In a move that is bound to create concern among Venezuela’s business elite, president Hugo Chávez expropriated a sugar mill last month because the owners left it idle, despite receiving a government loan.
“The Motatan Mill is going to be expropriated. Nobody should be scared, we will pay them what the mill costs and, without harming anybody, turn the mill into a true socialist business,” said Chávez in his weekly television and radio broadcast.
Critics accuse the president of violating property laws, although poor farmers support the move.
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