Chavez reforms get initial OK in Venezuela Congress

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's Congress on Tuesday gave preliminary approval to President Hugo Chavez's proposed constitutional reform, which would lift term limits to help the leftist leader cement his self-styled socialist revolution.

Chavez last week presented reforms to end central bank autonomy, increase state expropriation powers and give the president direct control over monetary reserves in a move critics called a "coup" to keep Chavez in power indefinitely.

The legislature, 100 percent controlled by Chavez allies, will hold two more votes to fully ratify the changes, which must be finally approved through a popular referendum that legislators say they hope will take place in early December.

"We are reforming the constitution to solidify ... the socialist nation, the socialist state, the socialist democracy," said Carlos Escarra, a legislator and constitutional lawyer who helped draft the reforms.

Lawmakers gave initial approval to changes in 33 articles of 350 in Venezuela's 1999 constitution, which Chavez supporters rewrote following his landslide election in 1998.

Chavez's leftist reforms have sparked the ire of critics and U.S. officials who portray him as an authoritarian leader who uses the OPEC nation's oil wealth to undermine democracy in the region.

But his mostly poor supporters have handed him repeated electoral victories thanks largely to a social spending crusade that has expanded free health and education services.

He has already secured a firm grip on key state institutions including the court system, the state oil company and most state and local governments.

This year, he nationalized the largest private telecommunications and electricity companies and took control of majority stakes in four multi-billion dollar crude projects, edging out oil giants Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips.