[proud_yank]

Chavez has pressed state-owned companies to increase production for the local market so the country can reduce imports.

I was unaware of socialism increasing anything BUT scarcity

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Sounds like the newest Five Year Plan is in full swing in Cuba Lite...

[SierraWasp]

Well if ya have any 7-11 Stores out your way, they sell CITGO gasoline that is a Huston, TX company wholly owned by the government of Venezuela, which is run by tin-horned dictator Chavez, Castro's best friend!!!

So there ya have it! Commie gasoline for sale on thousands of American corners!!!

[Panzerlied]

Why does this sound like a page from, "Atlas Shrugged"?

[Billthedrill]

Classic socialist approach, predicated on the misapprehension that material goods constitute wealth. These are classic extraction economies - oil, diamonds, gold - and are as such incapable of developing other economic activity by central fiat, which is the economic model Chavez favors. Taking them from the hands of independent operators stifles whatever secondary economic activity they now provide.

Chavez thinks he's building a Cuba with oil. He isn't. He's building a Zimbabwe.

[VeniVidiVici]

Workers of the world, untie!

[Dallas59]

[ndt]

"There are areas that have been kidnapped"

Since when do the kidnappers pay a ransom (buy) the kidnapee?

[mware]

Venezuela's mining minister said Tuesday that the government was ready to take over top gold and diamond mines from foreign companies that have failed to exploit them.

...and so it begins.