Posted on 01/08/2007 8:11:36 PM PST by Jedi Master Pikachu
President Hugo Chavez has pledged to nationalise key Venezuelan companies, as part of plans to transform the country into a full socialist state. Mr Chavez said he wanted to see major Venezuelan power and telecoms companies come under state control.
Mr Chavez's comments came in an address to the nation following the swearing in of his new cabinet. "All of that which was privatized, let it be nationalised," he said during the speech. "The nation should recover its ownership of strategic sectors." Mr Chavez will be sworn in for a third term of office on Wednesday after winning presidential elections in December with almost 63% of the vote.
Recovering ownership Relations between Caracas and Washington have come under increasing strain in the past few years, with the US accusing Mr Chavez of trying to destabilise Latin America.
Mr Chavez said Venezuela was moving towards "a socialist republic" that required "deep reform of our national constitution". "We are in an existential moment of Venezuelan life," he said. "We're heading toward socialism, and nothing and no-one can prevent it." Mr Chavez demanded an end to the current autonomy of the country's central bank and said he would ask Venezuela's parliament to grant him additional powers to legislate by presidential degree. He has argued in the past with bank directors who have opposed his lavish spending of Venezuela's vast oil wealth. His calls for nationalisation appeared in particular to affect Electricidad de Caracas, which is currently owned by US firm AES, and CA Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela (CANTV), the country's largest publicly traded company. Mr Chavez had threatened to nationalise the company earlier this year unless they lifted their pension payment to meet those of the minimum wage. The BBC's Daniel Schweimler says that these bold moves by Mr Chavez, who now has allies across Latin America, will shock some and be welcomed by others.
He says they are certain to deepen the rift in an already divided country.
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Eric Allie, the best conservative political cartoonist on the planet, hits the nail on the head.
Funny how the spearheads of socialism in Latin American are always third-rate thug military dictators.
Chavez to play in Broke Back Socialism II.
Blow up the foreign owner refineries before he gets them. Blow up the oil fields before he gets them. Castro's Cuba never prospered under socialism. Neither should Venezuela.
Marx was a moron with an axe to grind.
I'm not sure why anyone would want the infrastructure destroyed, but that will be the outcome nonetheless. Maintenance and safety have been a problem in those parts Chavez has siezed to date. There have been a lot of refinery fires, explosions et cet. His cronies are doing laps in the company pool while the infrastructure falls apart. When oil prices dip and the wheels come off the Chavista party wagon things should get interesting in a hurry.
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