Chavez has troops seize food from distributor

Reuters:

Venezuela's top food company has accused troops of illegally seizing more than 500 tonnes of food from its trucks as part of President Hugo Chavez's campaign to stem shortages.

The leftist Chavez this week created a state food distributor and loosened some price controls, seeking to end months of shortages for staples like milk and eggs that have caused long lines and upset his supporters in the OPEC nation.

The highly publicised campaign has also included government crackdowns on accused smuggling, with the military seizing 1,600 tonnes of food and sending 1,200 troops to the border with Colombia.

Jose Anzola, a director of food company Alimentos Polar, told reporters that troops stopped 27 of its trucks over the last three days and described the seizures as "illegal, arbitrary and irresponsible."

Troops said they halted the transport of 350 tonnes of food to states along the Colombian border on suspicion of smuggling, he said. Another 165 tonnes were impounded in an eastern state on accusations of hoarding, he added.

...

Polar, one of the country's largest private employers and best-known brands, produces and distributes grocery products including corn flour, a central element of Venezuelan cooking, and the country's most popular beer.

Business leaders say shortages of these products are caused by strict price controls, which have lagged inflation that is Latin America's highest.

...

Chavez is trying to revoke the law of supply and demand and he will fail. Theft of goods is only a short term solution for the problem he has created by trying to regulate prices. Soon there will be no goods to steal because Polar want be able to buy and and if it did it would have to worry about the next theft by the state. Chavez is traveling down the rode taken by Mugabe and the results will probably be the same. Trying to pull communism from the ash bin of history is going to be a disaster. The smart people are already leaving Venezuela and this will only drive more of them out.

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