affect the government's decision about which country to support for admission to the UN Security Council. However, Venezuela was never able to obtain more votes than Guatemala in the forty-one separate UN votes in October 2006. Because of this deadlock in voting, Panama was selected as a consensus candidate and subsequently won the election for Latin America's seat on the Security Council. In accordance with his foreign policy trends, Chávez has visited several countries in Latin America, as well as Portugal, Belarus, Russia, Qatar, Syria, Iran, Vietnam, Mali and Benin. At the request of Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, Chávez also attended the 2006 summit of the African Union in Banjul. He also visited the People's Republic of China and Malaysia. In 2006 Chavez accused the United States government of attempting to turn Colombia into Venezuela's adversary over the recent arms dispute. "The U.S. empire doesn't lose a chance to attack us and try to create discord between us. That's one of the empire's strategies: Try to keep us divided." Chavez said in response to the United States government. Chávez again won the OAS and Carter Center certification of the national election on 3 December 2006 with 63% of the vote, beating his closest challenger Manuel Rosales who conceded his loss on 4 December 2006. After his victory, Chávez promised a more radical turn towards socialism. According to Datos Information Resources, family income among the poorest stratum grew more than 150% between 2003 and 2006. On 8 January 2007 President Chávez installed a new cabinet, replacing most of the ministers. Jorge Rodríguez was designated the new vice president, replacing José Vicente Rangel. Chávez announced that he will send to the National Assembly a new enabling act, asking for the authority to re-nationalize the biggest phone company of the country (Cantv), and other companies from the electrical sector, all previously public companies which were privatized by past administrations. He also asked to eliminate the autonomy of the Central Bank. On 31 January 2007 the Venezuelan National Assembly approved an enabling act granting Chávez the power to rule by decree in certain areas for 18 months. He plans to continue his Bolivarian Revolution, enacting economic and social changes. He has said he wants to nationalize key sectors of the economy. Chávez, who is beginning a fresh six-year term, says the legislation will be the start of a new era of "maximum revolution" during