...not after reading this article:
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Chavez oil threat raises stakes in Venezuelan referendum
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The referendum calls for a scrapping of term limits for the president, opening the way for Chavez to stay on past 2013, when he is due to step down.
The 53-year-old president said Friday he wanted to reign "until 2050," if the people backed him.
Changes to allow the government to take over the central bank and expropriate private property in the name of "economic socialism," and gag the media in times of emergency are also being proposed.
Opponents, whose number has swelled in past weeks with the defection of some Chavez allies, say the reforms would amount to making Venezuela a Cuba-like communist state, with an elected "dictator".
Chavez, who reveres Cuba's Fidel Castro, dismisses those ranked against him as "traitors" acting to further US "imperialism."
"A vote 'yes' is a vote for Chavez -- a vote 'no' is a vote for (US President) George W. Bush," he said.
The United States is not the only target of Chavez's verbal broadsides. Recently, the Venezuelan president has accumulated international disputes.
Last month, Spain's King Juan Carlos told him to "shut up" at a summit. Stung by the opposition's adoption of the phrase in its campaign against the referendum, Chavez has demanded an apology -- failing which he said he might nationalize Spanish banks in Venezuela.
He also fell out spectacularly with his Colombian counterpart, Alvaro Uribe, after the latter dropped him as a mediator in negotiations to release hostages held by leftist FARC guerrillas.
Chavez said he would have nothing to do with Colombia's government as long as Uribe remained in power -- another potentially costly decision, given that Colombia supplies much of Venezuela's basic food supplies, including eggs, milk and chicken.
The foreign media were not spared either.
He accused CNN of inciting his assassination by putting the caption "Who killed him?" under his picture this week. He dismissed the network's explanation that it was an on-air mix-up with another news item.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php...ow_article= 1