CHAVEZ Nationalizes Bank of Venezuela

[magbana]

Chavez nationalizes Bank of Venezuela
Agence France Presse
July 31, 2008
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gevCxHHL91WEtFdaA0HQrg7vQ66w

CARACAS (AFP) - Leftist President Hugo Chavez said he will nationalize the Bank of Venezuela, one of the country's largest, and has asked the bank's Spanish owners, Grupo Santander, for a meeting to set a price for the deal.

"We're going to nationalize Bank of Venezuela. I'm calling on (Grupo Santander) to come and start negotiating," Chavez said Thursday in a speech on television and radio.

"They wanted to sell the bank to a Venezuelan banker, and as head of state I'm saying no. Sell it to the government, to the state.

"We're going to recuperate Bank of Venezuela. We're very much in need of a bank of that magnitude," Chavez said.

Chavez said the Santander group withdrew its offer to sell the bank to a private banker once the government expressed interest. He said he had a "copy of the pre-agreement document" between Santander and the banker, whose identity he did not disclose.

Chavez said he expected a backlash from Spain.

"There'll be headlines in the Spanish press, 'Is Chavez harming Spain'... to undo the (diplomatic) relations we've just mended," he said, alluding to his meetings last week in Spain with King Juan Carlos and Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

The meeting closed a diplomatic spat over a verbal squabble between Chavez and the king at a Latin American summit in Santiago in November, during which the king told Chavez to "shut up."

Reports point to Victor Vargas, owner of the Banco Occidental de Descuento, as the unnamed banker in question. Vargas is also a relative of the king of Spain.

Bank of Venezuela president Michel Goguikian in June denied his bank was up for sale after bank shares jumped on the Caracas stock market on rumors of an impending transaction.

Grupo Santander, Latin America's largest banking concern with 4,500 branches, drew one third of its profits in 2007 from the region. In its annual report it said its Venezuela operations were at risk.

"Political events in Venezuela pose an increased risk the Venezuelan government might nationalize or in other ways intervene in the operations of our Venezuelan subsidiary," the Santander statement said.

Bank of Venezuela was nationalized during the country's 1994 financial crisis and sold two years later in public auction to Grupo Santander for 351.5 million dollars.

With more than 300 branches across Venezuela, the bank's estimated assets are 891 million dollars. In 2007 it made 325.3 million in profits.

Since last year Chavez, a populist president first elected 10 years ago, has nationalized power, telecommunications, oil and cement companies, several of them foreign-owned.

The nationalizations, so far, have been reached after financial agreements with company owners.

During his recent trip to Europe, Chavez said that Venezuela will sell Spain up to 10,000 barrels of oil per day at 100 dollars a barrel in exchange for imports of medical equipment and other goods.

Chavez said he had also agreed during the visit to allow the Spanish oil company Repsol to boost its presence in the Orinoco oil belt in eastern Venezuela. The state-owned oil firm PDVSA estimates there are a total 235 billion barrels of crude in the Orinoco belt.

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[Judi Lynn]

1. Learned today that Chavez is RE-NATIONALIZING this bank!

It was controlled by Venezuela up until 1996. Very interesting when you read the headlines from the clowns at Reuters, AP, their headlines or the ones pulled outta someone's arse at the individual newspapers running the stories.

One of the headlines claimed Chavez "grabbed" the bank. Others have "seized."

What did they call it when they referred to this bank prior to 1996, and before Chavez took office in February, 1999? Did the sitting President at that time possess and "control" Venezuela's bank, in their view?

Neo-liberal, or not so "neo," not so "liberal" propagandists directing how news is delivered to us all imagine they can dumb us down, lull us to sleep, herd us around, pulling our chains, getting us to loathe, hate, despise leftists by tossing out emotionally charged yarns, and get us drooling for the prospect of slinging bombs at Latin American people, or arming third country soldiers to invade leftist countries, blowing holes in their growing unity through which our greediest whore hogs can stumble through and steal everything in sight again.

That only works for the specimens we see represented here as trolls. Everyone else is too deep, too bright, too civilized! They weren't counting on being resisted by a lot of decent people in our country, imagining we would cower in fear because we have learned to TRUST this crap, and believe it, like complete tools. Most of us most surely do have our individual moments of awakenings.

All it would take for the leftist-haters to come to grips would be to sober up, or, for the non-drinkers, put down the snakes you've been handling in church, refocus, and take stock of yourselves, asking if this is really the way you want to be stuck the rest of your lives, or is it getting very late, and about time you start finding out what the #### has been happening.

Note to wingers:
Latin Americans are NOT GOING TO LET THE PAST HAPPEN ALL OVER AGAIN, so troll maggots, get over it.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Just listened to the "Orchestre Baobab" again. They are SO GOOD.

Thanks for introducing them here. Senagalese, playing Cuban son and pachanga. Wonderful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE6aCm41aPU&feature=related