Takeovers bring Chavez’s dream within reach

THE Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, is to nationalise the telecommunications and electricity industries and take over four main oil production plants controlled by foreign oil companies.

The moves will accelerate the pace of Mr Chavez’s pledged socialist transformation of Venezuela, the eighth largest exporter of crude oil and the fourth largest foreign supplier to the US.

“We are in an existential moment of Venezuelan life,” Mr Chavez said in a televised address on Monday. “We are heading towards socialism, and nothing and no one can prevent it.”

Although the takeovers had been rumoured, Monday’s announcement took many by surprise, immediately leading to speculation about how soon the nationalisations would be carried out and whether, and how much, the Government would reimburse owners for their stakes.

Sidney Morning Herald