Secretary of production and development for Venezuela’s Monagas state, Jesus Gonzalez, has announced that Guardian’s float glass plant there is now “a socialist company” after the government seized the business late last week.
The statement came after Yelitza Santaella, the governor of Monagas, announced that Venezuela is “recovering” the Guardian facility to ensure it resumes production.
Gonzalez told a local newspaper that Guardian withdrew from Venezuela three weeks ago abandoning 110 employees at the country’s main glass-processing plant, and forcing the government to step in. Gonzalez said the company has 150 shipping containers full of glass sitting in the port city of Guanta waiting to be exported.
Gonzalez said that President Maduro will visit the plant soon. Gonzalez said Maduro’s visit will emphasize that the factory’s workers — “the most important resource in the production of this glass” — will not be forsaken.
Maduro said Guardian carried out a “surprise closure” of the plant, its only facility in the South American country. Santaella echoed his earlier comment that Guardian shut down the facility as part of a U.S.-led economic war against Venezuela.
Guardian however in a recent statement, said the government had seized its operations by force.
Santaella rationalized the move by saying Venezuela helped Guardian establish its operations in 1988 with incentives and that Guardian has a duty to fulfill its obligations to the state.
“As with Guardian, there are many companies who were also helped to start up in Venezuela with state resources,” Santaella said. “And now, they seek to close their doors to negatively impact the Venezuelan economy. This we will not allow.”
According to reports of the time, Guardian entered into a $100 million joint venture to build the float glass plant in Venezuela, with Guardian owning 49 percent of the operation. CVG, a state-run company, owned 30 percent and an unnamed private investor owned 21 percent. The facility opened in 1990.
While Maduro blames “U.S. imperialism” for Venezuela’s ongoing economic turmoil, most analysts cite the collapse of global oil prices and the country’s socialist policies. To prevent a popular uprising, the government declared a state of emergency in mid-May and ordered the state seizure of factories.