Chavez warns Venezuela may seize Parmalat and Nestle plants

[Psephos]

Source: Agence France-Presse

CARACAS (AFP) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday warned Venezuela could expropriate milk processing plants based here and owned by Italy's Parmalat SPA and Swiss-owned Nestle SA.

"It doesn't make any difference if we set up (state) milk processing plants if there is no milk to process because it is all taken away by Parmalat or Nestle," Chavez complained in his weekly radio and television program "Hello Mr. President." "This government has got to take a tougher line," he warned.

"If it is proven that Nestle or Parmalat -- under different economic means of pressure or blackmail, such as by offering money in advance -- are making off with the raw milk output and leaving state plants without the milk they need, then that is called sabotage. The Constitution has to be enforced, the government has to step in and expropriate the plants," Chavez stressed.

"We are facing an economic conspiracy and we are forced to act to defend national security," Chavez added.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/chavez-warns-venezuela-may-seize/story.aspx?guid=%7BBF24BB57-7A94-40A5-8C1B-572DF14B85F8%7D

[Olney Blue]

1. Hope they stay away from the chocolate division.

[hlthe2b]

2. Well, then, President Chavez... could I have some long storage

Parmalat milk along with that very long request for cheap gasoline?


(just kidding, really, I mean really.....or not...)

[MarkR1717]

16. Zimbabwe never has food shortages...

They are all fat and happy.

[Judi Lynn]

19. Dupe post. n/t

[MarkR1717]

20. Of course it's alll...

.... Bush's fault. Everyone knows that.

[MarkR1717]

22. Of course it's alll...

.... Bush's fault. Everyone knows that.

[Judi Lynn]

21. Fat & happy like the Hatian people who are forced to eat cakes made from mud

now that _Bush devastated their government and turned their country into a graveyard?

That kind of fat and happy?

If you're going to drag other countries into this thread, why not stick with other governments closer to home _{George Bush} has destroyed?

How do you like what he's done for Iraq? How do you think the Iraqii citizens are doing these days? How do you think it sits with them that a million of them have been slaughtered outright in a filthy, fraudulent, vicious attack on their homeland?

Maybe you'd like a replay of some of the hundreds of photographs Democrats have posted here in horror of what fiendish evil has been visited on Iraqii citizens through the filthy arrogance of your hideous right-wing pResident.

God knows we've got a TON of them in the archives here to trot out completely out of context for cheap effects like yours.

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[robcon]

3. Chavez seems desperate to blame someone/anyone for the shortages of food...

except his misbegotten policies of fixed prices (where of course the hyperinflation means not fixed costs.)

He's screwing up a country that should be prospering in the current oil price scenario.

[SlipperySlope]

8. "should be"

It should be prospering...

But I think much that revenue is either going to cronyism, or to support whatever wild idea el Presidente gets instead of shoring up the economy.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. Nope, capital strike on the part of wealthy farmers

I've seen this movie before.

Capital strikes in Allende's Chile.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Colombian Paramilitary Threaten Venezuela

Colombian Paramilitary Threaten Venezuela

Miguel Lozano

Caracas, Feb 10 (Prensa Latina) Having emerged in the context of an over 50-year old war, paramilitarism crossed the borders of Colombia and is currently a main worry for Venezuelan authorities.

The detention in 2004 of a group of paramilitaries near Caracas who were planning to assassinate President Hugo Chavez showed the political intention of the heirs of the so-called United Self-Defenses of Colombia.

Situation complicates because it is an open secret, denounced at the National Assembly (Parliament), that Colombian paramilitary groups are taking part in drug trafficking from Colombia to the United States through Venezuelan territory.

This element gets prominence in the context of US harassment of Chavez, whom they want to link to drug trafficking to justify a military action against Venezuela, as they did in Panama with Antonio Noriega.

A new element denounced by Chavez is that they are not only using Colombians, but also citizens from other countries called private "contractors," as they have done in Iraq and other countries.

~~~~ link ~~~~

To the DU'er who posted this thread:
Your anti-Chavez thread which was transferred to "Editorials" has gained an interesting post from a new DU'er:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x336940#337264

[Judi Lynn]

5. US asked Fulbright scholar to spy on Cubans, Venezuelans

US asked Fulbright scholar to spy on Cubans, Venezuelans
David Edwards and Adam Doster
Published: Saturday February 9, 2008

On a Fulbright scholarship to conduct research in Bolivia, Alex van Schaick had no training in espionage. But that didn’t stop an official at the U.S. Embassy for inquiring about his services.

On Friday, van Schaick told media officials that a member of the U.S. Embassy asked him to keep tabs on Venezuelan and Cuban workers during his time in Bolivia.

“The part that obviously startled me was when he just … said, ‘should you happen to encounter any Venezuelans or Cubans in the field – doctors, field workers, whatever – we’d like you to report their names and their information, like where they live, to the U.S. Embassy,’” he told ABC News. “And then he said something along the lines of ‘we know they’re out there, we just want to keep tabs on them.’”

More:
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/US_asked_Fulbright_scholar_to_spy_0209.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Scholar: U.S. asked him to keep tabs on Cubans in Bolivia

U.S. says such request would be error
By Dan Keane
ASSOCIATED PRESS

7:38 p.m. February 8, 2008

LA PAZ, Bolivia – An American scholar said Friday that an official at the U.S. Embassy asked him to keep tabs on Venezuelan and Cuban workers in Bolivia. Washington said that any such request would be an error and against U.S. policy.
(snip)

Also Friday, ABC News reported a claim that the same official made a similar request to a group of Peace Corps volunteers last year.

In a statement, the Peace Corps said that as a matter of law and policy its volunteers cannot be asked to gather intelligence for the U.S. government.

More:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20080208-1938-bolivia-us.html

[cstanleytech]

6. Whats sad

is that you would think he would atleast be smart enough not to repeat the screwups that happened in the old USSR.

[tritsofme]

7. The real question is whether or not El Comandante will increase the chocolate rations.

nt

[ohio2007]

31. he will postpone Easter in order to conserve the chocolate bunny ration

for the loyal troops

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxSHwm_Jf1E

[davidinalameda]

10. so it's someone else's fault that the people are going hungry

or the possibility thereof?

MAYBE he should be using all those petro dollars to buy food instead of nationalizing private property

that's sure to get people in to invest in the country

and I'm so glad to see all his apologists on here running to his defense against those big bad corporations

[Demeter]

11. I'm Beginning to Think That the Only Way to Preserve Democracy

is to nationalize any foreign corporation. Either buy them out, expropriate them, or be treated fairly by them. Since the multinationals have stopped playing by the rules, they have to expect a certain kind of response other than supine submission.

[MarkR1717]

17. Expropriate is the way to go.....

That way the poor get fed, don't they?

Damn Bush, and those filthy Capitalists.

[The Croquist]

33. No the poor don't get fed

At least they don't get fed after today. I'm beginning to think that Hugo Chavez is losing it. Lets see just how many jobs he'll manage to drive out of Venezuela. First it was the evil US giant Exxon. Now those nasty French and Swiss are ganging up on him. Apparently it's everybody else's fault.

Meanwhile he's bringing in more revenue then ever but can't seem to make ends meet.

He can afford to by Russian weapons but he can't afford to feed his people? He may be as big a clown as bush.

[Judi Lynn]

36. Why do you waste everyone's time inventing stories about Venezuela?

Serious DU'ers have been reading for YEARS about the steps the Venezuelan government is taking to bring food to the vast majority of the poor who have been simply IGNORED prior to the last administration.

Here's a quick grab you could have found yourself, and it's based on REAL information. Any simple initiative on your part would bridge the gulf between what you've been passing out as knowledge, and reality:

Canadian authorities impressed with growth of Venezuela’s Food Missions

March 17th 2006

A delegation of Canadian authorities headed by the Vice Minister for Agriculture, Andrew Marsland, Canadian Ambassador in Caracas, Rene Wielgosz and a numerous group of industrial representatives visited the Venezuelan Food Ministry. Vice Minister Lt. Colonel Rafael Coronado received the Canadian delegation and views and experiences were interchanged with the aim of lending more “added value” to the Food Ministry.

At the meeting the growth of Mercal was discussed in detail. Mercal is a network of government food stores selling basic food stuffs at reasonable prices, and the “Soup Kitchens” (Mercal Maximum Protection) which cater for 900,000 Venezuelans, the most vulnerable in society, such as street dwellers, pregnant women living in poverty, abandoned children, alcoholics and drug addicts. Also on the agenda was genetic technology in order to increase meat and milk yields and an overview of the buying strategy of fruit and vegetables carried out by CASA (State Food Services Purchasing and Packing Company) from Canada.

“This week I am being accompanied by producers from the agricultural sector. We are looking for ways of increasing cooperation with Venezuela especially in the area of agricultural products. For example, Canada is a recognized world-wide as a producer of bovine genetics both for dairy products and beef production. We want to be able to work with the Venezuelan meat industry to help them increase milk and beef production”, stated Vice Minister Marsland.

After the meeting the delegation was invited to visit the Endogeneous Development Center “Fabricio Ojeda” in Gramoven in the west of Caracas, where a “Supermercal” is located. Vice Minister Marsland was very surprised by the modern characteristics and size of the Supermercal but what surprised him even more was the speed with which the Venezuelan Food Ministry had been able to set up a network of food distribution with such a wide range of products in less than three years.

Vice Minister Marsland observed, “I understand that there a more than 14 thousand points of sale throughout the country and all this has been achieved in less than three years. This is obviously a great achievement to place basic foodstuffs within the reach of the population as a whole”.

