US firm facilities seized by Venezuela

The Venezuelan government says it has taken control of the Venezuela-based facilities belonging to a US firm that had stopped operations amid the critical economic situation in the Latin American country.

“We are going to sign, at the workers’ request… to authorize the immediate occupation of the workplace known as Kimberly-Clark de Venezuela… by its workers,” Labor Minister Oswaldo Vera said at one of the company’s plants in the city of Maracay on Monday.

“As of today, Kimberly-Clark’s doors are open and its production on line,” he said, to loud cheers from the workers present at the site.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had said before that Caracas would take over those foreign facilities that shut down because of the economic crisis in the country and would hand them over to local operators.

Maduro says the shortages in the country are also the result of an “economic war” started by the US-backed opposition.

Kimberly-Clark, a personal care goods corporation, had declared the stoppage of production on Saturday, citing the difficult economic conditions. The firm did say, however, that it would resume operations in the future if conditions changed.