Posted on 04/20/2017 8:17:35 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
This news broke overnight and it undoubtedly comes as a shock to anyone who hasn’t been paying to socialism in general and the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in particular. The government of Venezuela came in and seized control of the General Motors plant in the city of Valencia, taking over the property, assets and accounts. The automotive giant responded by saying that they were immediately halting operations. (CNN)
General Motors says it will immediately halt operations in Venezuela after its plant in the country was unexpectedly seized by authorities.
GM (GM) described the takeover as an “illegal judicial seizure of its assets.”
The automaker said the seizure showed a “total disregard” of its legal rights. It said that authorities had removed assets including cars from company facilities.
“[GM] strongly rejects the arbitrary measures taken by the authorities and will vigorously take all legal actions, within and outside of Venezuela, to defend its rights,” it said in a statement.
GM’s Venezuelan operation was already pretty much at the point of stagnation. Productivity was approaching zero because their currency had collapsed and they couldn’t order parts to keep the lines running. Also, the domestic market for cars wasn’t exactly booming because their potential customers have money which is basically worthless and they’re mostly too busy looking for scraps of food to worry about a new set of wheels.
If nothing else, this incident will provide an enlightening, educational moment for the rest of the world. It’s a given that this is bad news for General Motors, for the workers there… let’s just say it. This is bad news for everyone except Maduro and his cronies. But it also serves to further pull away the mask, allowing the rest of the world to see what’s actually going on. So gather around, kids, because we’re not only seeing how socialism ends (and it always ends this way) but also how the socialist machinery operates through the various phases of its life cycle.
Originally, the government tolerates the presence of foreign manufacturing entities such as General Motors to fill needs they have which can’t be handled domestically. (GM has been there for roughly seven decades.) It’s not that the Venezuelan people are incapable of innovation or creation… there’s simply no motivation for them to strive for success. Anything they create simply becomes the property of the state anyway, so the hard working, innovative person doesn’t realize much more success than the guy who can barely keep his eyes open to show up for his job sweeping the sidewalk. There’s no point to being particularly innovative.
So companies such as GM are allowed to go to work. But once the system inevitably begins to implode, the tyrant in charge begins looking for new resources to grab. In the name of the socialist concept wherein everything “belongs to the people” he seizes the GM plant. They take the cars which are there to hand out to high ranking party officials and divide up the assets while demanding that the workers get back to producing automobiles. This is, of course, impossible because they don’t have the parts to do it and the people who actually know how to run things are fleeing.
These are the fruits of socialism. It’s a humanitarian disaster to be sure, but it’s also a teachable moment. Watch and learn.
General Motors says it will immediately halt operations in Venezuela after its plant in the country was unexpectedly seized by authorities.
Unexpectedly? The bigger question is what the hell did you have a plant in this crap hole country for in the first place?
If a communist revolution in old Mexico closes down all of the offshored factories and that production is repatriated then that would be a win. However, the amnesty whores would use it as an excuse for granting asylum.
I thought GM was already owned by the government? Is this the new socialism? Seizing property already owned by the state for the state???????
RE: The bigger question is what the hell did you have a plant in this crap hole country for in the first place?
It wasn’t a crap hole until Chavez took over.
“You gotta know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em...”
GM’s factory in the industrial city of Valencia has not produced a single car since 2015. Nationwide, car makers assembled just 2,849 cars last year, from a peak of 172,218 vehicles in 2007.
The seizure is the latest in a long string of government confiscations of factories and other assets that have been a staple of the so-called 21st century socialist revolution in Venezuela started by the late Hugo Chavez two decades ago. Venezuela is currently fighting claims of illegal asset seizures at a World Bank-sponsored arbitration panel from more than 25 companies, making it one of the most-frequently targeted nations in the world.
In March, a World Bank arbitration panel determined that Venezuela did not have to pay $1.4 billion to Exxon Mobil Corp. for confiscating company assets during a wave of nationalizations.
Absolutely. Sick of thug regimes sticking it to America. Just think , we have a portion of American society in Obungholes and Berniebots who think socialism is great and that America can make it work.
The Russians are moving in there so another trouble spot
They aren’t going to build anymore cars. So...the party chiefs sell the tooling for maybe 10 cents on the dollar and the rest as scrap iron for $20 per ton? Peanuts!
It could just be that the GM plant was one of the last/best employers. Misery lives company and communists love misery.
I don’t know the history of GM moving to Venezuela so I can’t really comment on it.
Some questions that come to my mind are:
Did they import cars from there back to the US?
Was the plant there built just to support markets in South/Central America?
Sometimes it makes sense to locate a plant in the market you are serving, whether that market is domestic or international, to minimize transportation cost and tax implications rather than shipping product long distances.
I find the illegal seizure of property appalling regardless of where is happens.
Would you say the same thing if the Trump International Hotel in Panama was seized by the government there?
It’s communism. They hate any business that produces things that is not controlled by the State. Their natural reaction is to seize it.
There is no reason for any business to go anywhere a marxist country.
The people are starving and rioting in the streets, and he blames it on capitalism.
Trump doesn't export hotel rooms to the USA and undercut US workers. So it is a different story. Those cars could have been made in the USA and exported to Venezuela. I don't care what happens to those globalist hacks at GM.
From the article:
"GM has been there for roughly seven decades."
Up until Chavez, Venezuela was a decent place to assemble & sell cars, generating profits for GM and its stockholders and a positive trade balance for the USA.
Think of how investments in the USA would perform if Bernie had been elected? And after 10 years of Bernie, Snowflakes & Company?
My company had a plant there. It was seized last year.
Now the plant is shut down.
As I said in my original reply I don’t know the history of the plant in Venezuela so I can’t really comment on the specifics but I find illegal seizure of property appalling in all cases.
Under Obama, the USA would have bailed out General Motors (in exchange for sizable campaign donations.) Under Trump . . . we’ll see, but I doubt it!
Just did some quick research:
The plant in Venezuela became operational in 1948 so it does not appear to have been part of the more recent globalism push.
In 1964 Venezuela banned the sale of fully built import cars.
Have been production shutdowns because of part shortages between 2014–present.
On the Oct 20 2016 GM announced an indefinite hold on Vehicle production at this plant.
Everything about Venezuela is a teachable moment. We should all be watching this awful collapse in great detail. There but for the grace of God ...
I don’t agree. If you can find me a left-anarchist who is not also a Marxist, I would be surprised. The defining characteristic is a rejection of all traditional, non-government authority structures (including church, family, private business etc).
Anarcho-capitalists are at the opposite end of the spectrum as compared to left-anarchist.
Atlas ping. The seizure of Rearden Steel.
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