CARACAS: Mr Chavez said he would have a Bedouin tent given to him by the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi put up in the garden of the presidential palace. Twenty-five families are already living in the palace after losing their homes. The floods have made more than 100,000 people homeless across the country.“Put up Gaddafi’s gift,” said Mr Chavez during a visit to a refuge for flood victims close to the Miraflores palace in Caracas. “You can install it in the garden at Miraflores because I’m going to move into the tent. We can put some beds in my office.”
Mr Chavez is an admirer of Col Gaddafi, who lives in a huge Bedouin tent in Libya, and brought one with him when he visited Venezuela last year. The Venezuelan leader has been personally supervising relief efforts in response to the floods. The worst rains in a decade have caused widespread destruction and killed more than 30 people. Some of the worst damage has been in poor hillside neighbourhoods of Caracas, where landslides have swept away precarious houses. He has promised a massive home-building programme, and on Friday appointed culture minister Francisco Sesto to the new role of minister for reconstruction in Caracas.
Chavez on Friday said he would seek fast-track decree powers from the ruling party-dominated National Assembly due to a crisis caused by storms and flooding. Critics of the socialist president – who has used fast-track powers on three occasions before during his 11-year rule to pass about 100 laws – had expressed fears he would rush new laws through before the new assembly took over.
Chavez, speaking to state TV, said the measure was necessary to enable his government to respond to severe rains that have caused chaos across Venezuela, killing at least 34 people and leaving more than 120,000 homeless. “I am going to request a facilitating law from the National Assembly. We are going to need billions of dollars extra,” Chavez said. “There’s no time to lose, not a second.” agencies