Ambassador Wielgosz remarked, “Mercal is really impressive and is a roaring success with the majority of the population. It’s been a real pleasure for me to come and see it and appreciate that it is just a marvellous as I had been told”.

CASA and Mercal are still being developed by the Food Ministry and the network will continue to spread and more “mobile Mercals” added, which transport food to places of difficult access by road and even by boat in water borne states such as Delta Amacuro on the Orinoco river delta. Mercal is now the largest distributor of basic food stuffs in Venezuela and as a consequence the private supermarket chains have lost many customers and have been forced to moderate price increases so as to be able to compete.

Currently, 17 million Venezuelans are served by the Mercal chain, out of a population of 26 million. Small producers and agricultural cooperatives sell their production to CASA and thus have a fair price and a guaranteed buyer for their labour. Many of the cooperatives have sprung up from the training and “back to work mission” “Vuelvan Caras” launched in October 2004, which aims to create cooperatives and thus protect mission graduates from the exploitation of the endemic capitalist system still dominant in modern day Venezuela.

More:
http://www.venezuelasolidarity.org.uk/ven/web/2006/articles/canada_impressed_food.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The heart of City of Youth and the Revolution – the barrios

~snip~
By lobbying the local mayor, the people in Niño Divino now have running water and a new pumping station opposite the entrance to the community, which will serve to pump water to all the barrios in this sector. These water lines snake up into the mountains surrounding the town. This one is the first pumping station for these poor communities in fifty years and the community of the Divino Niño had even managed to get the single road paved and avoid the usual mud bath when it rains. Things have certainly progressed in the last three years from having nothing, to having something and by extension more pride and self-esteem. Rafael (left) has a small store selling basic foodstuffs to serve the community and proudly displayed his poster of President Chavez on the outside of his humble dwelling.

Food and Nutrition in the Barrios: For many decades leading up to the election of President Chavez in 1998, food shortages and poor nutrition, especially among the poorest Venezuelans were widespread and endemic. Malnutrition was rooted in the economic violence of prior regimes and in land ownership, denied to the campasinos (peasant farmers) 2. Now, in the neighboring sector to Párate Bueno, 24 de Julio, the social missions are once again in evidence. Rubén pointed out a local store which sells Mercal products at solidarity prices and we entered what appeared to be a dead end street but on the left was one of the soup kitchens which form part of Misión Mercal – Mercal Máxima Protección. This part of Misión Mercal was launched two years ago to benefit the poorest in Venezuelan society – homeless people, children and pregnant mothers at risk, older folks and people with disabilities – and there are currently 6500 soup kitchens serving 900,000 Venezuelans across the country.

These are not purpose-built units but are installed in the houses of local residents who sacrificially offer their homes for use in food distribution, medical clinics and for other community services. In this case in the 24 de Julio, sector Santa Rosa, Sr. Edito gave his home for use as a soup kitchen. The owner was not available when we arrived and so we spoke to the four cooks who work there, preparing meals, twice day for 150 beneficiaries of this mission. Food supplies are delivered by Mercal and a balanced diet provided. People were already in line with their plastic receptacles waiting to receive their midday meal. A strict control is kept of the beneficiaries but poor people are never turned away if they are not on the list.

The owner was not available when we arrived and so we spoke to The four cooks – Ana Moreno, Zulay Martín, Carmen Chávez and Fany Kanzler were hard at work preparing a meal of cooked white rice, shredded beef, black beans and fried plantains for their beneficiaries. Sra. Moreno explained that they are now more part of the community then ever and the central government provides them with a nominal stipend (US$100/month) to cover expenses. The effect of Mercal Máxima Protección has been not only to benefit the very poor, but also to create jobs, a sense of purpose and solidarity in the barrios.

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_23560.shtml

[The Croquist]

51. Thanks for the info

I'm not saying that there isn't progress being made by Chavez but the Venezuelan government itself is admitting shortages of foodstuffs not me. They've just cut a deal with Argentina to trade beef for oil. That's progress but vilifying companies for playing by the rules is not the answer. Maybe they can take oil revenue and subsidize the dairy industry. Kicking corporations out is only going to increase unemployment and poverty.

[freedomnorth]

43. I agree with you

on the part that Nestlé and Parmalat are exceptionally nasty corporations.

[Judi Lynn]

45. Welcome to DU, freedomnorth.

:hi: :hi: :hi: :hi:

[freedomnorth]

54. Thank you

I have to say that I am especially fond of your deep insight on many matters and your tolerance of trolls. keep it going!

:toast:

[Judi Lynn]

55. Thank YOU! No tolerance, but rather can't stand to see them get by with disinformation!

We've had far too much of that, haven't we? You've probably noticed they throw it around like drunk sailors on leave.

As someone said long ago, "A lie is half way around the world while the Truth is still putting on its boots." (Yeah, it's a little corny, but it gets the point addressed.)

They've all really had a field day with Latin America, but we DU'ers are gaining on them.





Nixon trip to Caracas, 1958 left Americans bewildered, wondering, "What the ####? Why do they hate our nice Vice President Nixon?" When someone with _Bush's nice ambassador William Brownfield a couple of years ago, shot this photo out of the back window of his limousine as it tore off back to the embassy, DU'ers who watch Venezuela news KNEW the men and women on motorcycles chasing him, throwing gifts of vegetables, fruits, and eggs from a local fruit stand close to the Little League baseball stadium, where they were gathered to watch their children play when Brownfield waddled up to hand out verious baseball-related trinkets, really wanted him to go home, and leave their children alone, and stop using them all for a photo op. Brownfield later had a touching press release for the occassion, claiming they were all "Chavez supporters," like the only people who would despise an officious, supercilious idiot ambassador coldly passing around toys as if they were the Hope Diamond, and the Star of India to mere peasants, a guy who believed we really can BUY loyalty from people in other countries, would be cunning, sneaky, bomb-tossing commie maniacs who follow him around hoping to embarrass him in public.



