Well of course he is! He’s a member of the “Seizure Party”
President Hugo Chavez threatened Saturday to take control of banks that fail to meet state-imposed lending requirements designed to benefit Venezuela’s farmers.
Chavez, who says he is leading Venezuela toward “21st century socialism,” accused many private banks of neglecting laws requiring them to set aside nearly a third of all loans for agriculture, mortgages and small businesses at favorable rates.
“The law must be applied,” said Chavez during a televised meeting with farmers. Any bank that doesn’t comply with these lending requirements “should be seized.”
…
The Venezuelan leader’s warnings come amid fluctuating food shortages and rising inflation, which reached 22.5 percent in 2007, the highest official rate in Latin America.
Chavez’s critics blame the shortages on government-imposed price controls, which were established in 2003 as a means of fighting rising consumer prices.
Food staples covered by the controls – sugar, cooking oil, bread, milk, black beans, eggs, beef and chicken – are sporadically hard to find in supermarkets, and many retailers predict the shortages are likely to persist as long as the price controls remain in place.
Government officials have attributed the shortages to greed among retailers, accusing them of hoarding products for months to later sell them at inflated prices.
During Saturday’s meeting, Chavez said that “contraband” – illegal exports to neighboring countries – was partly to blame for the shortages.
Which leads to this
Venezuela’s top food company has accused troops of illegally seizing more than 500 tonnes of food from its trucks as part of President Hugo Chavez’s campaign to stem shortages.
The leftist Chavez this week created a state food distributor and loosened some price controls, seeking to end months of shortages for staples like milk and eggs that have caused long lines and upset his supporters in the OPEC nation.
The highly publicized campaign has also included government crackdowns on accused smuggling, with the military seizing 1,600 tonnes of food and sending 1,200 troops to the border with Colombia.
Jose Anzola, a director of food company Alimentos Polar, told reporters that troops stopped 27 of its trucks over the last three days and described the seizures as “illegal, arbitrary and irresponsible.”
Troops said they halted the transport of 350 tonnes of food to states along the Colombian border on suspicion of smuggling, he said. Another 165 tonnes were impounded in an eastern state on accusations of hoarding, he added.
Yes, when the truck is marked as a food company truck and the boxes are marked “Eggs” and “Milk”, that sure is some crafty smuggling.
How the hell do you hoard bread, milk, eggs beef and chicken for “months”? Last time I checked even in crappy dictator states the laws of bacteria and nature have not been overruled. I guess that I just have not been enlightened enough.
Didn’t we hear this story before? Something about the government ordering lenders to lend to people who coldn’g afford it? Oh yes, picking a country totally at random…..USA???