''Being rich is bad'', Chávez tells business leaders
El Universal, Caracas, Venezuela  | 14 April, 2005
 

Caracas.- Venezuelan businessmen should expect a “revolutionary” government which will support them with credits and export agreements, but president Hugo Chávez warned them that being rich is not a good idea.

"Being rich is bad", the president told his audience of small and medium-sized businessmen at Miraflores Palace.

He also suggested that those whose work has already brought great wealth, "should donate it all (...) to charitable work", according to Reuters.

At the same time, the president promised local businessmen that he would help them to find business and export opportunities in countries such as Cuba, whose president Fidel Castro is his main political ally, as well as China and India, with whom he has sought to improve commercial and political relations. Nevertheless, he also mentioned the possibility of handing over part of the ownership of their businesses to workers under a scheme he calls "co-management”.

During his speech, he threatened also to intervene in those banks that do not comply with the new strict regulations that assign percentages of loan portfolios and low, preferential rates to sectors such as microbusinesses, agriculture, and housing.

The government has undertaken a program to expropriate unused agricultural lands in a campaign against large landholdings.