One of the following is _Bush's ambassador William Brownfield:

[Judi Lynn]

18. Why not break down and acquaint yourself with the facts? Is it because it wouldn't leave you a leg

to stand on if you had to deal from a base in reality?

Any time you need to know what is happening with the poor in Venezuela and their access to food, humble yourself and do a bit of researching first, then comment later.

Venezuela: Revolution brings massive social gains


Stuart Munckton
29 September 2007


“The Venezuelan economy in the Chavez years”, a study released in July by the Centre for Economic and Policy Research, reveals massive social gains for the poor and working people in Venezuela as a result of the pro-people polices promoted by the government of socialist President Hugo Chavez. The study, by Mark Weisbrot and Luis Sandoval, also provides a detailed look at the state of the Venezuelan economy, which has experienced significant economic growth. The authors argue that, contrary to suggestions widely made in the corporate media (which the authors refer to as “conventional wisdom”), this growth is unlikely to end any time soon.


A key component of the Bolivarian revolution — as the process of change led by the Chavez government is known — is the redistribution of wealth to tackle the problems of the poor via the implementation of “social missions”, government-funded social programs in a growing range of areas, including health care, education, food provision, employment, land reform, culture and the environment.

The Chavez government inherited a country devastated by neoliberalism, with a significant increase in poverty during the two decades prior to Chavez’s election. The report shows that social spending by the government from 1998 (when Chavez was first elected) to 2006 has increased by 170% per person in real (inflation adjusted) terms. However, this figure excludes social spending directly carried out by the state-owned oil company, PDVSA, some US$13.3 billion in 2006. When this spending is factored in, the increase is 314% per person since 1998. In 1998, social spending was 34.7% of total public expenditure; by 2006 it was 44%.

The report points out that “the most pronounced difference has been in the area of health care”, with an increase of primary care physicians from 1628 in 1998 to 19,571 today. Since 2004, as part of Mission Miracle — a joint program with Cuba that provides free eye operations — just under 400,000 people have had their vision restored. In 1999, there were 335 HIV patients with antiretroviral treatment provided by the government, compared to 18,538 in 2006.

The authors report that the government “has also provided widespread access to subsidized food”. By 2006, there were 15,726 stores offering mainly food items at up to 40% below market prices. Combined with a large number of kitchens providing free food to the very poor, in 2005 67% of the population benefited. This doesn’t include those that benefited from a free school meals program (1.8 million in 2006, up from 252,000 in 1998).

http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/726/37678

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

VENEZUELA: Nutritious food a 'basic human right'


24 August 2005
Owen Richards

We’re crammed into a small kitchen, maybe three by four metres, with blue concrete walls. Lining the walls are shelves stocked with kitchen basics — string bags of potatoes, garlic cloves, carrots, pumpkins and melons. There’s a bucket of chopped onions. A giant stainless steel pot waits empty on the gas stove. Four women and a man, in matching red aprons, hand-roll fish cakes and banana balls. A tiny wall fan hums in the background.

It could be a kitchen anywhere, but it’s quite different. The members of the Caracas section of the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Brigade are here in Guaicaipuro Casa de Alimentaciones on July 29, witnessing firsthand one of the social achievements of the Bolivarian revolution. It is here in this modest house that 150 people come daily to receive two free meals.

There are some 4000 of these kitchens now across Venezuela. They are only possible because of the revolutionary will of the Venezuelan people and the assistance provided by the government of President Hugo Chavez.

Established to guarantee access to nutritious food — particularly for pregnant women, children, the over-60s and the extreme poor — the casas are nonetheless open to all.

They will not accept any money for the food, not even a donation. In fact, they have been instructed by the government to feed everyone who visits, even if they be from rich First World countries. And that is how we came to be eating delicious fishcakes, banana balls and rice complimented by endless arepas and fruit juices. The point of feeding tourists and fact-finders, they tell us, is to show the world that their food is both tasty and nutritious.

http://www.greenleft.org.au/2005/639/33934

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Don't like my excerpts? Just dive right into the internetS and start looking for articles which will fit your information needs. Gotta start somewhere.

[MarkR1717]

24. No, you're correct...

..the monthly production records have been broken again and a record number of Kulaks have beeen sent for re-education....Oh wait,,,the wrong revolution.

[Codeine]

38. Your attention please.

A newsflash has at this moment arrived from the Malabar Front. Our forces in South India have won a glorious victory. I am authorized to say that the action we are now reporting may well bring the war within measurable distance of its end.

;)

[EFerrari]

41. I love these posts.

lol

[ronnie624]

48. Yeah, it's a cutesy way of calling Chavez a communist,

without all of those pesky intellectual rigors involved in making an honest and legitimate case.

It's characteristic of your average reactionary ideologue.

[EFerrari]

49. Hi there, ronnie624.

Yep, that's exactly right. Either one of ours or one of theirs. And the broad brush has been the excuse for grabbing resources and suborning governments in Latin America since the 1930s. Likely longer than that.

[Mik T]

61. Shades of Pinochet all over again-I suppose you love him too?

Thats part of how the US operated to get rid of Salvador Allende. They had corps operating there withold food to pressure the democratically elected govt of chile too. Same sleazy crap-different country.

You anti-chavez people say the same things over and over and you NEVER back them up with anything resembling facts.

Dictator blah blah despot blah blah

blah
blaaaah

[Judi Lynn]

