Chavez seizes ports

One week after the move was approved by the pro-Chavez legislature, the president ordered the Venezuelan Bolivarian National Army to occupy the facilities of Maracaibo, Puerto Caballo and Porlamar Ports, which respectively belong to the states of Zulia, Carabobo and Porlamar, all controlled by right wing politicians.

“We are going to recover all the ports and airports of the Republic, no matter who is against it,” President Chavez said during a regular TV and radio program.

One reason he gave was national unity which has seen the ports effectiveness undermined by a twenty year policy of decentralisation. This will be reversed, he said, by a strategic investment plan which will create a corporation of ports under the control of the national state and supported by State Governorships. He did not elaborate.

He also insisted the social property of ports and airports was taken away from the people and the government is returning the property to where it belongs.

Opposition politicians have denounced the move on both constitutional grounds and that it consolidates too much power in Chavez’s hands.