Chavez Threatens Largest Steel Maker

[cal04]

Source: Associated Press

President Hugo Chavez said Saturday that Venezuela's largest steel maker, Sidor, will not be allowed to make any more exports until it meets domestic needs, and threatened to expropriate the Argentine-controlled company if it resists.

Chavez has criticized Sidor for selling the bulk of its production overseas and forcing local producers to import from elsewhere, saying Venezuelan industry should be given priority.

Sidor's parent company, Luxembourg-based Ternium SA, is controlled by conglomerate Techint Group of Argentina. Chavez said he has summoned Ternium chairman Paolo Rocca from Buenos Aires for talks.

``We're going to pass a law, Rocca. We're going to force you to supply, first and foremost, the Venezuelan domestic market before you take (the steel) to other countries,'' the Venezuelan leader said at a news conference.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6611225,00.html

[Warren Stupidity]

1. First like FDR with the banks, now he is off acting like JFK!

WTF! Next he is going to start acting like Nixon and implement price controls. This has got to stop!

[conspirator]

2. Once again I think Chavez mostly right. 1st world countries are too used to plunder resources...

from less developed countries and not help these countries to develop their own technology to keep them hooked and dependent forever.

[unkachuck]

3. makes sense to me...n/t

[aquart]

4. Venezuela has steel makers? Damn, I wish we did.

We used to.

[ohio2007]

5. those steel jobs were outsourced to 3rd world countries

[Morgana LaFey]

31. We kept the hamburger flipping jobs.

For now, anyway.

[lumberjack_jeff]

52. They aspire to be real estate agents some day. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

6. There's a part propagandists invariably leave out. The compensation part!

Their case for painting the Venzeulan President doesn't ever look the way they want, if they allow the whole truth to be revealed.

The article also says Chavez told the steel company:

``If you don't agree, give it to me. I'll grab your company. Give it to me, and I'll pay you what it's worth. I won't rob you,'' Chavez said.

Small detail, big difference when right-wingdings, in a near terminal spasm of anality, are shrieking Chavez is taking private property.

[ohio2007]

8. What is "fair market value" ? If Sidor is selling to foreign buyers

at some type of profit, what does that say about doing business in Venezuela ?
Prices are fixed and constant on the home front, are they not?

How does the steel union in Sidor feel about keeping the product in country as opposed to selling/dumping overseas? Will those steelers be happy working for Hugo at a 'fair market' wage after the buy out?

hmmmm... Will a 'sucking sound" be comming out of Venezuela before Hugo's special emergency powers expire's in 16 months ?

It is a case study

[legerdemain]

55. Who will decide the value of the company?

An impartial international arbitrator or these guys

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/12/14/venezu9864.htm

[Peace Patriot]

7. Imagine a country requiring business to act for the public good!

You wonder why Hugo Chavez is demonized by Bush's State Department echoed by our war profiteering corporate news monopolies? This is why. He is asserting principles of national sovereignty and the good of the majority that they want us to associate with violent revolution, communism and dictatorship, none of which even come close to applying to Venezuela's democratic government. Threaten the steel industry? Demand just compensation to the public for resource extraction? Try to clean up banking institutions? Use public revenue for...oh, god...the public benefit?

Our monopolistic billionaire CEOs not only hate these ideas, and the people who elected a president and a national assembly to implement them, and have not only poured billions of our tax dollars into Colombian rightwing paramilitary drug trafficking, mass murder of union organizers, leftists and peasants, and plots destabilize Venezuela and other South American democracies, in cahoots with the Bush Junta, they want to control what the citizens of the U.S. THINK about developments in South America, and what we THINK about government and what it can do in a democratic country.

So the next time someone throws the epithet "dictator" at Chavez, tell them that the fatcats and the fascists in the USA also called FDR a "dictator." What they mean by that word is someone who acts in the public interest in answer to the will of the majority

[Joe Chi Minh]

20. Yep. He's a patriot, like Putin, who wouldn't allow the open season on the

plunder of Russia's natural resources and taking-over of the ancillary services, by the kleptocratic oligarchy (including foreign companies) to continue unabated.

[Psephos]

35. The world can do without patriotism modeled after Putin

I take it you have no relatives or friends in Russia who can tell you what's happening over there. It's ugly.

