Venezuelan Kimberly-Clark workers denounce the corporation for abruptly pulling out, leaving them without work.
So, what have we here? Oh, nothing…just a whole lot of full containers of raw materials, and a bunch of lying buffoons who fucked off out of Venezuela, leaving their workers in the lurch. And you wonder why the government and the fired workers took the plant over? Wonder no more:
Warehouses full of raw materials were found at the Kimberly-Clark factory in Venezuela, which the government is administering as of Monday, with the support of its former workers. The merchandise in question will be distributed for sale via the Local Committees for Supply and Production (CLAP), and private establishments, said Miguel Pérez Abad, the vice-president for the Economic Area, on Friday.
For the remaining six months of the year, the minister confirmed that the former US-based business will be able to count on supplies under its new management, and will not stop producing personal hygiene products, unlike what the former owners did who closed the factory last Saturday, alleging they didn’t have materials.
“The government did not expropriate the company installations, they occupied it because its proprietors violated the laws of the land when they decided to paralyze operations and mass-fire the workers,” said Pérez Abad.
Translation mine.
So, there you have it: Kimberly-Clark lied when they said they had no materials. They had a factory full of them. What was the real reason? Well, according to Telesur, this might be a clue:
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday that Citibank NA C.UL, planned to shut his government’s foreign currency accounts within a month, denouncing the move by one of its main foreign financial intermediaries as part of a “blockade.”
“With no warning, Citibank says that in 30 days it will close the Central Bank and the Bank of Venezuela’s accounts,” Maduro said in a speech, adding that the government used the U.S. bank for transactions in the United States and globally.
“Do you think they’re going to stop us with a financial blockade? No, gentlemen. No one stops Venezuela.”
Yeah, the Venezuelan government might want to find a new bank to do its forex business with. One that doesn’t screw over its customers, as Citibank has done repeatedly over the years. Yeah, that’s a lot of links. And yet, it’s just a tiny snippet of what I found when I went looking for evidence. I guess what I’m trying to say here is that Citibank has such a well-known track record for sucking its customers dry that I’m surprised that Venezuela still had anything to do with them at all. They should have cut Citi off while Chavecito was still in office. Why they didn’t is a mystery to me. I can’t wait to see who they’ll tap to be the gainer to Citi’s self-imposed loss.
