Special-interest groups would be able to spend less per race and could, in fact, increase their influence if they were able to build strategic voting blocs among the candidates they supported.
Along with a handful of MPs they built the Bloc up quickly, and were so successful they formed the official opposition after the 1993 elections.
They are trying to enlist a million of the nation's 26.5 million veterans in the campaign, not just to build this voting bloc but also as a signal of patriotism to even nonveterans who may be reluctant to oust an incumbent commander in chief.
But diplomats and other oil analysts say that the plan is largely motivated by a very practical political goal for Latin America's biggest oil power: to build up a bloc of energy-dependent countries who will support Venezuela if and when Mr. Chávez's government needs votes in international bodies like the United Nations and the Organization of American States.
The native Czechoslovakian, who had a doctorate in biomechanics and the theory of sports training, had helped build the Eastern-bloc teams that dominated international athletic competition.
Communist bloc apartment buildings built in the late eighties, in the historic disctrict that Ceausescu levelled to make way for the Palace of Parliament, the second-largest building in the world.
The president's political team, led by Karl Rove, his senior adviser, is working on policy initiatives that would help build support among specific blocs of voters.
But Israel has always reserved the right to build in major settlement blocs like Maale Adumim, which it intends to keep as part of any permanent deal with the Palestinians, and Israel contends that Jerusalem has a separate status.
For example, the Israelis could address Palestinian doubts by declaring there will be no Israeli sovereignty east of the security barrier and Israel will no longer build outside the settlement blocs.
In international politics, Mexico remains a timid power: Brazil has almost three times as many diplomats.Brazil has spent the past 20 years trying to build a South American bloc whose core is Mercosur, a protectionist would-be customs union.
