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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Chavez "Temporarily" Seizes Cargill Pasta Plant |
| 2009-05-15 |
| say hello to starvation, campesinos! Venezuelan officials including soldiers on Friday temporarily seized a pasta factory owned by U.S. food giant Cargill Inc in a pricing spat, the latest move by President Hugo Chavez's government against foreign companies. Since taking office a decade ago, strident U.S. critic Chavez has nationalized large swathes of OPEC member nation Venezuela's economy, including a rice mill owned by Cargill earlier this year and dozens of oil service companies last week. Bolstered by resilient approval ratings, the former soldier plans to keep moving against the private sector this year as he pushes ahead with his plan to build a socialist state in South America's top oil exporter. "Yes, because we are determined to recover full petroleum sovereignty and it turns out that in Venezuela almost everything was privatized," Chavez said in Argentina on Friday when asked about plans to take over more firms after seizing oil service companies a week ago. Chavez, whose government is buying a local unit of Spain's Santander finance group, said he had no plans to buy more banks "for now," using one of his favorite catchphrases that implies he may move against financial institutions in the future. Friday's move could lead to the permanent takeover of the pasta factory. In March, Chavez ordered the nationalization of Cargill's rice mill a week after a similar temporary seizure. Deputy food minister Rafael Coronado said the government would run the factory for 90 days after officials found it was not producing enough of a type of pasta sold at cheap, government-established prices. "There was a marked noncompliance with the law," Coronado said, flanked by soldiers, in a television broadcast from outside the plant in the coastal state of Vargas. Coronado said the government could decide to take further action against the plant after the 90-day period. Cargill is one of the world's largest privately owned companies with a dozen plants and about 2,000 employees in Venezuela. It declined to comment on Friday's move. Hope they fubared the operational software |
| Posted by:Frank G |
| #1 Golden goose mentality by CHavez and his band of looters. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2009-05-15 20:56 |