For one thing, Chavez told listeners on his regular populist sermon, God is Bolivarian and there is no reason to doubt he will help out in the end. Chavez says he is spearheading a "Bolivarian revolution," inspired by 19th-century visionary Simon Bolivar, which aims to transform the country with popular democracy, economic independence and equal distribution of wealth.

In the meantime, the opposition is praying precisely the opposite -- that God will not help Chavez out, even if that means more prolonged misery with the shortages until the desired endgame is reached.

Chavez, who refers to political opponents as "squalid," faces mid-term elections in September and presidential election in 2012.

"The squalid are praying for no rain," Chavez said during his weekly radio and television broadcast. "But you can bet it's going to rain, pour with rain, because God is Bolivarian.

"God is no opponent, God can't be a squalid. Nature is with us."

Shortages of electricity and water began last year as the drought set in and continued draws on reservoirs undermined power generation. The opposition is predicting a complete shutdown by June and, following similar warnings from the power generation companies but in the absence of verifiable information from officials, the energy outlook is uncertain.

The evidence on ground, however, is that electricity supplies are less frequent than before and water shortages have hit the cities and rural Venezuela hard.

Independent industry experts said continuing to run the power generation turbines without sufficient replenishment of water levels could prove disastrous for Venezuela's power grid.

Food prices have soared, hoarding and black markets are on the rise, despite the government's tough measures that have affected everyone from big businesses to small shops, schools and ordinary citizens.

The weakening bolivar, the national currency, spurred a nationwide black market in the U.S. dollar that has a parallel presence to further undermine the economy. Analysts cite independent business forecasts the bolivar could drop to nine to the dollar, half the official rate, if the crisis continues.

Analysts said the government would need to respond to expert warnings and, with or without God's intervention to bring rainfall, do more to save intelligently on power consumption.

In late December, the state power corporation Corpoelc warned Venezuela could face a national power collapse in 120 days if the water levels of the Guri hydroelectric dam, the country's largest, continue to decline and if the government does not take necessary steps to reduce electricity consumption and create other forms of power generation, since 70 percent of electricity supply in Venezuela depends on the Guri hydroelectric power plant.

The conservative El Universal newspaper, citing the figures, said the hydroelectric plants are generating more electricity than they should.

??The newspaper said the report's recommendations include reduction of energy consumption in shopping malls, a switch to 35 million energy-saving bulbs, lower energy consumption in public administration buildings and increased thermoelectric generation.

The report also called for reduced energy sales to Brazil and cutbacks in energy consumption by power-intensive industries, including the aluminum smelters Venalum and Alcasa and steelmaker Sidor.

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