By Andrew L. Jaffee

El Jefe, Hugo Chavez wants to change Venezuela’s laws to allow him to own and control everything — all of his country’s wealth, human rights, ideas, news, etc. In other words, Chavez is about to become the next dictator in the Castro/Mugabe/Milosevic tradition: absolute power forever. Still want that Che Guevara t-shirt? From the AFP:

…Addressing a National Assembly stacked with loyalists, the leftist leader offered a reform plan that would also end autonomy of the country’s central bank and put its international reserves under the president’s control.

He also called for the consolidation of the military as a new, unified fighting force that would be “patriotic and anti-imperialist” in nature.

In addition to renouncing term limits, Chavez, who was re-elected to a second six-year term in December, called for the president’s time in office to be extended to seven years. His current term ends in 2013. …

Chavez wants to amend 33 of the constitution’s 350 articles, which were already rewritten under him in 1999, to make changes in the political, military, economic and social spheres. …

Using sweeping powers to legislate by decree that the Assembly granted him in January, Chavez has nationalized key parts of the oil, radio and television and electricity industries.

His proposed constitutional changes include ending the central bank’s autonomy. …

The new constitution would also create “federal cities” and federal territories within the country’s states, and allow the president to declare “special military regions”. …