Venezuela's Chavez seizes U.S. food giant unit - Cargill

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/news/international/Venezuela_s_Chavez_seizes_U_S_food_giant_unit.html?siteSect=143&sid=10410934&cKey=1236226952000&ty=ti

CARACAS (Reuters) - President Hugo Chavez seized a unit of American food giant Cargill on Wednesday and threatened to take over Venezuela's largest private company, renewing a nationalization drive as the OPEC nation's oil income plunges.

Chavez's clash with the food companies, demanding they produce cheaper rice, came less than three weeks after he won a referendum on allowing him to run for reelection and marked his first nationalization in seven months.

"I warn you this revolution means business," said Chavez, whose government has struggled with lower oil income and minor food shortages this year.

The anti-U.S. president, who has nationalized swaths of the economy, is popular among the poor for pressuring companies to produce cheap goods and for government programs that provide subsidized food in city slums.

[pnutbutr]

1. No way he will be able to keep this up

the government is going to grow so large that it will not be able to sustain itself, especially with the reduction in oil prices.