[Marxism] Chavez: Biz related to scandal may be expropriated

[Fred Fuentes]

Chavez: Biz related to scandal may be expropriated

By RACHEL JONES – 5 hours ago

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Hugo Chavez on Saturday threatened
to expropriate a major Venezuelan company because of its owners' ties
to a scandal involving the seizure of a suitcase stuffed with $800,000
in cash.

A Miami jury is deliberating the case of Franklin Duran, a wealthy
businessman who was a partner in Industrias Venoco, CA, a company that
makes lubricants and other petroleum-based products in Venezuela's
central Carabobo state.

"The owners of this business, Venoco, are lending themselves to an
action against the fatherland in the United States," Chavez said.
"This business needs to be expropriated."

Telephone calls to Venoco's headquarters were not returned Saturday.

Duran has been accused of acting as an illegal foreign agent in the
U.S. to cover up the source and destination of the cash-filled
suitcase, which authorities seized last year in Argentina.

Prosecutors say Venezuela sent the cash as a gift to fund Argentine
President Cristina Fernandez's presidential election campaign. Both
Chavez and Fernandez have denied the allegation.

Duran's former Venoco business partner, Carlos Kauffmann, has
testified that he and Duran were tapped by the Venezuelan government
to quell the scandal by persuading Miami-based businessman and dual
Venezuelan-U.S. citizen Guido Antonini Wilson — the man caught with
the suitcase — to cover up the origins of the money. Duran claims he
was set up by the FBI and was not acting as Venezuela's agent.

The two men were equal partners in the petrochemical company but it's
unclear how many assets they now hold. Earlier this month, Kauffmann
testified that Venezuela had frozen his assets and bank accounts, but
was prevented from answering whether the same was true of Duran.

Speaking at an election event in Venezuela's oil-rich Zulia state
Saturday, Chavez suggested other oil-related businesses will also have
to clean up their act.

"Companies that lend services to PDVSA and have machinery, assets —
no," he said, referring to the state oil company Petroleos de
Venezuela, SA. "They are full of corruption. They contaminate the
environment. Violate the laws."

He did not threaten any other companies with expropriation, but said
the building of socialism requires the "construction of a material
base."

"We've advanced a little, but only a little," he said.

Under Chavez, Venezuela has nationalized major players in the steel,
electricity and cement sectors — and has taken majority control of
four major oil projects — in the past two years.