MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chavez orders military takeover of ports and airports under opposition rule

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday ordered the military takeover of ports and airports, boosting the power of the central government after his allies lost key states in a 2008 regional vote.

Chavez in recent months has removed regional leaders' control over services such as hospitals and police forces sparking accusations he is undermining opposition elected officials and concentrating power.

Sunday's announcement came just days after Congress passed legislation allowing the central government to take over roads, ports and airports if state leaders fail to adequately maintain them.

“We are going to take over ports and airports throughout the republic, whoever wants can oppose it, but it is the law of the republic,” Chavez said during his weekly Sunday broadcast.

He specifically mentioned the takeover of ports in three states run by opposition leaders including the state of Zulia, whose former governor Manuel Rosales is Chavez's most high-profile adversary. The three ports are Maracaibo, Puerto Cabello, (country most important) and the island of Margarita.

“It’s a question of national security”, said Chavez who also threatened to jail any governor or authority opposed to the decision.

The president of Venezuela's Congress, dominated by Chavez supporters, last week said the legislature was considering creating a new post that would be designated by the president to oversee the capital of Caracas -- currently run by an opposition mayor.

Chavez is broadly popular among country's poor for his oil-financed social programs that have expanded health and education services. Last month he won a constitutional referendum letting him run for re-election as many times as he wants.

Opposition leaders say Chavez is concentrating power by using state resources to promote his own political party and limiting the ability of opposition governors and mayors to carry out basic tasks.

President Chavez also announced that this week he would be presenting measures to reinforce the country’s economy from the effects of the global recession.

In his weekly column published in several Venezuelan newspapers, Chavez argues that wise economic and political decisions have helped the country overcome the crisis but “the strategic moment” has arrived to be prepared.

Finance minister Ali Rodriguez last week announced austerity in government outlays but promised no cuts in social spending, no tax increases and no devaluation of the local currency, Bolivar.

He went further and promised a “stable 2009” based on accumulated resources equivalent to 57 billion US dollars and another 12 billion from China which will help stabilize the economy in 2009.

However Chavez has repeatedly said 2009 will be a “hard and difficult” year because of the price of oil and confessed that the national budget had been elaborated at a barrel average of 60 US dollars.