"First you get the sugar. Then you get the power. Then you get the WOMEN..."
Posted on 04/11/2008 9:40:55 AM PDT by jazusamo
BOGOTA, COLOMBIA — Venezuelan armed forces occupied 32 sugar plantations Thursday, the latest in a wave of takeovers that some say is a bid by President Hugo Chavez to regain political momentum and reverse his recent slide in the polls.
The farms in Lara state were taken over by army units at the request of the Chavez government's National Land Institute, or INTI. The institute in recent years has handled the takeover of thousands of acres of farmland and turned them over to worker cooperatives.
The government last week said it would seize privately owned cement manufacturers, and Wednesday it said it would "renationalize" Sidor, one of Latin America's largest steel factories. A 1998 privatization placed Sidor in the control of an Argentine-Italian joint venture.
INTI President Juan Carlos Loyo told reporters that the farm seizures were ordered after inspections showed 80% of them were idle.
However, the local association of sugar growers said at a news conference that the farms were productive and that they would fight the "militarization" of their crops.
The seizures are part of Chavez's "socialism for the 21st century" agenda, in which he is using Venezuela's oil riches to transform the economy. But they also show the challenges facing him and his Bolivarian Revolution, and it is unclear whether replacing private enterprise with state-financed worker cooperatives and other measures will succeed at reviving his popularity.
Critics said the takeovers appear politically motivated as Chavez strives to regain favor with the public and shift blame to the private sector for food and housing shortages and inflation.
With state and local elections scheduled for November, Chavez is attempting to demonstrate strength, observers said.
The president has seen his approval rating plummet to 37% in March from 50% last June and as high as 66% in...
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I’m sure it will work as well for Chavez as it did for Mugabe.
Hugo is following the Robert Mugabe playbook. Good luck with that.
Who says communism is dead?
ping...
His Hollywood pals will be proud.
Hugo’s trying his best to resuscitate it.
He’s bipolar. Very dangerous situation down there. He’s going to leave wreckage on the order of Baghdad when they finally get their act together to get rid of him down there.
Bush should appoint Alan Keyes to Abassador for Noncommunism in South America and give im an office in Caracas.
It won’t help the situation, but Alan could annoy someone else for a change.
A model for Hillary The Beast Clinton to follow if she succeeds in her quest to steal the nomination and then wins the election.
To minimize the wreckage let’s hope it’s sooner rather than later.
The pattern never really varies, does it? I mean, other than speed.
The DNC should make Hugo an honorary member of the Democratic Party.
Pelosi’s working on it already for the DNC.
He's doing that all right. The Venezuelan economy is being completely 'transformed'.
One day soon Venezuelan armed forces will seize Hugo Chavez and take him for a helicopter ride into the jungle. It will later be reported he fled the country with trunks of money.
This guy is going to be gone in a year or two I hope. His people will really be suffering otherwise.
Here is what the DUer’s are saying about this:
“Everyone is going to have to switch to intensive cultivation of small areas for food so that most farmland can be re-forested. Likewise housing patterns will have to change away from sprawling acreage of lawns with single-family homes plonked in the middle. We’re getting a rather clear and urgent message from Mama Earth that she can’t be having with that kind of waste any more.”
The “global economy” they seek depends on stability, liberty, and democracy.
Communist tyrants can seize their property at any time.
Perhaps Corporate Socialism (charitable contributions, PC internal policies) may decline. Companies are just cutting their own throats.
Libertarian ping! To be added or removed freepmail me or post a message here.
In the Mugabe tradition, let’s see how long it takes for Venezuela to become poor as dirt with people starving in the streets so that Hugo can bring poverty to his people while stealing the bounty that Venezuela has to offer.
Socialism is its own mental disease - just as political egos are.
Hey, wasn’t he supposed to just regulate the CEO’s pay first?
lol, I guess he skipped some steps in there. :)
.....the latest in a wave of takeovers that some say is a bid by President Hugo Chavez to regain political momentum and reverse his recent slide in the polls. ...
