CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez was sworn in for a new six-year term Wednesday, beginning what he calls a stronger push to remake Venezuela as a socialist state.
Chavez took the oath of office at the National Assembly five week after a sweeping re-election win that has given him free reign to pursue more radical changes, including plans to nationalize "strategic" power and telecommunications companies
Raising his right hand, Chavez said: "Fatherland. Socialism or death — I swear it."
Chavez attended a flower-laying ceremony earlier Wednesday at the tomb of Simon Bolivar, the South American independence hero who is the inspiration of Chavez's "Bolivarian Revolution" movement.
He then rode in an open car, blowing kisses and waving to supporters who tossed rose petals, before arriving at the National Assembly, where he was to be sworn in for a third term that runs until 2013.
Chavez, an admirer of Fidel Castro, has said he is crafting a new sort of "21st Century Socialism." Critics say it is starting to look like old-fashioned totalitarianism by a leader obsessed with power.
On Monday, Chavez pledged to nationalize "strategic" power and telecommunications companies and said that he will ask the National Assembly for special powers allowing him to enact a series of laws by decree. Among those moves, he said, "all of that which was privatized, let it be nationalized."
During the election campaign, Chavez said he would seek constitutional reforms including scrapping presidential term limits, which bar him from running again in 2012. This week, he also called for a constitutional amendment to strip the Central Bank of its autonomy.
First elected in 1998, Chavez has cemented his popularity by using a bonanza in oil profits to set up state-funded cooperatives and fund social programs from subsidized grocery stores to free universities.
An Associated Press-Ipsos poll conducted three weeks before Chavez was re-elected on Dec. 3 found 62 percent of those asked supported nationalizing companies when in the national interest — a result that paralleled Chavez's victory with nearly 63 percent of the votes.
But that support also has its limits. The poll found 84 percent said they oppose adopting a political system like Cuba's, despite Chavez's reverence for Castro.
The nationalization moves seem to be a throwback to past efforts that were complete failures, opposition politician Teodoro Petkoff said. What is really on display, he said, is the "autocratic power" of a president who can act without checks and balances.
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