Day six: Rising unease slows Chávez agenda
In the past few weeks, President Hugo Chávez has hit some speed bumps in his rapid transformation of Venezuela into a socialist state, with polls showing a drop in support.
BY PHIL GUNSON AND STEVEN DUDLEY

CARACAS --
Recent street protests, polls and delays in government projects have put the normally aggressive Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez on the defensive as he tries to rapidly implement ''21st Century Socialism'' in Venezuela.

''This is part of the transitions, transitions that are sometimes tumultuous,'' Chávez said this week as university students led protests in a half-dozen Venezuelan cities over the government's decision not to renew the broadcast license of a popular television station. ``There's no revolution that isn't tumultuous.''

Calling his landslide Dec. 2 reelection the beginning of an era, Chávez -- a former army lieutenant colonel who led a failed coup in 1992 before he was elected president in 1998 -- charged into his agenda with great success.

After obtaining power to rule by decree for 18 months from a legislature that has no opposition members -- the opposition boycotted the last election -- Chávez took over the country's main telecommunications company, the electric utility in Caracas and the heavy oil production facilities formerly run by multinational corporations.

But unexpected obstacles in the last few weeks appear to have slowed the once steady march toward what Chávez has called Bolivarian Socialism -- an expansion of the state's role in the economy and significant increases in funding for social welfare programs paid from oil revenues that have made Chávez wildly popular here.
NO CHECKS ON POWER

He has won three presidential elections, but opponents say he has undermined democracy and put the nation under virtual authoritarian rule by stacking the courts and once-independent government institutions with allies...."

"COUNCILS UNDER FIRE

The president's idea for grass-roots democracy through so-called ''community councils'' also has run into trouble. Resources that normally go to local government bodies are being diverted to these organizations to ''empower'' ordinary Venezuelans. But there are complaints of widespread corruption, and some community councils have split into rival factions, with angry disputes over how the money is spent.

Intellectuals sympathetic to the regime also have criticized the councils as an idea imposed from above and whose practical application is doubtful. Social historian Margarita López Maya wrote recently that the councils' ''potential autonomy'' from the government is weak, adding that the authorities failed to submit the proposal to an adequate popular debate.

FOOD SHORTAGES

Meanwhile, issues such as violent crime, unemployment, inflation and food shortages have begun to erode the public's confidence in the authorities and possibly in the president..."

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