Venezuela Chavez leads rally for end to term limits

CARACAS (Reuters) - President Hugo Chavez Sunday led the biggest rally so far of a campaign to scrap term limits in a referendum that Venezuelans are likely to approve despite widespread and sometimes violent opposition.

More than 100,000 supporters in "revolutionary" red T-shirts inscribed with "Yes" marched through the capital Caracas to back Chavez's call for more time to deepen his drive to turn the major oil exporter into a socialist state.

The opposition, church, students and rights groups have condemned the move to change the constitution as authoritarian. They note that Chavez vows to rule for decades and calls Cuban leader Fidel Castro his mentor.

Chavez, first elected in 1999, would have to leave office in 2013 unless the rules are changed.

He has proposed an overhaul of the constitution to be approved in a Dec. 2 plebiscite that also strips the central bank of its autonomy and empowers authorities in so-called emergencies to detain citizens without charge.

Pollsters say the anti-U.S. leader's popularity among the poor, who benefit from schools and clinics programs, plus sweeteners in the reform package like reducing the workday, make him the likely winner. But turnout is expected to be low.

Chavez has told his top officials to get tough with those opponents of the constitutional changes who have burned trees and clashed with police at demonstrations in a nation largely polarized between rich and poor.

"This government cannot be so weak," he said at the rally. "We can't allow these daddies' boys, these little rich kids born with a silver spoon in their mouth to destroy the streets of Caracas."

Chavez has repeatedly won national votes by wide margins and is clearly the OPEC nation's most popular political figure.

But it can be difficult to measure the extent of his support when some public employees say they feel they have to attend rallies such as Sunday's march or risk their jobs.