[Joe Chi Minh]

56. I do know that since the degenerate Western capitalist leaders contributed

to the destruction of the Communist state there, millions and millions of people were reduced to absolute penury. Old ladies in their eighties and nineties reduced to selling off their remaining nick-nacks by the roadside, and children living rough, in culverts, etc., (like in South America, thanks to your friends, by the sound of it); all so that the country could be taken over and plundered by the far-right's best pals, organised crime, domestic and foreign. Putin's being putting a stop to that. And I'd rather be in his shoes on Judgment Day than yours, without question.

And if they'd had their way with China, the plunder and suffering would have been even more monumental. Thanks goodness the Chinese leaders had the sense to move away from Communism more slowly (though not slowly enough for millions, probly billions), since presumably they felt they had to do it. If they had a democratic election in Russia or China today, they'd turn back to Communism in a flash. And their leaders know it.

It's not an ideal form of government, but I'd rather see the worldly-wise, monied folk struggling to feed their avarice than see the poor do without necessities.

[hack89]

57. Would they vote to bring back the gulags too? nt

[Joe Chi Minh]

62. Implicitly, of course. Or do you think they would stipulate on their voting forms:

Provided you do away with the Gulags. Wake up, Christmas!

[donsu]

9. love that man

nt

[Larry Ogg]

10. Putting one’s country before the profits of the greedy, gee what a concept!

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist or mathematician to figure this one out. Sell and export your countries resources at a low price and then buy and import the same resources at a much higher price. Oh, and don’t forget to add the shipping charges, inflated fuel cost and a certain percentage that will be paid to the corrupt politicians who would allow this to happen, or if needed, to terrorist rebel death squads (also known as, freedom fighters) who will overthrow and assassinate any democratically elected honest person who stands in the way of the elites right to loot and plunder, (also known as free trade)...

[Judi Lynn]

13. Perfect description of the pattern. Once it's in place, it will be necessary

to seek the assistance of the World Bank, or the IMF. Then the country's (meaning the actual taxpayers) permanently screwn.

Just discovered a short video (11 minutes) by Greg Palast on Chavez. Not really deep, but interesting. It was apparently filmed around a year ago, before the election last December.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-107721931861791042&hl=en

Also, for anyone who hasn't had the opportunity, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," (1 hour 15 minutes) at this link:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5832390545689805144&hl=en

[Vidar]

17. You sum it up well. Welcome to DU.

[yurbud]

24. that's what Enron & friends did to CA with electricity: sell out, make us buy back

and then withhold as a bargaining chip.

[go west young man]

11. The associated press should be ashamed for their propaganda.

They are another arm of the right wing really. Forging a one sided debate. Reuters is a much better news organization.

[Mika]

12. If you think that AP is bad, check out todays Miami Herald op/ed hit job

Gotta play to the local Miami-Dade/Broward Al Queda*.

* - translation: Al Queda = The Base


Chávez makes another power grab
OUR OPINION: LATEST NATIONALIZATION FORMS PART OF OMINOUS PATTERN
http://www.miamiherald.com/454/story/96546.html


:puke:

[Judi Lynn]

14. That opinion piece is truly ugly, Mika. Too bad so many of their readers will take it at face value,

and not be moved to question any part of it.

Those of us who live out of state started getting the picture about Venezuelan expatriots who have moved into South Florida when we read that they had a joint event with the radical right-wing Cuban "exiles" right before the invasion, when every other large city in the WORLD was turning out to protest the coming invasion in huge numbers.

The Venzeuelan right-wing expatriots and the Cuban right-wingnuts all threw an anti-Chavez parade, with two of the coup leaders acting as the guests of honor. What could be more pathetic? They all felt self-righteously supportive of _Bush, considering US backing of the coup, and the Venezuelan oligarchy's, along with the Cuban right-wing reactionary's support of _Bush.

I saw, at Alpha 66's website, (one of the Cuban "exile" paramilitary/terrorist associations) a photo they love to display of that obnoxious Venezuelan #### launching a lethal slingshot at a pro-Chavez demonstrator. One of the demonstrators was killed by a marble embedded in his brain.

[Rage for Order]

15. Hugo Chavez...douchebag. n/t

[Forkboy]

25. Deep analysis

You're not in Bush's inner circle are you?

[Rage for Order]

28. Thank you. I thought about it long and hard. And no.

[ryanmuegge]

16. Few have been more critical than Chavez than I, but I think this is a great move.

On principle, at least.

Every government should take note, including our own.