64. I've got a good source which describes what happened in Chile, with Nixon's and the CIA's

management of utter chaos and catastrophe among the people who DARED to vote for a President our right-wing a-holes didn't like!

I've read about the truck strikes Nixon arranged, with traffic backed up forever, and ships sitting in the harbor, unable to unload food for Chileans, who were, of course, going WITHOUT, and blaming Allende for it all. This really sounds familiar, doesn't it? It's been done to DEATH! Old, familiar pattern.

On 15 September, President Nixon met with Kissinger, CIA Director Richard Helms, and Attorney General John Mitchell. Helms' handwritten notes of the meeting have become famous: " One in 10 chance perhaps, but save Chile! ... not concerned with risks involved ... $10,000,000 available, more if necessary ... make the economy scream.

Funds were authorized by the 40 Committee to bribe Chilean congressmen to vote for Alessandri, but this was soon abandoned as infusible, and under intense pressure from Richard Nixon, American efforts were concentrated on inducing the Chilean military to stage a coup and then cancel the congressional vote altogether.' At the same time, Nixon and Kissinger made it clear to the CIA that an assassination of Allende would not be unwelcome. One White House options-paper discussed various ways this could be carried out.
*****

The stage was set for a clash of two experiments. One was Allende's "socialist" experiment aimed at lifting Chile from the mire of underdevelopment and dependency and the poor from deprivation. The other was, as CIA Director William Colby later put it, a "prototype or laboratory experiment to test the techniques of heavy financial investment in an effort to discredit and bring down a government."

Although there were few individual features of this experiment which were unique for the CIA, in sum total it was perhaps the most multifarious intervention ever undertaken by the United States. In the process it brought a new word into the language: destabilizatlon.

"Not a nut or bolt be allowed to reach Chile under Allende", warned American Ambassador Edward Korry before the confirmation. The Chilean economy, so extraordinarily dependent upon the United States, was the country's soft underbelly, easy to pound. Over the next three years, new US government assistance programs for Chile plummeted almost to the vanishing point, similarly with loans from the US Export-Import Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, in which the United States held what amounted to a veto; and the World Bank made no new loans at all to Chile during 1971-73. US government financial assistance or guarantees to American private investment in Chile were cut back sharply and American businesses were given the word to tighten the economic noose.

What this boycott translated into were things like the many buses and taxis out of commission in Chile due to a lack of replacement parts; and similar difficulties in the copper, steel, electricity and petroleum industries. American suppliers refused to sell needed parts despite Chile's offer to pay cash in advance.

Multinational ITT, which didn't need to be told what to do, stated in a 1970 memorandum: "A more realistic hope among those who want to block Allende is that a swiftly deteriorating economy will touch off a wave of violence leading to a military coup."

In the midst of the near disappearance of economic aid, and contrary to its warning, the United States increased its military assistance to Chile during 1972 and 1973 as well as training Chilean military personnel in the United States and Panama. The Allende government, caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, was reluctant to refuse this "assistance" for fear of antagonizing its military leaders.

Perhaps nothing produced more discontent in the population than the shortages, the little daily annoyances when one couldn't get a favorite food, or flour or cooking oil, or toilet paper, bed sheets or soap, or the one part needed to make the TV set or the car run; or, worst of all, when a nicotine addict couldn't get a cigarette. Some of the scarcity resulted from Chile being a society in transition: various changeovers to state ownership, experiments in workers' control, etc. But this was minor compared to the effect of the aid squeeze and the practices of the omnipresent American corporations. Equally telling were the extended strikes in Chile, which relied heavily on CIA financial support for their prolongation.

In October 1972, for example, an association of private truck owners instituted a work-stoppage aimed at disrupting the flow of food and other important commodities, including in their embargo even newspapers which supported the government (subtlety was not the order of the day in this ultra-polarized country). On the heels of this came store closures, countless petit-bourgeois doing their bit to turn the screws of public inconvenience- and when they were open, many held back on certain goods, like cigarettes, to sell them on the black market to those who could afford the higher prices. Then most private bus companies stopped running, on top of this, various professional and white-collar workers, largely unsympathetic to the government, walked out, with or without CIA help.

Much of this campaign was aimed at wearing down the patience of the public, convincing them that "socialism can't work in Chile". Yet there had been worse shortages for most of the people before the Allende government-shortages of food, housing, health care, and education, for example. At least half the population had suffered from malnutrition. Allende, who was a medical doctor, explained his free milk program by pointing out that "Today in Chile there are over 600,000 children mentally retarded because they were not adequately nourished during the first eight months of their lives, because they did not receive the necessary proteins."

http://thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/Chile_KH.html

[dcindian]

12. Payback

For the 12 billion dollars of the Venezuelan peoples money the US firm Exxon is stealing. Would be my guess


Wonder how far 12 billion dollars would go in feeding folks?

[RantinRavin]

13. Perhaps if he would have used it for feeding people

it wouldn't be locked away in banks where it could be frozen.

[EFerrari]

42. The Chavez government has done much to cure poverty.

The production chain and distribution chain is still in the hands of the oligarchy.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[fascisthunter]

28. Or Corporations and the Wealthy can Conspire to Oust a Leader Like Chavez

even if it means people starve to death. Whose side are you on... corporations and are using this BS to blame the leader instead. Nice try....

[Freddie Stubbs]

46. So, to punish the US for an American firm for winning a court judgement,

he will steal from European companies?

