May 13 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered the seizure of Molinos Nacionales CA, a food producer majority-owned by Mexico’s Gruma SAB, as he boosts state control over the distribution and production of basic goods.
The government ordered the “forceful acquisition” of Monaca’s assets to “safeguard” the country’s food supply and consolidate the “socialist processing capacity in the agriculture industry,” according to a decree published today in the South American country’s Official Gazette.
Gruma, Mexico’s largest maker of corn flour for tortillas, said in December that its Venezuelan processing plants were temporarily taken over by the military after a minority shareholder was arrested in a banking scandal
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-13/chavez-decrees-seizure-of-gruma-s-venezuelan-unit-update1-.html