Chavez Plans to Nationalize Venezuela Cement Industry

[marmar]

from Bloomberg:



Chavez Plans to Nationalize Venezuela Cement Industry (Update2)

By Brian McGee and Steven Bodzin

April 4 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he plans to seize cement operations in the country, threatening the assets of the nation's largest producer, Cemex SAB of Mexico.

``Starting from now, all legal and economic measures should be taken to nationalize the national cement industry in the short term,'' Chavez said in a communications ministry statement.

The move would also affect Lafarge SA of France and Holcim Ltd. of Switzerland. Many cement companies are polluting the environment and have failed to invest in new technology, Chavez said. The state will pay the plant owners ``whatever it costs'' and invest in the modernization of factories, he said.

Chavez has given pro-nationalization speeches to draw on popular Venezuelan opposition to state asset sales to foreign companies in the 1990s. Last year, the state took over four heavy crude oil joint ventures as well as the nation's biggest electricity provider and telephone company. Seizing Total SA's stake in a project cost Venezuela $834 million in oil shipments.

The Venezuelan leader said he would ban asphalt exports and is restricting shipments of food abroad, all part of his effort to overcome shortages amid the fastest economic growth in the Americas. Chavez has accused building-material suppliers of running a monopoly and slowing the construction of homes and roads. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a1X.Z5a2TM_0&refer=home

[SteinbachMB]

1. Next up

....SHOES.

[Peace Patriot]

2. You buds with Rummy?

"The Smart Way to Beat Tyrants Like Chávez," by Donald Rumsfeld, 12/1/07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/30/AR2007113001800.html

Read between the lines a bit. Economic warfare; destabilization. Then, "swift action" by the U.S. in support of Bushite "friends and allies" in South America.