ping
Just to throw a little light - RE: Chavez owns
Smartmatic International Group is owned primarily by foundations controlled by three Venezuelans -- Mugica, Roger Pinate and Alfredo Anzola. It was a small company until it beat out Nebraska-based Election Systems & Software in 2004 for a contract to provide voting technology in Venezuela. With millions in profits from that contract, Smartmatic bought Sequoia last year from a British company for about $16 million. Sequoia supplies electronic voting machines to at least a dozen states and the District.
Smartmatic representatives yesterday said that the Venezuelan government does not own and has never owned any part of the company. "No foreign government from any country has ever held a stake in Smartmatic," said the company's chief executive, Antonio Mugica.
Bizta, a start-up technology company in Venezuela with some of the same owners as Smartmatic, received a $150,000 grant from a financing arm of Venezuela's government before the 2004 recall. In exchange, Bizta pledged nearly 30 percent of the company shares and a seat on the board to the government. Bizta has been folded into Smartmatic, and Mugica said the grant, which he characterized as a loan, has been repaid. He added that a government representative never showed up at board meetings.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/30/AR2006103001224.html