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ARTICLE: "Venezuelan consumers gobble up U.S. goods: Despite political tension, U.S. companies do well," by David J. Lynch, USA Today, 28 March 2007, p. 1A.
No, not the fact that Venezuela's oil boom allows average citizens there to indulge their inner American.
Here's why:
Few manufacturers are doing better than General Motors ...
GM, which has sold cars here since World war II, literally can't make vehicles fast enough to satisfy Venezuelan buyers. Its local plant, housed on "General Motors Avenue" in an industrial district near this city's airport, added a third shift in 2006 and is running flat-out producing more than 20 models.
But rather than expand capacity to meet ravenous demand GM--like other U.S. companies--is importing additional products. With Chavez, a self-described revolutionary, promising a grandiose "socialism for the 21st century," new multi-billion-dollar investments are just too risky.
"Commercially, the country's in a good moment. But I don't think this is sustainable in the long term ... The truth is, there's no more investment coming in," says Michael Penfold, former executive director of Venezuela's investment promotion agency.
I wonder which Chavez cousin got his job. I'm sure he's amazingly unqualified--besides his birth.
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