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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (181585)	12/3/2009 12:18:22 PM
From: Karen Lawrence	Respond to of 362473

Chavez takes on the banks: Chavez threatens to nationalize Venezuelan banks By Walker Simon CARACAS, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday he could nationalize private banks for refusing to lend to the poor and for failing to sufficiently aid in the country's development. In his weekly television show, Chavez said the purpose of banks was not to enrich a small group of people but to help the development of the country, including extending housing credits. Addressing himself to "all the country's private banks," he rhetorically asked: "You want me to nationalize the banks?" "I have no problem with that because the banks don't want to extend credit to the poor, they don't comply, they don't want to comply with the bank's purpose for existence." Speaking during his weekly TV show "Alo Presidente," he added: "I'm telling the country's private bankers, 'he who slips up loses, I'll take over the bank, whatever its size." In power for a decade, socialist Chavez has nationalized broad swathes of the economy since 2007, including the country's biggest telephone, electricity companies and $30 billion in projects to extract crude from tar-like sands. Chavez said the banks' role "should be to collect funds and savings to help aid the country's development by making loans, extending credits for housing." Despite the rebound in oil prices from last year, OPEC member Venezuela's economy in the third quarter contracted 4.5 percent compared with a year earlier. It was the second straight quarterly drop and local economists said Venezuela was now in recession even though the government has not formally said that. Chavez Sunday drew no explicit link between any specific bank and the country's economic ills. Four small banks were put under state administration on Nov. 20, out of concerns including their credit portfolios. The banks accounted for about 6 percent of the country's deposits. Ten other banks account for 70 percent of deposits. Chavez spoke Sunday for six hours in his show broadcast from a black bean farm recently nationalized in the central state of Lara. He sat behind a table strewn with books, documents and maps. His banking nationalization threats on Sunday appeared to be broader in scope than his well-publicized warnings in recent years to nationalize Spanish-owned banks in Venezuela. He repeatedly threatened to seize Spanish bank subsidiaries in Venezuela unless Spain's king apologized for telling him to "shut up" in November 2007 at a regional summit where Chavez branded a recent ex-Spanish prime minister a fascist. The only major private bank, foreign or Venezuelan, to fall into state hands under Chavez was Spain's Banco Santander unit Banco de Venezuela, sold in July for $1.05 billion. In his "Alo Presidente" show on Sunday, Chavez spoke on themes as diverse as land reform, Roman Catholicism and elections in Uruguay and Honduras. Addressing the banking theme, he said unnamed bankers "do not want to comply with the function for which a bank should exist (such as) that is in the law." "This is occurring right now with a group of private banks. That's a demonstration that those private banking sectors don't want to learn, they don't want to accept that there is a constitution ... and that there are laws." Chavez, however, made no mention any laws or constitutional provisions which may be being breached. The government's Nov. 20 banking move, labeled an "intervention" but not a nationalization, applied to four small banks -- Banco Confederado, Banco Canarias, Banco Provivienda and bolivar Banco. Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez then said the move stemmed from concerns about credit portfolios, problems explaining the source of funds and failure to comply with some obligations. On Friday, a court acting on prosecutors' request banned travel abroad of 16 executives -- eight from Confederado, six from Provivienda and two from bolivar Banco. Chavez said if it were up to him, he would have jailed the 16 executives due to flight risk. "They have (their own) light aircraft and private airports and (can) leave." He said he ordered the nation's chief prosecutor to investigate why a state bank, Banfoandes, deposited "a giant amount of resources in private banks." "How is it that state resources, which belong to the people ... end up being placed in private banks?" he asked in his broadcast. "This is counterrevolutionary."