By CLIFFORD KRAUSS

          CARACAS, Venezuela -- In his first hours in office, President Hugo Chavez Frias sent tremors
          through the political establishment by moving to rewrite the Constitution in a process that is
          highly likely to replace the newly elected Congress with one that has more of his allies.

          For Chavez and his supporters, the 1961 Constitution is a symbol of a corrupt political system that
          has fed popular resentment and apathy. It was written by leaders of the two traditional parties,
          Accion Democratica and Copei, to keep Marxist groups aligned at the time with Cuban-backed
          guerrillas out of the political process.

          Now, Marxist and socialist groups in the coalition that elected Chavez sorely want to replace the
          document. As he took his oath of office on Tuesday, Chavez called the Constitution moribund even
          as he pledged to uphold it.

          "The Constitution, and with it the ill-fated political system to which it gave birth 40 years ago, has to
          die," Chavez said in his address. "It is going to die, Sirs. Accept it!"

          In the campaign leading to his landslide victory in December, Chavez said that he wanted to replace
          the ban on presidential re-election, opening the way for him to run for a second five-year term in
          2003. That led to warnings from opponents that Chavez, who as an army officer started an
          unsuccessful coup against the civilian government in 1992, was still a power-seeking authoritarian.

          Chavez also said he hoped that a new Constitution would take politics out of the judiciary by
          replacing the congressional appointment of judges with one based on selection by a board of legal
          scholars. He expressed hopes that a new Constitution would also replace the system in which party
          bosses manage the selection of congressional candidates and then control their votes.

          In the campaigns last year, Chavez's opponents said that a referendum to form an assembly with
          powers to draft a new constitution would be unconstitutional. But last month the Supreme Court
          backed Chavez's position, and congressional leaders said that Congress should call for the
          referendum.

          On Tuesday, Chavez issued the referendum decree, saying that Congress should focus its energies
          on economic policy. His decree set in motion a year of campaigning over three referendums, one on
          whether to rewrite the Constitution, a second to elect delegates to the assembly that would rewrite
          the Constitution and a third on ratifying it.

          Some opposition leaders criticized Chavez for circumventing Congress.

          But most, apparently reluctant to take on Chavez at the height of his popularity, had words of mild
          praise.

          "This is a government that needs cooperation," said Alcibiades Castro, congressional leader of
          Copei.

          Chavez hopes that a series of ballot victories over the next year will bolster his support among voters
          as he takes unpopular measures like slashing government payrolls and imposing new taxes.

          Many legislators, all elected to five-year terms, widely are expected to resign to run for the
          assembly. Chavez's coalition holds about a third of the seats in each chamber.

          "President Chavez believes by making the Congress more representative it will be more favorable to
          him," a Western diplomat who insisted on anonymity said. "This process gets him off to a very
          powerful start."
 
 

                     Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company