Thursday, April 20, 2017

Local Venezuelan Authority Seizes GM Plant; GM Flips Out



In a country led by a president even more clueless about basic economics than Donald Trump, things are deteriorating rapidly.

General Motors said Wednesday it has been forced to stop operating in Venezuela after one of its plants was illegally seized by local authorities.

The seizure, in the country's industrial hub of Valencia, comes amid a deepening economic and political crisis that has sparked weeks of deadly street protests.

General Motors Venezolana, GM's local subsidiary, did not provide any details about the seizure, other than to say the facility "was unexpectedly taken by authorities, preventing normal operations." It said other assets, "such as vehicles," had also been stripped from the site.

The company said it "strongly rejects the arbitrary measures taken by the authorities and will vigorously take all legal actions, within and outside of Venezuela, to defend its rights."

Announcing "immediate cessation of its operations in the country," GM accused local officials of causing "irreparable damage" to the company and its 2,678 workers and 79 dealers in the country. GM said it would pay separation benefits "as far as the authorities permit."

Naturally, the seizing of the plant and other assets of a major muti-national corporation is not going to encourage investments by other foreigners in a country that desperately needs foreign investment and foreign trade operations.

-RW 

4 comments:

  1. I think this shows how poorly GM is still being run. Why would anyone have continued such operations in Venezuela thus far? Are they going to open up a plant in Aleppo or North Korea next?

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  2. Here's a perfect example of Socialist brain-power in action. Not only will other companies think twice about investing in Venezuela, even more than the day before, but the plant's 2500+ workers are out of jobs and the 79 dealers and their employees probably won't be far behind. What did Maduro and his henchmen think they would gain?? A quick one-time grab of some vehicles? It would be interesting to see a calculation of what the effective per-vehicle cost of that grab will be! We need new words to encompass how dumb this action is.

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  3. Better come up with some Dough GM. Heaven forbid you lose your huge profits from making your products abroad.

    Sounds like the cost of doing business to me. hahahahahaha

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