[ohio2007]

18. Beware the industrial complex

before it is taken over and turned into a military industrial complex
btw
Don't forget to register with the party if you want to work or stay off certain lists


Registration for Venez Socialist Party Continues

Caracas, May 5 (Prensa Latina) Registration of applicants to become members of Venezuela's Socialist United Party (PSUV) entered its second phase on Saturday with collection of signatures in the states of Zulia, Cojedes and Miranda.
Today, President Hugo Chavez registered in Caracas and Vice President Jorge Rodriguez followed suit in Zulia.
The registration process, to run for four consecutive weekends, started last Sunday in Lara and Caracas.



Vice President Rodriguez called on the people to sign the registry en masse to join the new political organization of the Revolution.

He added that the PSUV will become the largest, more democratic party in the country's political history, and even in Latin America, according to a report from the Bolivarian News Agency.



http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={F883B65E-DA8E-46C4-B305-831E62F2F51C})&language=EN

Deja Vu all over again?

naw. Couldn't be the same party








http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mein_Kampf

[ryanmuegge]

19. Very reminiscent.

The more I learn, the more I question Chavez.

[ohio2007]

22. I'm just saying keep an eye on events as they play out

over the next 1 1/2 yrs.

of course, his intentions are all well and good for his people right now but

if he obtains what he considers 'absolute power',
he may start looking over his shoulder and question his own supporters intentions that fail to comply and fall in with the new party line.

[Solon]

47. Uhm, sounds like a party registration drive, I don't see what is so horrible about that...

All political parties, in most nations, have these things now and then. I can't read the article(bad link), however, nothing in the excerpt justifies the remarks you made in the beginning of your post. The whole "en mass" emphasis means nothing, except that they want a LOT of people(hopefully a majority) to join, which is the goal of all political parties. Are we to cease Democratic Party registration drives here in the States too?

Also, I'm honestly puzzled by your Mein Kampf reference as well, trying to conflate Chavez or Socialism with Hitler is just stupidity.

[Judi Lynn]

21. No matter how many right-wingers go to message boards to hiss their hatred for any leftist

leader in Latin America, I don't think they need to imagine that they are going to get any support from intelligent Americans who hope our days of murderous meddling in Latin American affairs are TOTALLY IN THE PAST. PERMANENTLY.

Butt out of Latin America. Leave them the #### alone.

[Mudoria]

23. Time for the fan club to show up

with the rubber stamps...

[Peace Patriot]

26. I'm the fan club for the people of Venezuela, who have actually read their Constitution,

and acted to defend it, when a violent rightwing military coup kidnapped their elected President and shut down the National Assembly (Congress) and the court system. I'm the fan club for the people of Bolivia, who rose up and threw Bechtel Corp. out of their country--after Bechtel privatized the water in one Bolivian city, and then jacked up the prices to the poorest of the poor, even trying to charge poor peasants for collecting rainwater--and elected the first indigenous president of Bolivia, Evo Morales. I'm the fan club of the people of Ecuador, who just gave their newly elected leftist (majorityist) president, Raffael Correa, a 75% mandate to form a national assembly to re-write the Constitution and end fascist corruption in Ecuador. I'm the fan club of their president, Correa, who, when asked what he thought of Chavez's remark at the UN that Bush is "the devil," said that it was "an insult to the devil." I'm the fan club of the people of Argentina, who rose up against the fascists who had incurred crippling World Bank/IMF debt, and went round with tiny hammers breaking every bank ATM display window in the country, in protest. And I'm the fan of their new president, Nestor Kirchner, who, when the Bushites told South American leaders that they must "isolate" Chavez, responded, "But he is my brother."

I would "rubber stamp" the people of these countries any day. They have done the hard work of developing transparent elections and grass roots organization. And this hard work has born fruit, at last, in the election of governments of, by and for the people. You--much like the Bush State Department and the war profiteering corporate news monopolies--want to make this about Chavez, one man. But it is not about one man. It is about DEMOCRACY in South America. It is about a vast, new, peaceful, democratic revolution in South America, throwing off decades and centuries of brutal fascist plundering in collusion with US corporate interests.

Your snide "hit and run" post about a Chavez "fan club" is insulting. And, much like Bush and his bullies, the insult is profound. It is an insult to the people of these countries, and to democracy itself.

[lildreamer316]

27. BRAVO.

Damn, you're goooooood.
:applause:

I knew that,but I'm not over here much anymore. Kick ass!

[silverweb]

29. Bravo!

Beautifully said!

:applause:

[Judi Lynn]

30. An elegant, eloquent, and realistic response to an unworthy effort.

I can't imagine any one attempting to pass as sane would dream of trying to smear people who know enough about Latin American history to realize what an important period this is, as they (Latin Americans) reclaim their countries.

