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Venezuela to seize aristocrat's cattle ranch
The Financial Times ^ | Jan. 8, 2005 | Andy Webb-Vidal and Henry Tricks

Posted on 01/07/2005 10:16:46 PM PST by Kitten Festival

Venezuelan authorities backed by troops are on Saturday expected to seize a 32,000-acre ranch owned by Lord Vestey, an English aristocrat and meat tycoon.

The move, the first in what is likely to be a number of Zimbabwe-style expropriations of big estates, appears to signal a renewed radicalisation in the leftwing government of President Hugo Chávez.

Lord Vestey, known as “Spam” to friends because his family's wealth comes from the meat trade, is one of Britain's richest men and a close friend of Prince Charles.

With interests that have ranged from overseas cattle ranches to a chain of butchers' shops, his fortune was estimated last year at £750m ($1.4bn, €1.07bn).

But the value of the Vestey Group has declined recently, and it has written down Venezuelan assets. The company had net assets of £78m in the last published set of accounts in 2003, down from £105m in 2002.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.ft.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: brutal; chavez; communism; communist; dictator; expropriate; farm; hugochavez; landreform; latinamerica; lordvestey; privateproperty; propertyrights; ranch; rancher; seize; seizure; squatters; steal; thugs; troops; venezuela; vestey; zimbabwe
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To: Chapita

ping


21 posted on 01/08/2005 5:04:09 PM PST by razorback-bert
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To: Kitten Festival

This could bring war.


22 posted on 01/08/2005 5:05:34 PM PST by RightWhale (Please correct if cosmic balance requires.)
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To: razorback-bert

The Rochefellers own a big ranch just out from Valencia. Or they did.


23 posted on 01/08/2005 5:58:21 PM PST by Chapita (There are none so blind as those who refuse to see! Santana)
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To: razorback-bert

The Rochefellers own a big ranch just out from Valencia. Or they did.


24 posted on 01/08/2005 5:59:04 PM PST by Chapita (There are none so blind as those who refuse to see! Santana)
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To: 7.62 x 51mm

I agree. Folks who think Communism is no longer a problem...should read this article.

I know a man from down there...and I have actually seen him break into tears when talking about what is going on down there.

I feel bad for him, he has family down there.

Chavez is using the same excuses as Stalin did when taking land. And, no doubt, he will control the land in the same way.


25 posted on 01/08/2005 8:57:05 PM PST by ArmyBratproud (Ashcroft and Evans served us well....Can't Thank them enough)
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To: Calpernia; SerpentDove; Texas Eagle

Ping-

This is pretty scary.


26 posted on 01/08/2005 9:03:32 PM PST by ArmyBratproud (Ashcroft and Evans served us well....Can't Thank them enough)
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To: ProudVet77

Hear, hear. You know darn well that Chavez will find some "legal" means to keep himself in power for the rest of his life a'la Castro. We need to nip this one in the bud now.


27 posted on 01/08/2005 9:05:57 PM PST by Windcatcher
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To: 7.62 x 51mm; Calpernia

Could this be what Chavez has in mind...

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/kbank/profiles/stalin/

Summary of Stalin
-To ensure his position and to push forward "socialism in one country," he put the Soviet Union on a course of crash collectivization and industrialization. An estimated 25 million farmers were forced onto state farms. Collectivization alone killed as many as 14.5 million people, and Soviet agricultural output was reduced by 25 percent, according to some estimates. -

When he starts going after the factories.....people down there better pack up and leave...quickly.


28 posted on 01/08/2005 10:21:09 PM PST by ArmyBratproud (Ashcroft and Evans served us well....Can't Thank them enough)
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To: cyborg

Bump!!


29 posted on 01/09/2005 1:26:26 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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