[Marxism] Venezuela: The nationalisation of Banco de Venezuela

[Jorge Martin]

Venezuela: The nationalisation of Banco de Venezuela
By Alan Woods
Friday, 01 August 2008

In a television programme broadcasted to the whole of the country on
July 31st, President Chávez announced the nationalisation of Banco de
Venezuela, the Venezuelan bank owned by the Spanish banking
multinational Grupo Santander. "We are going to nationalize Banco de
Venezuela. I make an appeal to Grupo Santander to come here so that we
can start to negotiate".

He added: "Months ago I received the information through intelligence
sources that Banco de Venezuela, which had been privatized for years,
was being sold by its Spanish owners; that an agreement had been
signed between Grupo Santander and a Venezuelan private banker, then
the Venezuelan banker needed the permission of the government to buy a
bank, this is not a small operation (...) and then I sent a message to
the Spanish and the Venezuelan banker, to tell them that the
government wanted to buy the bank, we want to recover it. Then the
owners said 'no, we don't want to sell it'. So now I say 'no, I will
buy it, how much is it? We are going to pay for it, and we are going
to nationalize Banco de Venezuela'." The President continued: "From
this moment the media campaign on the part of the Spanish and
international media is going to start. They are going to say that
Chávez is an autocrat, that Chávez is a tyrant, I don't care, we are
going to nationalize the bank regardless". "Ladran, luego cabalgamos"
(the dogs bark, therefore the caravan is moving), he said, quoting
from el Quijote.

"There is something obscure here because its owners first were
desperate to sell and now they are saying they do not want to sell it
to the Venezuelan state. We are going to nationalize it so that it is
put at the service of the Venezuelan people." He added that the bank
controls millions of Bolivars which belong to "the Venezuelan people
and also the Venezuelan government".

"We need a bank of that size. Because this is the Banco de Venezuela,
but this bank generates massive profits but these profits are going
abroad."

Chávez also assured that the savings of the account holders were going
to be guaranteed as well as the jobs of the workers, whose conditions
would improve "as has happened with the nationalisation of SIDOR".

Chávez thanked the private managers of the bank for having turned it
into a very efficient institution, but added that the bank would cease
to be a capitalist bank to turn into a socialist one: "Profits will
not go to one private group, they will be invested in socialist social
development. Socialism is stronger every day that passes!"

full: http://www.marxist.com/nationalisation-banco-de-venezuela.htm