Chavez spoke Tuesday on national television, less than two hours before the fast-track, yearlong legislative powers expired at midnight. The government completed at least 15 of the 48 laws in the last two weeks, defying critics who predicted the Cabinet would be too disorganized to finish the task.
A land reform law determines how the government can usurp idle, private land. On Monday in downtown Caracas, hundreds of farmers protested the government's failure to publicly discuss the content of that law.
But Chavez insisted Tuesday that all the laws had been widely discussed among ``lawyers, economists, social activists, peasants and farmers.''
In a new hydrocarbons law, the government sought to mollify private foreign oil executives who wanted flexible royalties rates for companies that operate the state-owned oil fields. The government originally proposed a fixed rate of 30 percent, up from the current 16.6 percent, but decided to allow rates as low as 20 percent for high-risk projects.
The pro-government Congress granted Chavez the fast-track powers last year despite opposition complaints that some laws were too sensitive to exclude from parliamentary debate. [End]