Chavez Rolls Back Seizures as Shortages Hurt Re-Election Bid
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Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez is enlisting Mexico’s Gruma SAB, French retailer Casino and other international companies to boost supplies of milk, corn flour and cement as shortages threaten to dent his bid for re-election in 2012.
Chavez, a self-declared Marxist, is rolling back policies that have allowed him to expand control over the economy. He is forging alliances with corporations he previously accused of price-gouging, such as Casino Guichard Perrachon SA, based in Saint-Etienne, and Gruma, Mexico’s largest corn flour maker.