So many of us would give anything to have a mind which can process so much information so well, with such organization, and inform others who still haven't heard the facts (which can always be verified by their own investment of time through research).

[northzax]

34. I, too, am in a fan club

I am a fan of people appointing their cousins and bothers to run nationalized state industries. I am a fan of forcing unionized employees to take 75% pay cuts after nationalization. I am a fan of a country with a 35% poverty rate spending $6 billion on fighter jets from foreign countries. I am a fan of government-owned companies that refuse outside auditing. I am a fan of requiring workers in government-owned industries to become members of teh dominant political party in order to keep their jobs.

oh wait, no I'm not. glad you are, though.

[Judi Lynn]

37. Don't insult DU'ers with disinformation. George W. Bush refused to sell replacement parts

for the American jet fighters Venezuela bought years ago. His dirty tactics meant Venezuela no longer could repair the planes it had, and this violated standing contracts the country had made with Venezuela.

All those fighter jets have to be replaced. Of course they are going to come from "foreign countries," since Venezuela does not build its own at the moment.

Your stat on the poverty level is so lame, considering it is DROPPING RAPIDLY FROM WHERE IT WAS AT THE TIME THE PEOPLE OF VENEZUELA ELECTED CHAVEZ AS THEIR PRESIDENT.

You should have the good sense to be too embarrassed to try these crude stunts here.

[northzax]

39. where is the disinformation?

you mean they didn't buy fighter jets? or they did? I can't keep the stories straight. you say they 'needed to be replaced'? why? so they can fly over parades and corporate nationalization ceremonies? what the hell is Venezuela going to do with 30 decade old Russian fighter jets? fight the US? (please, those things will last five minutes in a US invasion, assuming they actually get off the ground. their only possible purpose is machismo.

the poverty stat was from a Venezuelan goverment press release last fall. How much farther would it have dropped without the ridiculous spending on weapons and giving away oil for polticial favours? who knows?

any comment on appointing family members to jobs? on requiring Party membership to get even a low level job for the government (and once everything is nationlized, everything will be the government) do you think Chavez has his own Monica Goodling, reviewing applications to screen for political acceptability? how exactly is it different in Venezuela? how about the pay cuts when nationalization happens? 50-75% in the oil fields this month, I didn't realize that oil was struggling and a round of belt tightening was needed. (maybe, if you belong to the right party, you don't get a paycut?(

you keep that talisman of 'elected' floating around. George Bush was elected too, and he was flat out honest about his plans once he was elected, does that mean we should just sit back and take it?

banana republics are banana republics. Chavez may, indeed, have the best interests of the people in mind, but he is turning his country into a de facto dictatorship (remember, Lenin had the best intentions, too, shame about the guy who came after him)

[1932]

41. This is so absurd.

REad the book in my sig line.

[northzax]

44. again, where's the disinformation?

what in my post was incorrect?

[Solon]

48. Its not that you are wrong, its just that you forgot a few things...

Like the fact that the poverty rate(cash income) FELL in Venezuela, from 55% to 35% since Chavez entered office. You also failed to mention the extensive clinic openings, free medical care, and education and literacy programs that were started under him.

[Flanker]

49. Its closer to 32% nowadays

Extreme poverty fell from 20% to around 10%

[Solon]

50. Well, you can't let facts get in the way of ideology...

I swear, these guys just see RED, literally. I think they protest a little too much. On the scale of Demagogues, measured from 1(least demagogic) to 10(most demagogic) in the world, Chavez would be, at worse, a 2.

[1932]

59. Start from the top:

Are you saying they shouldn't be able to defend themselves? There was an attempted coup, the purpose of which was to continue the polarization of wealth. Investing in the countries defense pays dividends for people on the bottom. Furthermore, the US was violating the terms of its contract with Venezuela -- they wouldn't sell replacement parts for the F-16s. They had no choice but to buy new aircraft since they couldn't keep the ones they owned in the air for want of spare parts. Blame US foreign policy if you're mad they had to buy new planes.

So, which party membership is required for employment in Venezuela?

Your mantras notwithstanding, how is Venezuela not democratic?

[nick303]

60. = does not compute does not compute

[killbotfactory]

36. Chavez is a horrible tyrant

For example...

