OnurSaka 8/11/11

Pay Back Time:Expropriation in Venezuela Since the first selection of Hugo Chavez and the beginning of the Bolivarian Revolution it has been over a decade; Hugo Chavezs revolution focused on implementing socialist reforms, and the government has expropriated tremendous amount of private businesses in Venezuela. For instance, Hugo Chavez has taken over 60 domestic and foreign oil field companies. And these seizures caused several issues, because the first rule for an expropriation act to be legal is the concept of public purpose. This concept is easily overcome by any government alleging the seizures made for the people. The revolution manifesto of Chavez requires public control over private sectors in which the businesses are insufficient, corrupt or not useful not in service for the people of Venezuela. This ideology provides Chavez a very broad ground to take several actions pursuant to this alleged public purpose. But, as commonly told by the recent news and several lawyers, economists and politicians, Venezuela seems to pay more of the price that the Chavez revolutions have served for the public purpose. A hundred years ago, socialism was more popular and applicable than today. Looking from an independent and objective view, both socialism and capitalism might be considered as favorable (and unfavorable) for the people. As a matter of fact, there is no ideology or government policy that can provide every single people the same life standards. In addition, the last century has shown us the collapse of socialist nations; today the numbered socialist nations of the world are isolated form the rest such as Cuba and North Korea. More than a triumph of capitalism, this result is mainly caused as a natural consequence of human nature. Today, the nations of the world are manufacturing, trading and sourcing from and to the different parts of the world. A natural result is competition; which is not allowed in socialist doctrine. Plus, socialism is in conflict with all modern theories of economy such as competitive advantage and factors mobility. This modern developments and innovations in manufacturing, distributing, sourcing, trading the goods and services, and elimination of economic borders are the main elements that created our modern global world. There are still and always will be crimes, injustice and poverty, but the modern, economically integrated and global world is the best environment that the humankind has created for himself. From economical perspective, the revolution in Venezuela will clearly cause negative effects on people. As the National Assembly Deputy, Luis Daz, pointed out seizure of 60 oil companies will make thousands of employees jobless or the oil fields will became inefficient with overcapacity. In addition to labor problems, the oil production of Venezuela reduced significantly since the seizures took place. These two examples are enough to see the negative economic effects of expropriating private businesses. And furthermore, being isolated and economic sanctions will cause even bigger problems for Venezuelan economy than expected by Chavez.

From legal perspective, Hugo Chavezs expropriation acts seem to cause serious legal issues for Venezuela; first of all, Chavezs seizures are clearlyillegal. Besides the public purpose, expropriation acts must provide a prompt, adequate and effective payment and should not be discriminatory to be considered as legitimate. For instance, Exxon Corporation began to sue the Venezuelan government for the takeover of their businesses in Venezuela. Chavez expropriates Exxons all oil businesses in Venezuela by seizing all assets of the corporation without a proper payment. According to the latest reviews of economists, compensation disputes of all sorts of expropriation now involve a total of around $15 billion in unsettled claims. This amount of money is much more than the amount Venezuela can afford and defaulting will cause a remarkable unlawfulness. This issue, sooner or later, will be corrected by the domestic or foreign and international courts. Besides, there are several other rights that are violated such as intellectual property of the private corporations. Venezuela is a sovereign nation which has the right to dismiss all dispute resolution mechanisms, and the decisions and enforcements against them, but this will lead alienation from the global arena like happened to Cuba and North Korea. Today, it is almost impossible for a nation to be self-sufficient; an alone, isolated Venezuela with several economic and diplomatic sanctions against, will create a far worse living standards for the people compared to the expected. And from this perspective, Hugo Chavez is not creating a better Venezuela for the people; instead, he is burning the bridges with the rest of the world and driving the nation away from the modern civilization. OnurSaka 8/11/11, Los Angeles