Chavez threatens to nationalise largest steel maker, banks
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| Published on Friday, May 4, 2007 |
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CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP): Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened Thursday to nationalise the country's largest steel company and private banks unless they make national interests a priority.
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| Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez speaks during a official ceremony in Valencia. Chavez has threatened to nationalise the Argentine iron and steel company Sidor if it keeps on selling its productions abroad. AFP PHOTO |
In a nationally televised speech, the leftist president said he would nationalise steel maker Sidor if it continued to sell its products abroad instead of selling them to domestic industries, particularly in the oil sector.
He also announced plans for a law to force the private banking sector to give top priority to the financing of domestic companies.
If the banks flout the law, he warned, "they should leave."
The outspoken champion of "21st century socialism" and leader of the world's fifth-largest oil exporter holds the power to rule by decree for 18 months, granted in January by parliament.
Chavez said that Sidor -- a multinational steel maker that makes 60,000 tons of tubes for the oil industry -- "had created a monopoly through its relationships with other companies and they only supply the raw material to these companies, leaving us to import these tubes from China."
"That is unacceptable. If Sidor, which was privatized, does not accept from now on to change this way of operating, then they will force me to nationalize it the same way we did with CANTV," the state telecommunications firm.
Sidor was privatized in 1997 and acquired by the Latin American consortium Orinoquia, which groups Siderar of Argentina, Mexican firms Tenaris Tamsa and Hylsamex, Usiminas of Brazil and Venezuelan firm Sivensa. The Venezuelan state owns 10 percent of its shares.
The leftist governments of Venezuela, Argentina and Brazil are driving an integration process in South America, guided by their shared principles.
"A number of time we have talked about the Sidor case; some urged me to nationalize it, I said that it was Latin American investments, let's talk. There is Argentine, Brazilian capital, let's see if they can behave differently from transnationals," Chavez said.
Chavez said he had instructed his industrial and mining minister, Jose Khan, to come back with a recommendation on the steel sector within 24 hours.
The president dismissed any potential counter-proposals from the companies: "It must be done immediately."
Sidor not only must assure steel supply to Venezuela, it also must do it at "a low price," not the international price, he said.
Chavez's latest nationalization threats came two days after the government finalized control of privately run installations in the Orinoco River basin, possibly the world's richest oil fields.
The key oil move was authorized by a law that obliges transnational companies operating in the vast region to hand over 60 percent of their assets to the Venezuelan state.
After his landslide re-election in December for another six-year term, Chavez, who has been in power since 1999, has stepped up state control of strategic sectors such as oil exploration, electricity and telecommunications.
On Monday Chavez announced he was withdrawing Venezuela from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, calling them "tools of imperialism" to exploit poor countries.
Chavez warned banks Thursday they were expected to support his program.
"I invite the private banking sector to join in this effort. In any case, we are preparing a law to oblige them to do it, in case they refuse," Chavez said.
"If private banks don't want to be involved, then they should leave." |
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