BOGOTA, Colombia — Bowing to popular pressure, President Chavez of Venezuela said he will rescind a new intelligence law that critics said would have forced citizens to spy on one another while moving the country toward a police state.

During his Sunday talk show, “Alo Presidente,” Mr. Chavez said he had had second thoughts about the National Intelligence and Counterintelligence Law that he decreed May 28, a law that ever since has been under attack from the nation’s human rights and legal experts as unconstitutional.

“All Venezuelans can be sure that this government will never trample on their liberty, regardless of their politics,” Mr. Chavez said. “To err is human. We’re going to correct this law.”

Mr. Chavez has the right to make and undo laws by decree, and he previously described the intelligence law as a defensive measure against a possible American invasion. But speaking Saturday in Maracaibo, Mr. Chavez acknowledged it had generated fear.

“Here there is no dictatorship. Here no one is obligated to say anything beyond what they want to say,” Mr. Chavez said. He insisted that it “wasn’t a bad law,” but that his opponents had unleashed a “terror campaign” over the Internet and on television.

Mr. Chavez is facing state and local elections in November, at a time when opposition candidates are gaining strength. His reversal probably stems from an assessment of the damage it might have caused his allies in the voting, a pollster, Luis Vicente Leon, said.

“This was an absolutely pragmatic move,” Mr. Leon said. “Until November he will avoid anything that will produce a shock or which has the appearance of radicalism that could set people against him.”