He's not a dictator though, he just has the power to seize foreign owned assets at his sole discretion. Link Venezuela seizes a landmark Hilton Hotel Oct 13 05:25 PM US/Eastern President Hugo Chavez has ordered the "acquisition by force" of a landmark Hilton Hotel on Venezuela's Margarita island, the government's Official Gazette announced Tuesday. The facility, on the Caribbean resort island of Margarita in Nueva Esparta state, was targeted for state takeover less than a month after it was used to host the Africa-South America Summit. "The acquisition by force of the real estate, furnishings, and related assets (...) of the Margarita Hilton & Suites Hotel Complex, along with the Marina owned by Inversiones Pueblamar y Desarrollos MBK, have been ordered," a presidential decree in the official register read. The sprawling complex includes 280 rooms, 210 suites, a casino, stores, restaurants, offices and meeting areas, as well as the adjoining marina. The assets will be held by the state tourism corporation Venetur, which reports to the Tourism Ministry, as part of an "urgent" effort to boost "the social development side of the tourism and hotel industries in Nueva Esparta state," the Gazette said. It is not the first time Chavez's government has checked into a Hilton and stayed for good. Caracas has already seized the Hotel Hilton in Caracas, rechristening it the Hotel Alba, a reference to the Venezuelan-led leftist regional alliance Alianza Bolivariana para las Americas (ALBA). In the past four years, Venezuela has implemented the nationalization of industries it sees as strategic including electrical utilities, cement, steel, oil services and banking.
Dictators and Little Caesers have a way of eventually coming to an abrupt end. Often after long years of causing suffering of the people and Chavez will get his eventually but it may be a while. Down there the coup is almost always by gun and bayonet by another power hungry despot seeking dictatorship. Up here we hopefully have the ballot box to depose the unfit. Many good Americans are patting their foot in desperation at the situation both down there and here at home.
