“If you want to know, I have left nothing but junk on the San Sebastian Line, and as little of that as possible. I have moved everything that could be moved — switch engines, shop tools, even typewriters and mirrors — out of Mexico.”
“Why in blazes?”
“So that the looters won’t have too much to loot when they nationalize the line.”
Exactly the experience my grandfather had. The government slowly put the squeeze on his business in Mexico in the 1920s, demanding more and more, until finally he loaded everything moveable and headed for the border. The rest was seized.
Since then, the family advice has always been, “Never, never, never never, go [invest] south of the border.”
I think Mexico has done that over and over...to businesses and people that own houses and land. Change their rules, take everything. I grew up with stories about people losing everything in Mexico, when so many companies moved there the last several years I couldn’t believe they were not concerned history would repeat itself.
I would think GM had an idea this could happen in Venezuela the way things have been going there. I doubt they were surprised.