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. "offering money in advance" is a problem?

Normally, big corporations are criticised for delaying their payments till the last possible moment, or insisting they get longer to pay bills than smaller customers with less clout, making their smaller suppliers struggle with their cashflow. Now Chavez thinks they're paying too soon?

Either there's a translation problem here, or Chavez is struggling to find an excuse.

[Judi Lynn]

25. Parmalat has been screwing people for ages. Who hasn't heard about this?

Parmalat Scandal Deepens; May Be Biggest Fraud Ever, from Citizen Works

2004-01-06 | The Parmalat probe continued to widen last week, with reports indicating that the fraud at the Italian dairy giant could be as much as $16.8 billion (far more than WorldCom) and may have been the result of more than a decade of fraudulent accounting.

The scandal began on December 19, when Bank of America revealed that Bonlat, a Parmalat subsidiary in the Cayman Islands, was missing $4.9 billion in claimed assets (about 38% of all of Parmalat's assets). It now appears that bank statements had been forged.

Parmalat has filed for bankruptcy. Its CEO, Calisto Tanzi, has been arrested. A total of 20 company officials, including board members and lawyers, are being investigated. It is not clear yet how deep the fraud will run.

Parmalat had a complex web of more than 200 subsidiaries, many in offshore tax havens like the Cayman Islands and the Antilles. It appears that Parmalat was using an Enron-style accounting shell game to hide liabilities and move money around with these subsidiaries. Parmalat used a multi-layer ownership structure that is very common among Italian corporations.

Many big U.S. banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase, had business dealings with the company, including raising funds. It is unclear how much they knew what was going on, though Citigroup and JP Morgan both paid SEC fines for allegations that they helped Enron engage in misleading financial deals. One of the financial deals that Parmalat struck with Citigroup was called Bucerono, which means "black hole" in Italian.

More:
http://www.unobserver.com/layout5.php?id=1327&blz=1

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Posted 12/23/2003 12:53 AM Updated 12/24/2003 9:53 AM

Bank of America shouts forgery in Parmalat scandal
By Kevin McCoy, USA TODAY

Italian prosecutors widened an investigation into a possible multibillion-euro fraud at Italian food group Parmalat on Tuesday as Bank of America (BAC) said key financial documents had been forged.
While Italy's biggest food group prepared to seek bankruptcy status, a lawyer representing the United States' third-biggest bank said a statement had been presented to prosecutors in Milan detailing the falsification of Bank of America documents.

Parmalat Chairman and turnaround expert Enrico Bondi met with prosecutors in Parma for about an hour Tuesday. He made no comments after the meeting.

Later Tuesday, Italy's government paved the way for Parmalat to rush into bankruptcy protection.

More:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/world/2003-12-22-parmalat_x.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Parmalat 'is Europe's Enron'Italian food group rocked by 4bn euro black hole
John Hooper in Rome and Mark Milner The Guardian, Saturday December 20 2003

This article appeared in the Guardian on Saturday December 20 2003 . It was last updated at 14:28 on December 30 2003. Parmalat's new chairman, Enrico Bondi, was last night holding an emergency meeting with other board members amid fears of a "European Enron".

The global food group earlier revealed a €4bn (£2.8bn) hole in its accounts - four times as much as was involved in the scandal that rocked the Dutch retailer Ahold earlier this year.

In this instance, moreover, there is a mix of offshore company financing and manifestly false accounting ominously reminiscent of the US energy trading firm's demise.

"To say something smells fishy would be the understatement of the year," Commerzbank analysts said in a note to clients. Government sources said last night that Italy's finance minister, Giulio Tremonti, had told his cabinet colleagues that the Parmalat scandal was "Europe's Enron".

Parmalat's already ravaged bond and share prices plunged after the company announced that Bank of America was not holding funds the group had reported in September. It said the bank had declared as false a document that said a subsidiary of the dairy firm Bonlat had cash and cash equivalents totalling $3.95bn lodged in an account as of the previous December 31.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2003/dec/20/corporatefraud.parmalat

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Latin America Factor in the Scandal at Parmalat
Was South America the problem with Parmalat?

The company's founder, Calisto Tanzi, who is in police custody in Italy, has hinted to investigators that the accounting fraud uncovered at Parmalat was driven partly by a need to hide huge losses at the company's South American operations. A lawsuit by an American pension fund accuses Citigroup of helping Parmalat cover a gap in its balance sheet created by a Brazilian subsidiary. And an important figure in the widening investigation, Giovanni Bonici, returned to Italy and surrendered to the authorities last week after briefly hiding in Venezuela, where he once ran Parmalat's local unit.

But many analysts doubt that Parmalat's operations in South America, unprofitable though they are, could possibly have brought down a giant dairy and food company with operations in 31 countries.

Senior executives of the main South American unit, Parmalat Brasil, said they were ''flabbergasted'' and ''overwhelmed'' by assertions that it had helped propel Parmalat's sudden dive into insolvency. As they fight a daily battle to keep Parmalat Brasil running, they expressed fury at the bad news from the home office in Italy. ''What we are reading in the papers should not even be on the business pages, but in the crime section,'' fumed one executive, speaking on condition of anonymity.

More:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9803E2DB1230F930A25752C0A9629C8B63

[ronnie624]

27. Very interesting.

From one of your articles (I can't remember which one):

"However, it is not clear how swift Italian punishment will be for this accounting fraud. Last year, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (a media mogul) reduced false accounting from a felony to a misdemeanor. Italy also rewrote its bankruptcy laws to accommodate the failure of Parmalat."

It's all being covered up, and with half of Parmalat's debt being handled by U.S. banks, there's no mystery about why this has all plunged down the 'memory hole'.

There are a lot more links following your first article. I'll make sure I read them all.

[Judi Lynn]

