Venezuela's Chavez in for the long haul [View All]

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Washington's most influential foe in Latin America, looks set to stay in power for another seven years unless he is ousted through violence or the price of oil suffers a huge collapse.

Crystal ball-gazing in a country as volatile as Venezuela is fraught with risk. But both Venezuelan and foreign analysts here and in Washington find it increasingly difficult to envision scenarios under which pro-Chavez parties would lose congressional elections scheduled for December 4 and he would be voted out of office in presidential elections in 2006.

In his first turbulent six years in office, briefly interrupted by an abortive business-backed coup against him, the burly ex-paratrooper has steadily consolidated power at home and expanded his influence in Latin America as an advocate of socialist reforms and a vocal critic of the U.S. government and its free-market gospel.

Chavez peppers his speeches with references to "Mr. Danger" (George W. Bush), the "empire" (the United States) and "the desperate giant" (both Bush and the United States). Washington, in turn, labels him a "negative influence" and a man of "questionable affinity to democratic principles."

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