Agroisleña is seized in Venezuela: the first real Communist measure of Chavez
With the announced take over of Agroisleña by the state, Hugo Chavez has made his first real communist "economic" move. You might wince at this but bear with me a little bit longer.
The first thing to note is that all previous economic measures that the regime had taken were punctual, taking great care to pretend that private property was respected up to a point and pretending that expropriations were necessary, were designed for the betterment of the economic apparatus and, well, the owners would be duly compensated. For example the attacks so far against the Polar group are to relieve it from some of its assets so housing can be built there. Farms are taken over, we are told, because they were either too big or unproductive. That the facts matched the tales was made in part irrelevant because, well, next door farm was left alone as if nothing. Even PDVSA which is advertised as being "nationalized in 2003" by Chavez followers was not since it belonged to the state for already three decades and the only thing that happened there was a change in management to make plundering easier.
With the seizure of Agroisleña a new threshold has been crossed. With this move Chavez has decided to take control of the agricultural sector by becoming its biggest player, by more than 50%. To do bigger than Agroisleña you need to seize Polar altogether, which is of course the last step for Chavez, the end of the road in many ways. The aim of Chavez is not anymore to control a portion of a given sector: his aim this time around is to control the whole agricultural apparatus. If the Agrosileña take over is carried out, it will make it inevitable that within a year at most Chavez also takes over Polar, and other concerns depending on grain availability, like Proagro or Plumrose whose animal feed plants depend on grain supply.
There are two aspects of the Agroisleña business that interest the regime, regardless of the consequences of such a mad action.
The first thing to note is that all previous economic measures that the regime had taken were punctual, taking great care to pretend that private property was respected up to a point and pretending that expropriations were necessary, were designed for the betterment of the economic apparatus and, well, the owners would be duly compensated. For example the attacks so far against the Polar group are to relieve it from some of its assets so housing can be built there. Farms are taken over, we are told, because they were either too big or unproductive. That the facts matched the tales was made in part irrelevant because, well, next door farm was left alone as if nothing. Even PDVSA which is advertised as being "nationalized in 2003" by Chavez followers was not since it belonged to the state for already three decades and the only thing that happened there was a change in management to make plundering easier.
With the seizure of Agroisleña a new threshold has been crossed. With this move Chavez has decided to take control of the agricultural sector by becoming its biggest player, by more than 50%. To do bigger than Agroisleña you need to seize Polar altogether, which is of course the last step for Chavez, the end of the road in many ways. The aim of Chavez is not anymore to control a portion of a given sector: his aim this time around is to control the whole agricultural apparatus. If the Agrosileña take over is carried out, it will make it inevitable that within a year at most Chavez also takes over Polar, and other concerns depending on grain availability, like Proagro or Plumrose whose animal feed plants depend on grain supply.
There are two aspects of the Agroisleña business that interest the regime, regardless of the consequences of such a mad action.
