Venezuela Can ‘Live Without Coca-Cola,’ Chavez Says
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Coca-Cola Femsa via Bloomberg
Bottles of Coca-Cola soda move down a conveyor at a Coca-Cola Femsa SAB bottling facility.
Bottles of Coca-Cola soda move down a conveyor at a Coca-Cola Femsa SAB bottling facility. Source: Coca-Cola Femsa via Bloomberg
Venezuela can “live without Coca- Cola” if the company does not abide by the country’s laws and settle a pay dispute with striking workers, President Hugo Chavez said today.
Coca-Cola Femsa SAB’s production in Venezuela has been cut by 52 percent for the past three weeks after workers paralyzed the company’s main plant in the country.
Chavez, who has used nationalizations in the energy, telecommunications, food and banking sectors to tighten state control over the oil-exporting country’s economy, said his government would support the strikers in their “fight against capitalism.”
“If Coca-Cola doesn’t abide by the constitution and laws then we can live without Coca-Cola,” Chavez said in comments carried on state television. “Coca-Cola is not indispensible. Who said you need Coca-Cola to live? Sugar cane juice is really good, or guava juice -- I just had one.”
Coca-Cola Femsa, based in Monterrey, Mexico, fell 1.6 percent to 95.3 pesos a share in Mexico City trading today.
Femsa spokeswoman Carolina Alvear declined to comment immediately when contacted by Bloomberg News in Monterrey.
Chavez said on Feb. 2 that the government may take greater control over the bottled water industry in Venezuela and force companies such as Coca-Cola Femsa and PepsiCo Inc. to buy water from the state.
To contact the reporter on this story: Charlie Devereux in London at cdevereux3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Joshua Goodman at jgoodman19@bloomberg.net
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