CARACAS, Dec 1: Facing a stiff challenge to his bid to expand his powers in a referendum on Sunday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has accused Washington of plotting to stir up violence against his regime, and warned he is ready to cut off oil exports to the US.

Chavez told tens of thousands of supporters late Friday he was putting Venezuela’s oil field and refineries under military protection and would halt the exports “if this (referendum) is used as a pretext to start violence in Venezuela.” If the US Central Intelligence Agency tried to spread unrest, “there won’t be a drop of oil from Venezuela to the United States,” he said.

The threat was an escalation of anti-US rhetoric Chavez has long employed, and highlighted Venezuela’s pivotal role as South America’s biggest oil producer, and the parlous relations between Washington and Caracas.

On Saturday, the eve of the referendum, preparations were being made for the vote. Newspapers said almost all 11,000 polling stations were ready for balloting.

There were no signs or reports of the army securing oil facilities, however and no military guards were present outside a refinery in the industrial town of Puerto La Cruz, west of Caracas.

In the capital, residents cheered or jeered Chavez’s strong line.

“He did right! The United States has to know what will happen to it if it attacks us like it did Iraq and wants to do to Iran,” said Jose Antonio Garcia, a 43-year-old off-duty police officer shopping for groceries in a market.

“The president is really sick, he needs a doctor,” said Enrique Andueza, countered a 77-year-old retired manager.

A political analyst at the Central University of Venezuela, Tulio Hernandez, said: “The anti-American rhetoric is an old trick the regime uses to rally supporters. Chavez’s tactic is to depict himself as a victim of the United States and the entire world.” Venezuela, an Opec member, currently exports around 60 per cent of the more than two million barrels of oil it produces per day to the United States. The trade is worth $37 billion a year at current prices, and supplies about 11 per cent of US oil needs.

A fiercely anti-US leader who has nurtured ties with Iran and China, Chavez has repeatedly accused Washington of setting up resistance in the country, without advancing any evidence.

He faces an unprecedented risk of losing Sunday’s referendum.

The latest polls show a dead-heat in voter intentions — setting the scene for street violence if the losing side refuses to recognize a close result.

The referendum calls for a scrapping of term limits for the president, opening the way for Chavez to stay on past January 2013, when he is due to step down.

The 53-year-old president said Friday he wanted to reign “until 2050,” if the people backed him.

Changes to allow the government to take over the central bank and expropriate private property in the name of “economic socialism,” and gag the media in times of emergency are also being proposed.—AFP