Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Seize Citgo?

Now this could get interesting. Captainsquarters has an interesting post on Chavez's plan to nationalize the telecom industry in Venezuala.

Verizon and AES face hundreds of millions in losses if Chavez nationalizes these industries. Some analysts claim that Chavez has too much exposure here in the US. Venezuela owns Citgo, and American courts could seize the fuel company's assets to reimburse those losses if Venezuela does not pay market value for the assets Chavez seizes. That implies a rational thought process that Chavez has not always demonstrated, however, and in his zeal to create a Cuba with oil reserves, he may not care about any short-term losses here in the US. With control of monetary policy, he could simply divert more resources from the central bank, if necessary.

Chavez is getting loopier every day. If this is the best Latin America can do it is no small wonder so many of its people live in poverty.

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