29. Thanks, ronnie624. I started seeing they were taking Brazil to the cleaners somewhat recently,

so that's why they were so wildly easy to remember.

It must be getting pretty crowded in our national 'memory hole' by now. There's a whole lot of stuff down there, including _Bush's alliance with the Uzbekistan President, Islam Karimov who BOILS his political enemies alive as a response to their dissidence.

[liberal hypnotist]

26. Exxon is setting international policy for US

With the troubled condition of the on going oil wars, I believe it is the wrong direction to allow Exxon to step in start an international incident. Exxon wins when there is oil turmoil. Chavez is the leader of a sovergian nation. Time for Bush and the oil boys to be put on hold. But, who will do it? Everyones running for preseident or looking for a tasty appointment.

[ohio2007]

30. 14 months left to "rule by decree". Is this nationalizing policy really a surprise?

blame the outsiders as the reason farmers are slacking ;)


remember
It ain't over til it's over

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRgfwQ0qQxU&feature=related

[northzax]

32. offering money in advance?

this is Parmalat and Nestle's great scheme? Paying for stuff?

[ohio2007]

34. Chavez Calls for Farm Seizures, Raises Prices Amid Shortages

snip
Fallow farmland ``can't be allowed,'' Chavez said on his weekly television and radio broadcast, calling for the National Guard to take over farms with nonproductive lands. He also announced a price boost of 44 percent for rice growers
snip
It was at least the fourth time this year that Chavez's government has threatened to use expropriation to deal with shortages of milk, rice, cooking oil and other price-controlled basic foods.

snip
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aHsBIz1uemfg&refer=latin_america

time to burn out the soil so it will look like Saudi Arabia I suppose

[Freddie Stubbs]

47. Well, it has worked so well in Zimbabwe

[Judi Lynn]

35. Found a reference to Nestle's hiding, hoarding powdered milk.

From indybay.com:

~snip~
On Monday, January 21st, more than 500 tonnes of food were confiscated by the National Guard aboard 18 lorries on their way to Colombia, in the border state of Táchira. Amongst the products seized were many which have been scarce in Venezuelan shops for many months, including sugar, rice, pasta and milk. In the state of Zulia (ruled by opposition governor Manuel Rosales), another 400 tonnes of food were seized and more than 190 establishments were sanctioned. The total amount seized in the first three days of the Plan, just in the states of Táchira, Zulia and the Alto Apure was 1,600 tonnes. By the end of the week, the figure had risen to 5,000 tonnes in the region alone, the overwhelming majority seized in wholesale warehouses.

In the East of the country by the end of the first week of the Plan the National Guard had seized 8,000 tonnes of food, mainly in Anzoategui but also in the states of Bolivar and Monagas, which were then sold at regulated prices to the public. Another 770 tonnes of food were seized in the centre-west region. These figures give an indication of the scale of the campaign of sabotage and they are probably only the tip of the iceberg.

The operations have been launched at all levels of the food distribution chain and they show the different ways in which the oligarchy has been sabotaging the distribution of basic food products. Thus in Carabobo on January 17, the National Guard seized 7.5 tonnes of sugar from different supermarkets, markets and shops, which was being sold at 25% above its regulated price, and then proceeded to sell it to the public. In Zulia, the National Guard found 71 tonnes of powdered milk in warehouses of the Nestlé company, which according to their own records had been stored and were not being distributed. They were then sold through the Mercal network of popular supermarkets. Regarding the retail sector, the Institute for the Defence of the Consumer (Indecu), imposed fines and temporary closures to 1,635 establishments which had been found to be involved in speculation and selling above official prices.

The National Guard also targeted the main monopoly group in food distribution, Polar, which shows that food scarcity is part of a deliberate campaign organised by the oligarchy against the Bolivarian revolution. On January 24, 27 lorries belonging to Alimentos Polar were seized, containing 350 tonnes of basic foodstuffs and 165 tonnes of maize flour in the states of Táchira, Mérida, Bolívar and Monagas. The manager of Palmonagas, a subsidiary of Polar in Monagas, was taken into custody as a result. Grupo Polar is owned by the Mendoza family, one of the wealthiest and most powerful families of the Venezuelan oligarchy, and number 119 in the list of the 400 richest people on earth. They played a key role in the sabotage of the economy during the bosses' lockout in December 2002 - February 2003. In fact, their property should have been expropriated at that time.

National Assembly MP Manuel Villalba said it clearly: "All this shows the existence of a campaign, led and orchestrated by powerful economic groups, which were the same that opposed the constitutional reform, particularly in the proposal which aimed at outlawing monopolies. With their criminal actions they want to provoke a reaction of the people which would lead to a social explosion".

More:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/02/04/18476964.php

[Pavulon]

37. The poor froggies are boiling now..

Just a matter of time and what act it will take for the chavistas to see the truth.

Indy is far from news. Not even pravda quality, it is true shit.

At some point your position will crumble around you.

[ronnie624]

40. Her position is well founded, Pavulon.

Judi Lynn always offers plenty of information, from myriad sources.

You never offer anything more than a few lines of gibberish; vague blather about 'froggies' and 'animal farms'. Your 'position' has no foundation, what so ever, so you will never have to worry about it 'crumbling'. How convenient.

I sense that you are an intelligent individual, perhaps with an impressive education. You are capable of understanding the nuances and the context of these issues, yet you adopt an intellectually and logically indefensible position, anyway. I know others of similar inclinations. I find the phenominon rather perplexing.

Oh well, perhaps one day, you will 'see the light'.

[Judi Lynn]

44. Nestle, like Chiquita, and Drummond Coal of Alabama, hired paramilitaries to kill union workers

Murder in Colombia Prompts Group to Sue Nestle Units in Miami
Miami Herald

October 28, 2006

» View nestlesuit_miamiherald_102806.pdf

The widow of a brutally murdered Nestlé worker joins others in a lawsuit against the firm over her
husband's death.
BY JANE BUSSEY
[e-mail]