Oh come on, just name one person who made such a statement.
The socialist nationalization was made to include sugar production within the state control and transfer the management from lawful owners to looter patrons.
He’s implementing communism. The media aren’t reporting on it because they FAVOR what he’s doing.
Who is John Galt ?
Jose Felix Ribas Barrio (one of many in Caracas) - 120,000 people on 237 acres in makeshift houses they build themselves with whatever materials they can find. They have sparse electricity and no running water.
Typical barrio house, hey, this one actually has bricks -
The caption on this photo is "If the neighbours want the alleyways and stairs that run between their homes to be lit at night, they get together and sort it out." Now that's some snazzy infrastructure!
Hugo's "Mision Hábitat" was criticized for building a whopping 10,000 housing units in its first six years. But wait, part of Mision Hábitat's goal is to issue titles of ownership to these barrio folks, and they have! As of mid 2005, 126,000 Venezuelan families can proudly say they own a piece of THIS -
And just in case that notion of private ownership seems to fly in the face of Chavez's life goals...by their own words, under Mision Hábitat's authority, the govt can seize and distribute "land that is claimed by private owners, but whose claims the government disputes." (Translation - anyone's.)
Oh, by the way, since Chavez took office, the crime rate in Venezuela has tripled and Caracas has become the most dangerous city in South America with most gunshot deaths per capita.
Ain't socialism grand?
Thanks for your post, that’s what Pelosi and her leftist followers don’t want anyone to see.
One round of .308. Just one
Like Danny Glover and Sean Penn.
And let this be a lesson for all of you. Never allow a convicted felon to take office:
Stalin was arrested in 1902, spent a year in prison and then was exiled to Siberia
Except, of course, the Party bosses and Hugo, the Father of the Peoples, who have their Zil limousines and dachas on the Black Sea, er, Carribean coast.
SMART GROWTH
Urban Planning Coming to Your Town SOON!
If the CIA had the competence of a single Israeli girl scout, Chavez would be dead by now.
Exactly! And if they had people that could keep their mouth shut no one would be the wiser.
Heh that last picture looks like a bunch of stacked legos all waiting to fall off those hills.
Oh and the commentary on convicted felons said by another poster on here, you are forgetting that Vladimir Lenin also served time in Siberia, I also thought that Mugabe spent some time in jail, and Mandela(he of the Necklacing fame) spent some time in jail. It is great that you have noticed that pattern, though IMO sometimes a convict can be helpful in resurrecting a system’s political expertise. Mostly, however, they act like they not only deserved it(the jailtime) but would spend some time in jail in the most lenient country.
Just following the lead of Lenin, uncle Joe and other copy cats like Mao.
Did Obama ever do any jailtime for his drug deals (buying, holding, or selling)?
I think the RATs sorely want to nationalize the Oil companies.
Very good question, I suspect that he might have had a few run-ins with the law but the problem is that it could be glossed over as “The Justice System’s inequality act”(basically that they got Obama on covert racism). As I’ve said it is a very good pattern but doesn’t lead up to the marathon. What it does show is a kind of personality that if the person comes to power there might be a chance that he/she might break a law that they don’t like.(rebels are not always cool, look at Bill Clinton for example)
Another problem is that he has written two books yet we don’t have a complete message of his past. Personally if he was a drug dealer he shouldn’t even be close to being President(when it comes to cocaine definitely). Yet that maybe all sticks with his community organizer label which either means that he worked with the Black community, and was a social worker or he busted heads and was a very corrupt individual.
For some reason Obama’s past with cocaine seems a little bit blurry. If he has had a strong connection to drug deals that really makes me wince as it means that he belongs in a very good jail cell.
lol
EARTHQUAKE BAIT!
kinda like here in the U.S. where we use trailer parks to lure tornados
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