Venezuelan Government Nationalizes Transport and Textile Firms

Caracas, November 7^th 2010 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – Over the weekend, Venezuelan Vice President Elias Jaua announced the nationalization of one transportation company and one textile company. Meanwhile, workers at TAUROGAS occupied the gas company’s central distribution center on Saturday and demanded its immediate nationalization.

During a visit on Friday to state-owned Lácteos de Los Andes, Vice President Jaua announced the government’s decision to expropriate the entire fleet of Aser Transporte C.A., a Venezuelan transportation firm dedicated to the distribution of refrigerated goods.

Jaua put the Aser nationalization into context, describing a 300,000 liter increase in pasteurized milk production over the last two years – a 50% increase in milk processing at “Los Andes” since it was nationalized in 2008.

Aser Transporte C.A. had been under a temporary government intervention that ended on Thursday night when Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez signed the definitive expropriation of the company.

On Saturday, Jaua announced the expropriation of Silka, a Venezuelan textile company that closed its doors in the 1990’s. Jaua announced the government’s takeover of Silka’s facilities and debts during his visit to the company’s abandoned warehouses in Los Teques, state of Miranda.

Workers laid off from Silka have for years demanded government intervention. According to the vice president, the national government has already approved the BsF 7.7 million needed to pay debts held by Silka with 171 former workers.

“Today we are acting on behalf of justice – this decision will benefit workers who have for 17 years been struggling to recover their rights,” stated Jaua, who also called for a “self-critique” on the part of the government for having taken ten years to make the expropriation a reality.

Jaua also described Silka’s unnamed owner as a “capitalist [who] decided to shut down the company, with no concern for 20 years of work invested, who fired the workers that had made him rich, with no guarantees of payments of retirement or health benefits.”

According to Jaua, Silka’s operations will be replaced by Confección Textiles Los Teques, a “communal company owned by the workers, the government and the people.” The public company will be responsible for developing the national cotton textile industry.

Workers Occupy TAUROGAS

Also on Saturday, workers at TAUROGAS occupied the gas company’s distribution center in the heart of metropolitan Caracas, demanding that the firm and others like it be immediately nationalized and incorporated into the publicly owned domestic gas system, Gas Comunal.

The occupying workers have also called for government inspectors to make recent inspection reports public, allowing for social auditing mechanisms to be exercised by the community.

Workers at the gas companies MARINAGAS and HERMOGAS, as well as neighboring Communal Councils, supported the occupation.

In a public statement published on Aporrea.org on Friday, workers from all three gas companies denounced the mistreatment of workers, overcharging of consumers, and misuse of public funds meant for improvements in the domestic gas service.

Workers and community members continued their occupation on Sunday, awaiting a response from the national government.

World Bank Report

In related news, the Miami Herald called Venezuela “the country with the worst business climate in Latin America,” citing a World Bank report released on Thursday. According to the report, titled “Doing Business 2011: Making a Difference for Entrepreneurs,” Venezuela ranks 172 of 183 countries in business-friendly environments.

The Herald quoted Noel Alvarez, the president of Venezuela’ largest employers association, Fedecamaras, who stated: “We [businesspeople] are in a permanent state of siege in which doors are opened every day and then it takes a hero to keep them open… We don’t have the mechanisms to stop the expropriations because Chávez has all the power of enforcement – the police, the courts.”

During his visit on Friday to the Los Andes milk processing plant, Jaua affirmed that the government plans to “continue applying the law to defend the interests of the people against the abuses of the oligarchy.”

“Chávez has come to advance a revolution with the people of Venezuela, and the working class is a revolutionary class,” stated Jaua.