Only a few months ago Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez was praying for rain. Now he is praying for it to stop. Venezuela has spent much of the year suffering from a serious drought, causing widespread power shortages. Heavy rains over the course of the last three weeks have caused extensive flooding and landslides. The government was slow to react but Chávez is now in full swing, blaming capitalism for the harsh meteorological extremes that have afflicted the country, and requisitioning hotels for the homeless. The national assembly, meanwhile, has been inundated with government bills to change the national power structure before opposition legislators take their seats in January and deprive the ruling Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) of an all-important two-thirds majority.
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