Hugo Chavez’s Expropriation Binge
Acting like Robert Mugabe on cocaine, Venezuela’s dictator went on a shopping spree over the weekend, confiscating one farm and industry after another. After 12 years in power and $960 billion in oil earnings, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez is down to stealing private swimming pools to bring the good life to Venezuela’s “poor.” It’s a new milestone on his road to ruin.
Socialism: After 12 years in power and $960 billion in oil earnings, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez is down to stealing private swimming pools to bring the good life to Venezuela’s “poor.” It’s a new milestone on his road to ruin.
Acting like Robert Mugabe on cocaine, Venezuela’s dictator went on a shopping spree over the weekend, confiscating one farm and industry after another.
First, a flour factory run by Mexican multinational Gruma was plundered, followed by the nationalization of a bauxite unit of U.S.-based NorPro. After that, a steel subsidiary of Luxembourg-based Tenaris called Matesi was taken, along with a group of transport companies.
Unsated, Chavez then announced — via Twitter — the takeover of the private University of Santa Ines in Barinas state. And for good measure, he launched new exchange controls, another form of expropriation.
One taking stood out, however — a 370-acre ranch in Yaracuy state that grows oranges and coffee and raises cattle with 38 shareholding farm workers. The scenic property on an otherwise desolate stretch of highway is owned by Diego Arria, Venezuela’s former president of the U.N. Security Council. It’s been in his family since 1852.
Arria had spoken out against Chavez, so Chavez got personal. “If he wants to farm now, he will have to topple Chavez, because this now belongs to the revolution,” El Presidente pronounced.
Arria told IBD he’s been pressured for two years with acts of vandalism and the kidnapping of farmhands. A month ago, Chavista Ministry of Culture operatives approached him in Norway, demanding that he quit criticizing the Chavez regime. If he didn’t “play ball,” he’d lose the ranch, Arria was warned. “But I never negotiate with thugs,” he said.
Chavez’s red-shirts finally acted over the weekend, opening the farm to “the masses” in a show of class warfare. Chavista leaders from the National Institute of Lands headed first to Arria’s living quarters, rolling over his bed, pawing through his wife’s clothing and desecrating a chapel dedicated to the Arrias’ late daughter.
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