In 2006, legislation was introduced recognising community councils as a principle form of political organisation. The councils complement and bring coherence to the multiple networks of social organisations that deliver the misiones programmes and organise political activities, such as the water committees, land committees, health committees, electoral battle-units and endogenous development groups. Based on 200 to 400 families in urban areas and twenty to thirty in rural settings, the councils are governed by citizens' assembles and their financial affairs overseen by public auditing processes. By the end of 2006, there were 16,000 communal councils across the country.

With the injection of $5 billion in funding for 2007, the government aims to increase this to over 25,000, allowing communities to become the new "eye" of political power in a radical, bottom up vision of democracy in which national government is balanced by grassroots power.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-protest/deepening_revolution_4592.jsp

Sounds pretty awful. If only those stupid poor people would stop voting for that horrible Chavez. They should do the smart thing and be let the elites decide what's best for them.

[northzax]

40. psst- you know what that same law did?

granted rule by decree powers to the executive. fun times.

And what, pray tell, is the use of local governing councils (let's just call them by their traditional name, soviets) if you have to be a member of one party to join them?

[1932]

42. Please list the areas in which the decree power was allowed.

Oh yeah. Rules that increase the pace at which political power is developed to community government.

[northzax]

45. that, of course, includes basically everything

right? since nationalization was done by decree. anything Chavez says will advance the revolution is done by decree, and that is basically anything, right?

[killbotfactory]

53. Yep, Chavez can now ban rainbows and puppies and declare himself King of Scotland

Oh wait, no, he can't do anything he wants. Nevermind.

[1932]

58. Are you saying that you don't know?

[killbotfactory]

51. Decree powers which have been used before by other presidents

But that was before Chavez, so it was okay I guess. Nevermind they are limited and scope and only for a short period of time.

The president of Peru was just granted http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1102AP_Peru_President.html>rule by decree powers. But that's okay, because he's not a leftist and won't be using it to threaten anyones business interests.

I'd like to see evidence that people are being excluded from community councils because of their political affiliation. Have any?

[endarkenment]

46. self referential post?

very clever.

[Prophet 451]

32. Worth a try

I'm still undecided on Chavez although I have to love anyone who's so obviously made it his personal hobby to mess with Bush's head.

[Judi Lynn]

33. What has gone on in Venezuela, what is going on now, and what must be done in the future are all far

more serious than some cartoonish image of an idle, swaggering would-be potentate which the war-loving, right-wing serving, _Bush serving corporate media has been attempting to plant in the minds of the truly slow witted Americans who can't be bothered to apply themselves to a little investigation of the conditions in Venezuela which made the people so determined they were going to elect Hugo Chavez or someone else who would represent them.

It's more important now than ever that people wake the #### up and start trying to know what has been happening to Latin America at the hands of our worst Presidents, and why the hell they don't want us bothering them any longer, and are trying to get us to recognize this obvious truth.

There are far too many ignorant Americans who, for some bizarre reason, seem to have bought that filthy idea that it's our right to butt into everything going on in the Western Hemisphere, and choose their leaders for them, while bumping off everyone who doesn't serve us. By God, that's nasty, and it's retarded beyond belief.

Ultimately it can't matter less what any American thinks about Venezuela's democratically elected leader, as long as we leave them the #### alone, and stay out of their business. Leaving their country's operation to them seems like a good plan.

[Prophet 451]

43. Not American

I'm British but apart from that, I'd broadly agree. From his actions, Chavez is a lot brighter than the cartoon image of him. I don't know if what he's trying is going to work but it's certainly worth a try.

[Catalyst]

38. Well, at least he's said one good thing.

Imagine if we could follow suit and deal with our problems at home before accruing 50 years worth of debt helping a country that will fall apart the second we leave.

[bamacrat]

54. Wow just wish our politicians had this in them.

[Judi Lynn]

61. Venezuela's Jan-April vehicle sales almost double

Venezuela's Jan-April vehicle sales almost double
Mon May 7, 2007 6:41PM EDT

CARACAS, May 7 (Reuters) - Venezuela's vehicle sales from January to April soared 97.6 percent from the same period last year, spurred by strong economic growth, the nation's automotive chamber said on Monday.

Total sales in April reached 31,467 units, up 59.7 percent from sales of 19,695 the year before, while vehicle sales for January to April reached 130,956.

The economy of Venezuela, the fourth-largest exporter of oil to the United States, grew 10.3 percent in 2006 on record-high crude prices.

Leftist President Hugo Chavez, who won a landslide reelection in December, has spurred economic growth through an anti-poverty crusade that has vastly increased government spending.
(snip/...)

http://www.reuters.com/article/economicNews/idUSN0740096420070507