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Caracas - President Hugo Chavez announced plans Sunday to take over more private companies in Venezuela and also said his government should review the use of water by transnational companies like Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
Chavez said during his weekly TV and radio program that he has approved decrees for the "forced acquisition" of two companies: Alentuy CA, which makes aluminum cans and other products, and Envases Internacional SA, which makes containers for the food industry.
Chavez also expressed concern about "water that transnational companies have privatized," and he mentioned Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
"That must be reviewed quickly," he said. "That water in the first place belongs to the people. Water is social property."
Those remarks came in a sometimes-combative talk by Chavez as he defended his government from criticism by private business leaders who say his socialist-inspired policies are ruining the economy, which is now mired in recession.
Chavez toured the state-run dairy company Los Andes in northwestern Lara state, where he said production has skyrocketed since it was nationalised.
"This is an example of what socialism is capable of doing," Chavez said. "The bourgeoisie says that whatever Chavez touches is done for. It's just the opposite."
When the president learned from workers at the plant that milk was still being trucked by a private transport company, he immediately announced he would nationalise it. He said officials would sit down with the owners to negotiate a price.
Chavez also said the government is expropriating several small food distributors and other companies because authorities say they were violating price controls and hoarding items.
He said a major private supermarket chain, Cada, will this week begin to be absorbed into a growing network of state-run markets.
During the past few years, Chavez has nationalised a list of businesses in industries from cement to telecommunications as he moves to transform Venezuela into a socialist economy.
In a different sort of state intervention, Chavez said he has approved taking over management of more than 80 businesses that belonged to bankers accused in a scandal last year that led the government to shut down several banks.
Government authorities said widespread irregularities put the banks in financial trouble, and some bankers were arrested while others fled the country. Several businessmen with links to the government were among those implicated.
Chavez vilified his critics as "the bourgeoisie" throughout the program, which lasted more than six hours. He said they are unfairly trying to discredit the state-run food industry after authorities found rotten food in containers holding about 20,000 metric tons (22,000 tons) in a seaport under government administration.
The former president of a state food company has been arrested, and Chavez has called for justice. But Chavez also said the amount of food was minuscule compared to the amount regularly sold at a discount in subsidized government markets.
Chavez said he is also pleased that the archives of independence hero Simon Bolivar have been "rescued from the hands of the bourgeoisie" and moved to the National Archives from an institution led by historians who have often been critical of his government.
Chavez, who named his socialist-inspired movement the Bolivarian Revolution after the independence leader, said Bolivar's documents will now be put on public display.
- Sapa
