CARACAS—Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday proposed a constitutional change to strengthen his government's expropriation powers as part of his campaign to drive his oil-producing nation toward socialism.
The leftist former soldier also is expected to announce proposals to scrap presidential term limits and eliminate central bank autonomy as part of an overhaul of the constitution he helped rewrite in 1999.
Chavez said in a speech to Congress that the government should be able to control assets of private companies before winning a court expropriation ruling.
He also said the maximum workday would be reduced to six hours from eight hours per day as part of the reforms.
His proposals and leftist politics have sparked the ire of critics and U.S. officials who call him authoritarian and accuse him of using Venezuela's oil wealth to threaten democracy in Latin America.
A close ally of Cuba's Fidel Castro, Chavez has used bountiful oil revenues to finance a broad network of social programs that have cultivated strong support among the poor, who overwhelmingly backed his 2006 re-election.
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