President Hugo Chavez ordered Sunday the seizure of a French-owned retail chain on accusations that it raised prices after Venezuela devalued the currency by half.
From the WSJ.
PPP Fail
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Can someone say Salvador Allende?! This should be interesting …
I think this version is a little better.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-01-17/chavez-orders-takeover-of-almacenes-exito-stores-update2-.html
and this one
http://www.eltiempo.com/colombia/politica/expropiacion-almacenes-exito-en-venezuela_6971487-1
I’m sorry for Venezuelans. PPP will come back for revenge and then it will hit hard all those supporting Clown Chavez. Following the Argentina’s tradition I will call the day of revenge “El Chavazo”.
Power outages only out of Caracas. 2 hours daily in Maracaibo up to 4 ( and sometimes even 12) hours in the rest of the country. And are not in all the city. they spread from 1 pm to 11 pm in turns. Some parts of the cities: big
hospitals, the military and the poorest slum( they dont pay for the electricity) and the lucky want around the same circuit are spared.
There are shortages of milk, flour , sugar and gas ( In Zulia, where oil is produced , and Tachira)
Exito is owned ( a minority share) by a colombian company. Is against them that the measure is directed. He need a war or coup d Etat to become again the poor victim of imperialism.
Last week the people was on the verge to go to the streets when he backed off rationing in Caracas
Allegedly his wanted to kill himself in 2002 when Castro convinced him of not to do it.
Here there are no Pinochets, all the military is sold out to him ( they spend big in Hummers , houses at Weston, and 18 yo whiskey, scotch of course) or were ousted of the army
And this about, the british analyst supported revaluation devaluation:
http://economia.noticias24.com/noticia/14437/chavez-insitio-en-que-en-venezuela-lo-que-se-ha-hecho-es-una-revaluacion-del-bolivar/
Thanks for sharing this article. I read more about this from the links attached. I am sure the owned retail chain would have been in doing the same.
That’s not surprising. A foreign supermarket chain most likely includes a great deal of foreign products, which are (of course) imported. Since Chavez just devalued the currency for everything except food (Venezuela imports a great deal of food, around two-thirds of it, with the US supplying one-fourth of its food imports), it suddenly became much more costly for those firms to supply those products, and naturally they raised prices.
My guess is that was deliberate on Chavez’s part. He’s probably hoping to grab some more foreign-owned assets which he can milk for political gain, and back up with oil money.
Brett,
Foreign supermarket chains in Venezuela don’t sell an usually high proportion of imported foodstuffs… because essentially everything, everywhere, is imported. That tends to happen after 8 years of a ridiculously overpriced currency, combined with harassment of business and mass expropriation of agricultural land.
Coffee is the best example, after centuries of exporting the stuff, the country now experiences chronic shortages, because the national production is, to a first approximation, zero.
Soon there will be nothing left to loot. Still, Chavez isn’t going anywhere and high oil prices a few years down the line will bail him out.
Under the new exchange-rate regime, importers of essential items such as food, medicine and heavy machinery can buy dollars at a rate of 2.60 bolivars to the greenback. The school supply and science and technology sectors, as well as public sector imports and remittances, also will be favored by that rate, representing a 17 percent devaluation.
Caracas Gringo, see caracasgringo.wordpress.com, seems well-informed about certain aspects
of Venezuala. As I understand it, Venezuala is close to losing the ability to generate
electricity. This may or may not actually happen. It depends partly on the weather, though
independently there’s also the real possibility that some catastrophic equipment breakdown is
almost probable.
Here are some photos that some unknown person took of one physical facility.
See http://cid-d324fb8aeb94ccf0.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/LA%20REALIDAD%20DE%20NUESTRA%20PLANTA
After ten years of Chavez rule, similar situations are apparently to be found for much of
Venezuala’s infrastructure and the services that that infrastructure supports are rapidly unraveling.
Somebody saying Salvador Allende would make it interesting?!
Coffee is the best example, after centuries of exporting the stuff, the country now experiences chronic shortages, because the national production is, to a first approximation, zero.
It depends partly on the weather,though independently there’s also the real possibility that some catastrophic equipment breakdown is almost probable.
After four years of launch of a government scheme to upgrade Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) into Centre of Excellence under the public-private partnership model, the private partners feel harassed and are planning to quit their participation in the project.its seems bad to know that . The government must come forward and control the administrative mechanism if this PPP model has to be successful. “The Central and state government both need a proper monitoring system.
When the French-owned cocoa plantations in Ivory Coast were threatened by insurrection in 2002, the Foreign Legion was on the ground in 36 hours without so much as a by-your-leave from the United Nations.
State’s growing failure is more in the strategic than in tactical arena. Army can fix only the latter, capacity-wise. Learning from the recent history, ultimately democracy and all negotiation that it entails is our route to our destination. Whatever temptations might come in the support of a take over, Army should not go for it and instead guarantee fair elections. Present hardships notwithstanding, people’s verdict will clean a lot of rot.
I’m pretty disappointed with the recent devaluation since it had always been my dream to make money off cadivi dollars.
I think The Central and state government both need a proper monitoring system…
The thing which is to be noted, a couple years ago there would have been a good deal of comments here supporting Chavez, now I don’t think there is a single one.
thanks info in this article is very good and interesting…The school supply and science and technology sectors, as well as public sector imports and remittances, also will be favored by that rate, representing a 17 percent devaluation.
I like what I see. keep it going,Is against them that the measure is directed.Thanks for sharing this .That’s very interesting.
I’m pretty disappointed with the recent devaluation of currency.
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