A new consumer protection law, which went into effect on February 1, allows Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez to expropriate virtually any company if he deems it to be in the national interest.
On January 17, Chávez expropriated six Exito supermarket stores, controlled by France’s Groupe Casino. Chávez wants to transform the chain’s
When Hugo Chavez came to power in 1999, he said nothing about nationalisation. At the time, Venezuela was moving in the opposite direction, riding a wave of privatisation that had brought improvements in telephone services, steel production, and oil profits. Once he came to power, however, Chavez changed his mind.
Venezuelas citizens have suffered under its failed economic polices. The country has witnessed some of the highest levels of inflation over protracted periods. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s inflation was kept low and stable, but as the price of oil declined from a high in the early 1980s, revenues dried
