Caribbean Latin America minutes
Venezuela moves to create single party
By Associated Press
Dec 19, 2006, 23:09

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela's ruling party took the first step Monday toward creating a single pro-government party, a move opponents criticized as a push to

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, right, shakes hands with Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi during a welcoming ceremony at the Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas, Monday, Dec. 18, 2006. Badawi is in Venezuela in a two-day visit. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

consolidate more power in the hands of President Hugo Chavez after his landslide re-election.

Ruling party leader Willian Lara said the Fifth Republic Movement was being dismantled in order to merge with other parties in the new Unified Socialist Party of Venezuela. Before he was re-elected Dec. 3, Chavez proposed the new party to consolidate and unify a collection of loosely allied parties as he steers the oil-producing country toward socialism.

"It's a new party that is born out of the revolutionary process," Lara said.

Chavez also announced Monday he was planning to make changes in his Cabinet and called on top aides to tender their resignations.

"I asked everyone to offer up their posts — the vice president and the ministers," Chavez said. "I'm going to make some adjustments."

Critics argue the push for one pro-government party is strikingly similar to Fidel Castro's creation of a single party in Cuba in the early 1960s.

The ruling-party move does not directly affect opposition parties, but some opposition leaders strongly criticized what they called another sign of Chavez's thirst for control.

Teodoro Petkoff, editor of the opposition Tal Cual newspaper, predicted in an editorial Monday that Chavez would handpick party leaders rather than leaving the decision to rank-and-file supporters.

"His tireless finger won't stop singling out those who are going to be the bosses," wrote Petkoff, who served as a top adviser to defeated presidential candidate Manuel Rosales.

Dozens of parties back Chavez, and many supporters say they agree with the plan to fold them into a single organization — though there may be debate about how the new party is formed. Several pro-Chavez parties called closed-door meetings Monday to discuss their next steps.

Some parties may not want to sacrifice their autonomy, but refusing to go along with the president's plan would almost certainly mean political death, said Luis Vicente Leon, a pollster and political analyst.

"Some parties or leaders are going to be left out of the game, and with very little power," he said.

Carlos Azpurua, a member of the Fatherland For All party, said he strongly supports forming a single party but believes its leadership should be chosen at a grassroots level.

In a speech Friday, Chavez said Venezuela needs a governing party that is "at the service of the revolution and the people — not at the service of the political parties." He said parties will be free not to join if they wish.

"Those parties that wish to preserve themselves, they will leave the government," he said.