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Chavez threatens to halt oil exports to US

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez holds his grandson Jorge at a rally in support of changes to the Constitution in Caracas on Friday. Venezuelans vote today in a referendum called by the government on major changes, including removing presidential term limits and expanding presidential powers. PHOTO: AP

A threat by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to stop oil exports to the US has raised the stakes over a referendum today that he has called in a bid to expand his powers.

Chavez told tens of thousands of supporters late on Friday he was putting Venezuela's oil field and refineries under military "protection" and would halt the exports "if this [referendum] is used as a pretext to start violence in Venezuela."

He accused the CIA of preparing to spread unrest during the plebiscite in an effort to topple him, and said if its operation was activated "there won't be a drop of oil from Venezuela to the United States."

The menace was an escalation of anti-US rhetoric Chavez has long employed and highlighted both Venezuela's pivotal role as South America's biggest oil producer and the parlous relations between Washington and Caracas.

Venezuela, an OPEC member, currently exports approximately 60 percent of the two million barrels of oil it produces per day to the US, which relies on them for 11 percent of its oil needs.

"A vote `yes' is a vote for Chavez -- a vote `no' is a vote for George W. Bush."

Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan president

"Venezuela: We will never be a colony of the United States or of anyone -- we are free," he told supporters.

Chavez faces a real risk of losing the referendum -- an unprecedented situation for the president, who has always triumphed in elections by comfortable margins during his eight-year rule.

The latest polls show a dead-heat in voter intentions, with many Chavez loyalists in Venezuela slums balking at his proposals.

The referendum calls for a scrapping of term limits for the president, opening the way for Chavez to stay on past 2013, when he is due to step down.

The 53-year-old president said on Friday he wanted to reign "until 2050," if the people backed him.

Changes to allow the government to take over the central bank, expropriate private property in the name of "economic socialism" and gag the media in times of emergency are also being proposed.

Opponents, whose number has swelled in past weeks with the defection of some Chavez allies, say the reforms would amount to making Venezuela a Cuba-like communist state, with an elected "dictator."

Chavez, who reveres Cuba's Fidel Castro, dismisses those ranked against him as "traitors" acting to further US "imperialism."

"A vote `yes' is a vote for Chavez -- a vote `no' is a vote for [US President] George W. Bush," he said.
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