Colombian trade unionist Luciano Enrique Romero died a slow death. The fired Nestlé factory worker, whose body was found in a paramilitary-controlled area of Colombia a year ago, was tied up, tortured and then stabbed 40 times.

Now Romero's widow, Colombian labor union SINALTRAINAL and the Washington-based International Labor Rights Fund have filed a lawsuit in Miami charging Nestlé USA and Nestlé of Colombia with complicity in his death.

Nestlé USA, headquartered in Glendale, Calif., said in response to questions Friday: ''We have not been served with a copy of the lawsuit, and therefore we have no comment at this time.'' The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Switzerland-based Nestlé SA, the largest food and beverage company in the world.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court, charges that Romero was killed by members of Colombia's paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces because the union leader helped expose Nestlé's use of expired milk in its Milo brand drink. The Colombian government later confirmed the 2001 allegations, the lawsuit said.

Nestlé operated in complicity with the paramilitary; plant managers met openly with them inside the factory in Valledupar, in northern Colombia, the lawsuit said.

In October 2002, Nestlé fired Romero, a 20-year veteran. Romero also received numerous death threats, and two years ago he fled to Spain, where the Organization of American States International Committee on Human Rights placed him under a protection program.

More:
http://www.laborrights.org/end-violence-against-trade-unions/colombia/969

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sounds as if both companies, Parmalat and Nestle, just like American-based multinationals see Latin America as one huge area to plunder, and use slave-wage laborers to do their work for them in the process.

(I have had to look for excerpts in tiny windows of time as I've been tied up elsewhere in my life. I can easily add more material when time permits, if I feel it's needed. These articles by no means should be seen as representing what is available: they are merely what I grabbed when I only had a few seconds to come up with something. This is often the case, unfortunately, for a lot of us who have to work in time here around our responsibilities in our immediate lives.)

[KoKo]

59. Shouldn't we expect the "Multi-Nationals" to "take care of their own?" Disgusting! n/t

[Mik T]

62. Remember Nestle and the starving infants in africa?

Nestle ran a TREMENDOUSLY unethical ad campaign there targeting new moms and telling them formula was better. They gave it to them free at first. Just long enough for their breastmilk to dry up. Then they charged then too much and they couldn't afford enough to keep the babies healthy. They would just keep adding water. It was outlawed to do that after that happenned.

A lot of babies died though.

Some of starvation and even more of waterborne parasites.

[Judi Lynn]

63. Surely DO remember that time. People with normal brain function were horrified at the raw greed.

It was absolutely exploitation of the ugliest kind. They were out to make a buck, and only commies, apparently, would dream of restricting their gawd-given right to trade any ol' way they see fit. So tired of these criminals, aren't you?

What a shame they made their piles of filthy money long before the law could catch up with them, and in time to be able to buy justice all over the world.

It's beautiful seeing the people's movement starting to fight back now, and moving to hold these lumps accountable more often. It looks as if they're finding fewer oligarchy ####s in positions of power who will be useful in selling out their countrymen and women like the complete prosperous (through dishonesty, greed, criminality) traitors they are.

[unkachuck]

39. gee....

"We are facing an economic conspiracy..."....how can this be?

....sounds just like one of the problems we have up here....how's your taxes and interest on your credit card doing now that the banks are cleaning their sub-prime books with your money?

[Deja Q]

50. OMG, no more chocolate! We're doomed! Doomed, I tells ya! DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

oomed.

In seriousness, the man's a total nutter. If the king of Spain told gerbilbrains to "shut up", what would he say now? The more the merrier because we could all use a good laugh...

[conspirator]

52. Way to go! A big FUCK TO nestle MADA*FUCKING FILTHY CORPORATION n/t

[Judi Lynn]

53. Nestle says not against Venezuela nationalisation

Nestle says not against Venezuela nationalisation
Thu Feb 21, 2008 5:55am EST

VEVEY, Switzerland, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Nestle (NESN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research) does not oppose nationalisation of its operations as threatened this month by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, but wants to be adequately compensated for any forced sale, it said on Thursday.

"We are not against nationalisation but want full indemnisation (indemnity)," Chief Executive Peter Brabeck told a news conference.

In the wake of food riots and waning voter support, Chavez earlier this month threatened to expropriate dairy plants belonging to Nestle and Italy's Parmalat (PLT.MI: Quote, Profile, Research).

"We don't take this as a violation of any law. It is the right of the government. We have to respect this right," Brabeck said. "What we are insisting on very clearly is that we get the right level of indemnisation (indemnity). I have no indication that this would not be the case."

http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSL2178085520080221

[galledgoblin]

56. authoritarianism in any form bothers me, but I really ****ing hate Nestle.

more power to him.

[booley]

57. Off topic a bit but

I can't help but notice something.

Anytime a Chavez story come sup we get two camps. The pro chavez and anti-Chavez. No revelation there.

But what is interesting is that typically the most the anti-chavez side can come up with to support thier case si name calling and innuendo that Chavez is somehow a communist or a dictator.

The other side at least has some who post context for the stories to support thier position. Context the anti-chavez people almost always ignore, rarely ever refute. This makes the Anti-Chavez arguments seem at best baseless, at worst irrational.

I am actually an agnostic on Chavez. I don't agree with everything he has done but I also don't believe him a dictator. But I am hardly going to be swayed by such bad arguments. I mean, even I know that the comparison between this and what happened in Zimbabwe is false.

[Judi Lynn]

60. The poster "shared" a photo of a dying child in SOMALIA, which was removed,

and for obvious reasons, in his haste to imply Chavez kills children, somehow.

Simply pathetic.

[KoKo]

58. One can understand his "Populist Message" goes cold with Repug & Dems

can't one...:rofl: