Chavez Threatens To Nationalize Banks

<blockquote> It was not clear if Chavez was only referring to Venezuelan banks </blockquote> Chavez, being a politician, would seek to "keep his options open". If the "wind" is favorable, he will nationalize everything.......<p>---<br>"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." <br />
-Max Planck<br />
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I am cautiously supporting Hugo Chavez in his move to have Venezuela a truly sovereign state. By controlling the nations money he won’t be at mercy of the BIS and so called “federal reserve” systems.

As I said I am cautiously supporting President Chavez for his actions for the people of Venezuela and the Canadian electorate would be wise to look to the Venezuelan counterparts in order to take our country out from under the BIS et al.


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"It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities."
—Sir Josiah Stamp

I'm not cautiously optimist, I am VERY optimistic. We live in a country where the 'big five' literally run an oligopoly. Even in the states they have more laws forcing Banks to deal with the disenfranchised neighbourhoods in the states and cities where they make their profits.

Good lord, whenever the IMF comes along with a plan this website has it on the front page. This guy is standing up to big money and telling them where to sit. And this is not Saudi Arabia or Qatar we are talking about, this guy was elected, and his life was saved because of Venezualans. These are the people who benefit.

This is GREAT news. We are starting to see more of this in Central America, thats why the continent is never on the news except to 'worry' and fret about the terrible things going on down there.

The only questions are whether a 'Chavez' will ever show up in Canada, or when will we get the stones to do this ourselves. It's news like this that balances out ten of the bad news stories usually on the front page of this website:)

Imagine being only 'cautiously optimistic' about a President who says they want the country to benefit from its banking institutions! If only there were such people running parties in Canada!

I'm with you Marcarc except that his threats - if they become actions - could reap a whole pile of hurt for him and his country. The US will do whatever they deem necessary to keep the rest of us in line. Same goes for Canada, IF we were to "develop the stones" enough to chart our own course.
A global revolution is likely the order of the day in order to accomplish what you and I are optimistic about.

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Everybody got to deviate from the norm

I see your point. However, the US ALREADY tried to oust him. That they'd do so at a moment's notice is a certainty because the evidence is there that they already tried. However, whatever happens happens, every action against the IMF or US interests CAN have dire consequences, that doesn't mean they will. So when they occur, that makes me optimistic.

My only caveat would be that Chavez is elected, which mean people support him as leader, but it doesn't necessarily mean they support every actions. Thanks to his policies they have huge voter turnout, so I'd like to see him hold more national referenda.

So far I suspect the threat is there to address the problem, whether the policy will really follow is another question. But the world press will use this as him using his authority in a 'dictatorial way'-that its any different than any other leader is besides the point, he's usually called a dictator in the US media anyway even though Bush is more a dictator by ANY standards.

But if he said "Venezueleans will vote on whether to nationalize banks" then that's quite different. I suspect in a place where more are poor and lower middle than upper that it would be a sure thing, and it would give it political validity. Unlike other countries, where low voter turnout means skewereed results, Venezuela now has a high turnout and lots of political activity.