CARACAS, Venezuela (CNN) -- Former coup leader-turned-
                  politician Hugo Chavez was sworn in Tuesday as Venezuela's new
                  president, promising constitutional reform, an end to corruption and
                  the redistribution of oil wealth.

                  Almost seven years to the day after leading a failed coup that won him
                  instant fame, Chavez, 44, raised his hand and immediately broke with the
                  wording of the traditional oath of office by calling the constitution
                  "moribund."

                  "I swear in front of my people, that over this moribund constitution, I will
                  push forward the democratic transformations that are necessary ...," he said,
                  standing before a Congress packed with legislators, supporters, journalists
                  and 16 heads of state.

                  His oath of office was interrupted by applause and cheering from the
                  audience.

                  Chavez, who won a sweeping election victory in December, has made the
                  transformation of political institutions a key issue of his government program.

                  In his inaugural address, Chavez said a new constitution "will open the door
                  to a new national existence."

                  A 'peaceful revolution'

                  Thousands of Chavez supporters, many wearing his trademark red beret,
                  jammed the streets outside Congress and listened to the ceremony over
                  loudspeakers. Street vendors hawked baseball caps, berets and other
                  Chavez paraphernalia.

                  With well over half the population mired in poverty, many of the 23 million
                  Venezuelans see Chavez as a hero. The discontented blame the country's
                  traditional political parties for squandering the world's largest oil reserves
                  outside the Middle East.

                  Chavez rode that wave of economic discontent in the December election,
                  promising to carry out a "peaceful revolution."

                   While the poor put their hopes in the new man at the helm of the nation,
                   the rich fear Chavez will assume dictatorial powers.

                  Since his landslide election victory, however, Chavez is said to have
                  softened his revolutionary stance and anti- establishment rhetoric. Instead, he
                  has now adopted a more conciliatory and pro-market tone, political
                  observers say.

                  On Thursday, Venezuela marks the seventh anniversary of his attempted
                  coup, when he and several thousand rebel soldiers stormed the presidential
                  palace in Caracas and tried to wrest power from then-President Carlos
                  Andres Perez.

                  After his release from prison in 1994, Chavez visited Cuba and gave a
                  speech -- widely criticized by his opponents -- praising Castro's Communist
                  revolution. Chavez and Castro met Monday night.

                  Chavez replaces Rafael Caldera, 83, whose presidential tenure was decried
                  by critics as a failure but who is defended by supporters as having returned
                  the country to stability.

                  Critics say Caldera left the economy in chaos, failing to meet his own goals
                  of reforming education, trimming a bloated bureaucracy and privatizing
                  aluminum and electrical companies.

                  Caldera's defenders point out that he came to power in 1994 during times of
                  great turmoil -- riots, coup attempts, the collapse of the banking system and
                  the impeachment of the then president -- and that he succeeded in returning
                  the country to relative normalcy.

                   Correspondent Lucia Newman, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to
                                           this report.