VENEZUELA:As Venezuela speeds towards "21st century socialism", allies of the president in Ecuador and Bolivia are struggling to follow on the same road, writes Tom Henniganin São Paulo
Venezuela's president Hugo Chávez has further strengthened his grip on power after the country's congress voted on Wednesday to allow him to rule by decree for the next 18 months.
The new powers allow Chávez to pass laws without parliamentary debate or consultation across a broad range of issues, including "the transformation of the institutions of the state" allowing him to speed up implementation of his plans for "21st century socialism".
Chavista supporters looked on as the congress met in an outdoor session in a square in downtown Caracas named after Simón Bolívar, the country's independence hero and after whom Chávez has named his political movement.
The new law was passed unanimously, not surprisingly, as the opposition boycotted December's congressional elections, leaving it with no representatives in the body.
Roberto Hernández, the congress's communist vice-president, called the new law "revolutionary" and said Venezuela was experiencing changes "comparable only to the glorious days of our war of independence".
The opposition warns that it is the latest step on the road to autocracy.
Since coming to power in 1998, Chávez has waged a series of bitter battles with the opposition and other institutions he felt were not sufficiently under his control. In every case he won clear victories and the presidency now dominates the legislature, judiciary, army, and the state energy giant that is responsible for most of the country's GDP.
The new powers follow Chávez's victory in December's presidential election, when he won a new six-year term.
Then he pledged to speed up implementation of 21st century socialism which involves increased state control over the economy, and spending of the country's massive oil revenues on social programmes at home and in friendly neighbouring countries such as Cuba, Bolivia and Nicaragua.
Chávez is an arch critic of the Bush administration, has forged close relations with anti-US states such as Iran and favours closer integration among developing countries to counteract US influence in Latin America and the wider world.
In a break from recent attempts to avoid commenting on moves by a man who has consistently sought to bait him, US president George Bush said Chávez's new powers left him "concerned about the Venezuelan people and worried about the diminution of democratic institutions".
Chávez is expected to use his new decree powers to cement his control over a new national reserve force which the opposition fears will become his personal armed political militia.
The decree also gives him the right to enact legislation dealing with the country's vital energy sector.
Venezuela sits on some of the world's biggest oil reserves and profits from the current high price of oil have bankrolled much of Chávez's "Bolivarian Revolution".
In recent years Chávez has sought to increase domestic control over the oil industry, forcing foreign firms in the country to renegotiate contracts to the advantage of Venezuela.
While the transfer of more power to Chávez went smoothly in Venezuela, two of his principle allies are involved in more fractious attempts to do the same elsewhere on the continent.
On Tuesday supporters of Rafael Correa, Ecuador's newly elected president, tried to storm the country's congress building to force deputies to back the president's call for a referendum on constitutional reform.
Correa refused to run members of his party for congress in last year's election saying the body was corrupt beyond saving. Polls show most Ecuadorians agree with him and back his plans for an assembly to draw up a new constitution.
But congress, aware such an assembly is likely to severely curb its powers, is resisting the move, labelling it a power grab by the president.
Meanwhile, in Bolivia, plans by the president Evo Morales to draw up a new constitution are facing fierce opposition in a constitutional assembly, elected to hammer out the new charter.
Morales wants any new document to give more power to his indigenous coalition but the opposition is resisting and demanding more autonomy for the regions they control in the richer, eastern lowlands.
The stalemate has now dragged on for half a year and risks spilling out on to the streets. Last month clashes between government supporters and opposition members left two people dead in the city of Cochabamba.