Venezuela seizes General Motors plant (nationalizes it)
BartSimpson @ Thu Apr 20, 2017 8:32 am
Full title: Venezuela seizes General Motors plant as property of the state
http://hotair.com/archives/2017/04/20/v ... rty-state/
$1:
This news broke overnight and it undoubtedly comes as a shock to anyone who hasn’t been paying to socialism in general and the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in particular. The government of Venezuela came in and seized control of the General Motors plant in the city of Valencia, taking over the property, assets and accounts. The automotive giant responded by saying that they were immediately halting operations. (CNN)
General Motors says it will immediately halt operations in Venezuela after its plant in the country was unexpectedly seized by authorities.
GM (GM) described the takeover as an “illegal judicial seizure of its assets.”
The automaker said the seizure showed a “total disregard” of its legal rights. It said that authorities had removed assets including cars from company facilities.
“[GM] strongly rejects the arbitrary measures taken by the authorities and will vigorously take all legal actions, within and outside of Venezuela, to defend its rights,” it said in a statement.
GM’s Venezuelan operation was already pretty much at the point of stagnation. Productivity was approaching zero because their currency had collapsed and they couldn’t order parts to keep the lines running. Also, the domestic market for cars wasn’t exactly booming because their potential customers have money which is basically worthless and they’re mostly too busy looking for scraps of food to worry about a new set of wheels.
If nothing else, this incident will provide an enlightening, educational moment for the rest of the world. It’s a given that this is bad news for General Motors, for the workers there… let’s just say it. This is bad news for everyone except Maduro and his cronies. But it also serves to further pull away the mask, allowing the rest of the world to see what’s actually going on. So gather around, kids, because we’re not only seeing how socialism ends (and it always ends this way) but also how the socialist machinery operates through the various phases of its life cycle.
Originally, the government tolerates the presence of foreign manufacturing entities such as General Motors to fill needs they have which can’t be handled domestically. (GM has been there for roughly seven decades.) It’s not that the Venezuelan people are incapable of innovation or creation… there’s simply no motivation for them to strive for success. Anything they create simply becomes the property of the state anyway, so the hard working, innovative person doesn’t realize much more success than the guy who can barely keep his eyes open to show up for his job sweeping the sidewalk. There’s no point to being particularly innovative.
So companies such as GM are allowed to go to work. But once the system inevitably begins to implode, the tyrant in charge begins looking for new resources to grab. In the name of the socialist concept wherein everything “belongs to the people” he seizes the GM plant. They take the cars which are there to hand out to high ranking party officials and divide up the assets while demanding that the workers get back to producing automobiles. This is, of course, impossible because they don’t have the parts to do it and the people who actually know how to run things are fleeing.
These are the fruits of socialism. It’s a humanitarian disaster to be sure, but it’s also a teachable moment. Watch and learn.
General Motors says it will immediately halt operations in Venezuela after its plant in the country was unexpectedly seized by authorities.
GM (GM) described the takeover as an “illegal judicial seizure of its assets.”
The automaker said the seizure showed a “total disregard” of its legal rights. It said that authorities had removed assets including cars from company facilities.
“[GM] strongly rejects the arbitrary measures taken by the authorities and will vigorously take all legal actions, within and outside of Venezuela, to defend its rights,” it said in a statement.
GM’s Venezuelan operation was already pretty much at the point of stagnation. Productivity was approaching zero because their currency had collapsed and they couldn’t order parts to keep the lines running. Also, the domestic market for cars wasn’t exactly booming because their potential customers have money which is basically worthless and they’re mostly too busy looking for scraps of food to worry about a new set of wheels.
If nothing else, this incident will provide an enlightening, educational moment for the rest of the world. It’s a given that this is bad news for General Motors, for the workers there… let’s just say it. This is bad news for everyone except Maduro and his cronies. But it also serves to further pull away the mask, allowing the rest of the world to see what’s actually going on. So gather around, kids, because we’re not only seeing how socialism ends (and it always ends this way) but also how the socialist machinery operates through the various phases of its life cycle.
Originally, the government tolerates the presence of foreign manufacturing entities such as General Motors to fill needs they have which can’t be handled domestically. (GM has been there for roughly seven decades.) It’s not that the Venezuelan people are incapable of innovation or creation… there’s simply no motivation for them to strive for success. Anything they create simply becomes the property of the state anyway, so the hard working, innovative person doesn’t realize much more success than the guy who can barely keep his eyes open to show up for his job sweeping the sidewalk. There’s no point to being particularly innovative.
So companies such as GM are allowed to go to work. But once the system inevitably begins to implode, the tyrant in charge begins looking for new resources to grab. In the name of the socialist concept wherein everything “belongs to the people” he seizes the GM plant. They take the cars which are there to hand out to high ranking party officials and divide up the assets while demanding that the workers get back to producing automobiles. This is, of course, impossible because they don’t have the parts to do it and the people who actually know how to run things are fleeing.
These are the fruits of socialism. It’s a humanitarian disaster to be sure, but it’s also a teachable moment. Watch and learn.
