AN revs up its engines to consolidate the Castro-communist project

VenEconomy: The National Assembly (AN) has been revving up its engines in order to consolidate the Castro-communist project. Its haste is due to the fact that its absolute power expires in January 2011 thanks to the will of the people who voted against revolutionary hegemony on September 26.

With this last-ditch effort, the redder-than-red parliamentarians will complete the Chavista project's legal network with five laws relating to the People's Power or Branch. Naturally, they will not approve them before mounting a show of taking them out on the street to "consult" with "their people."

These five new laws are the Organic People's Power Act, the People's Public Planning Act, the Communes Act, the Social Comptrollership Act, and the amendment to the Communal Economy Promotion and Development Act.

This package of laws is being camouflaged with the promise of giving people the opportunity to actively participate in the decisions of the State. This is a total fallacy, if account is taken of the fact that all these laws are aligned with the Federal Council of Government Act, a body that comes under the absolute authority of the President of the Republic.

The truth of the matter is that these laws will give another harsh blow to decentralization in order to concentrate all the power in the President's hands. The regional and municipal authorities will be appointed by Chavez at his discretion, and political-territorial policies will also depend on Miraflores.

Equally serious is the fact that it will give another mortal blow to private property. By establishing so-called social property, the government will become the owner of everything and it will be the government that will decide what, where, when, and how to produce.

This Thursday another bill joined the five new laws mentioned above when it was submitted to the plenary session of the National Assembly for its first debate: the Banking Sector Institutions Bill, which contains the same communist poison, in this case bringing the banks into line with the socialist plan.

Then there is the 2011 Budget Bill presented by Jorge Giordani to the National Assembly, which makes the government's intentions quite clear. The Budget Bill proposes handing over 35% of what was formerly distributed through the Intergovernmental Decentralization Fund - FIDES (=15% of VAT revenue) and the Special Economic Allocations Act - LAEE (=25% of oil revenue) to community organizations. Based on an average oil barrel price of $40 -as proposed in the Budget Bill-, this 35% would represent Bs.F.4.6 billion of a total of Bs.F.12.88 billion. Until now, under existing rules, the Bs.F.12.88 billion should be sent in full, directly and without delay, to the regions and municipalities.

Once again, following a defeat, Chavez is pushing ahead with his plan to make Venezuela a country of communes.