Venezuela's Chavez Plans to Take Over Port, Sugar Factory

by Alex Kennedy
Sep 10
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he plans to take over a port and seize a sugar factory to further move his country away from capitalism to socialism.

The government will take away a concession to run the port of La Ceiba on Lake Maracaibo in eastern Trujillo state from Sur Andina de Puerto SA, Chavez said. The government will manage the port and plans to invest to improve its facilities, Chavez said.

``We're going to modernize the port,'' Chavez said during his weekly television show in Trujillo. ``They should have invested more. They just exploited and exploited.''

Chavez has been seizing rural estates and factories -- often through legal actions carried out by governors in his ruling coalition -- since last year. Among those companies that have had property seized by Chavez are H.J. Heinz Co., the world's largest ketchup maker, and those owned by Lorenzo Mendoza, Venezuela's second-wealthiest man.

The government will also expropriate the sugar factory Central Azucarera in Motatan, Trujillo because its owners had mistreated workers, Chavez said.

``Don't be afraid. We're going to pay the owners what the factory is worth,'' Chavez said. ``We're going to turn that factory into a real socialist company.''