GM can respond by going to court to seize Venezuelan assets in the US as compensation...such as the US holdings of Citgo Oil. Congress can also respond by placing a trade embargo on Venezuela and for the same reason that we imposed such an embargo on Cuba. Stealing shit that doesn't belong to you doesn't necessarily mean we have to go to war but it does mean we can cut off access to our markets.
DrCaleb @ Thu Apr 20, 2017 8:40 am
BartSimpson BartSimpson:
GM can respond by going to court to seize Venezuelan assets in the US as compensation...such as the US holdings of Citgo Oil.
If they have drilling rights anywhere in the US, yank those too.
What will they pay the former GM workers with, kind words? All the currency is good for is ass wipe.
martin14 @ Thu Apr 20, 2017 9:17 am
DrCaleb DrCaleb:
BartSimpson BartSimpson:
GM can respond by going to court to seize Venezuelan assets in the US as compensation...such as the US holdings of Citgo Oil.
If they have drilling rights anywhere in the US, yank those too.
What will they pay the former GM workers with, kind words? All the currency is good for is ass wipe.
It gets much worse than that, Citgo supplies oils for Harley Davidson.
commanderkai @ Thu Apr 20, 2017 11:11 am
Honestly, considering the plant was no doubt mothballed for years, them writing it off and not being responsible for the upkeep takes a burden off of them. Meanwhile, they get a nice court case against Venezuela.
Although I just wish the damn country became sane again. Venezuela is such a damn beautiful country, suckered by it's socialist leaders.
PluggyRug @ Thu Apr 20, 2017 3:37 pm
Here's some more from the socialist utopia.
BY: Stephen Gutowski
April 19, 2017 5:00 am
The socialist leader of Venezuela announced in a speech to regime loyalists his plan to arm hundreds of thousands of supporters after a years-long campaign to confiscate civilian-owned guns.
"A gun for every militiaman!" Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro said to uniformed militia members outside the presidential palace, Fox News reported on Tuesday. The Bolivarian militias, created by Maduro's predecessor Hugo Chavez, already number in the hundreds of thousands and are being used to supplement the regime's armed forces. Maduro is boosting the number of armed supporters in hopes of keeping control over the country from what he labels "imperialist aggression."
The arming of Maduro's supporters comes five years after Venezuela's socialist regime outlawed the commercial sale and civilian ownership of firearms. Only the military, police, and groups like security companies can buy guns and only directly from one state-run arms company under the law passed in 2012, according to the BBC. The country recently doubled down on its gun ban through a combination of gun buybacks and confiscations in the summer of 2016.
"We are going to bring disarmament and peace," Interior Minister Nestor Reverol told Reuters during one confiscation event.
The Venezuelan government justified the gun bans and confiscations by saying they were needed to combat the country's violent crime and murder epidemic. However, statistics reported by the nonprofit Venezuelan Violence Observatory show the murder rate in Venezuela increased from 73 murders per 100,000 inhabitants the year the gun ban was instituted to 91.8 murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2016. Statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation show the United States murder rate in the most recent year available, 2015, was 5 murders per 100,000 inhabitants.
As protests and unrest increase in Venezuela, Maduro's regime has created a landscape where civilians are disarmed but his supporters are not. The latest round of mass demonstrations in the streets of Caracas have already claimed five lives. Experts said the current protests are more widespread than in the past, and the country may be at a breaking point.
"Ongoing opposition protests are generating strong turnouts and spilling over into typical Chavista strongholds, suggesting that social dynamics may be drawing closer to a tipping point," Eurasia Group analyst Risa Grais-Targow told ABC News.
"The excessive ambition of [our] enemies threatens the peace and stability by carrying out a criminal agenda loaded with hate that includes terrorist acts, disturbances, looting, vandalism, different forms of violence against innocent people and public health facilities," Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said of the unrest, Fox News reported. He went on to say the protests are creating an "anxiety in the public, anarchy and chaos, with the ignoble aim of toppling the democratic government."
There are no reports on how Maduro's regime plans to use his newly armed supporters to counter the demonstrations in the future.
http://freebeacon.com/issues/socialist- ... lian-guns/
BartSimpson @ Thu Apr 20, 2017 3:44 pm
You never know. Those militias could easily turn their guns on Maduro. 
xerxes @ Thu Apr 20, 2017 3:47 pm
It's looking increasingly likely:
Venezuela opposition launches new protests a day after three deaths
$1:
Venezuela’s opposition renewed nationwide protests on Thursday to pressure the government of President Nicolás Maduro to hold elections and improve a collapsing economy, a day after three people were killed in similar demonstrations.
However, crowds were smaller than the hundreds of thousands of people who flooded the streets of Caracas and provincial cities on Wednesday, the latest and largest in several weeks of protests against what Maduro’s opponents condemn as a lurch toward dictatorship....
However, crowds were smaller than the hundreds of thousands of people who flooded the streets of Caracas and provincial cities on Wednesday, the latest and largest in several weeks of protests against what Maduro’s opponents condemn as a lurch toward dictatorship....
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/20/venezuela-protests-nicolas-maduro-deaths