Venezuela tests Chavez socialism at barter market

Rather than pure barter exchange, shoppers at the market in the town of 23,000 residents use a currency named after the Venezuelan goddess Maria Lionza who devotees pay homage to at a nearby mountain.

The market has about 100 members and opens once every two weeks with more and more people coming to spend their laminated cardboard "Lionzas."

Its leaders say the money is a socialist currency because it cannot be used for accumulation or speculation.

"We call ourselves 'pro-sumers' because it unites consumer and producer in the same word. The capitalist system divides us: producers on one side, consumers on another," said Pablo Mayayo, who helped create the market.

Chavez will have to rely on a massive state-backed get-out-the-vote machine to win the referendum on Sunday.

While he is popular with the majority poor, many moderate supporters are alarmed his redrafting of the constitution could water down private property rights and give too much power to the president. Critics say he is establishing a dictatorship.

Polls say the "Yes" and "No" camps are neck-and-neck, making turnout crucial. That may give the advantage to Chavez against an underfunded opposition, political analysts say.

It is the toughest campaign of Chavez's career. Since taking power in 1999, he has handily swept to victory at the ballot box about once a year, thanks largely to his spending of oil income on health and education services for the poor.

Venezuelans in 2003 spontaneously created barter systems to swap services like dentistry and auto repair after a failed opposition strike nearly shuttered the oil industry and left millions without jobs or much income.

But this is precisely the opposite of Venezuela's current situation in which record oil revenues, heavy government spending, and burgeoning monetary liquidity have left the country with more money than it knows what to do with.

With Venezuelans enjoying unprecedented consumption growth, critics say bartering makes little sense.

Opposition councilman Biagio Pilieri from the municipality around Urachiche said Chavez wants to return Venezuela to the era of Spanish colonial rule.

"Barter exchange is long on rhetoric and short on logic," he said.