increase his power and resemble proposals included in a constitutional reform narrowly rejected by voters in a December referendum.
The leftist leader enacted the new laws on Thursday, when 18-month decree powers given to him by Congress were set to expire.
They were immediately criticized by the opposition and business leaders, as well as the United States.
One piece of legislation warned ominously that those responsible for "food shortages, speculation and inflationary pressure with political motives" will be sanctioned with prison sentences of up to three years.
It "will regulate the whole chain of production and distribution of food," said Richard Canan, a viceminister at the agriculture ministry.
The law creates a "strategic food reserve" under state control, and regional councils to work with the government to decide on which food items should be consumed by which region.
The president of the Venezuelan Chamber of the Food Industry (CAVIDEA), Pedro Baraybar, said the new regulations violated the freedom of businesses.
"The impact in the first case that we can see is that the state will decide what needs to be eaten, when and where," he told journalists.
Opposition politicians said the laws reintroduced elements of the constitutional reform rejected in December and branded them a "diguised reform."
"We don't have a constitution or law, and the president does what he wants," said former interior minister Luis Miquilena, a former political mentor of Chavez who is now a staunch opponent.
"We're faced with a dictatorship that carried out a coup d'etat on the constitution" with the new laws, he added.
A spokesman for the US State Department, Gonzo Gallegos, said that Chavez was "in a sense achieving some of the things that he wanted to get in a referendum last year that was voted down."
"Neither Venezuela's citizens nor the national assembly were afforded the opportunity to participate in a debate on these changes," Gallegos added.
Venezuelan officials insist the new laws will help in the battle against spiralling inflation, up 15.1 percent in the first semester -- the highest rate in Latin America -- according to figures from the Central Bank.
Business leaders blame the inflation on government price controls in place since 2003, a drop in local production due to falling private investment after numerous nationalisations, and a rise in world food prices.
Chavez, meanwhile, is looking ahead to state and municipal elections due in November.
The last time regional polls were held, in 2004, Chavez's followers won 20 of the country's 23 state governorships -- although some have since defected to the opposition.
But, after his December referendum defeat and amid political infighting, the coming elections could potentially damage Chavez further.
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