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AmericasAugust 31 2008

Chávez takes on banking sector

President Hugo Chávez’s decision to nationalise Banco de Venezuela has come at a time when government-bank relations are uneasy following a Ministry of Finance crackdown on foreign exchange controls. Writer Jane Monahan.
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There is little that is conventional about banking in president Hugo Chávez’s socialist Venezuela – and still less following the South American leader’s decision, on August 1, to prevent the sale to a local bank of a unit of Spain’s Grupo Santander – the third biggest bank in the country by assets, Banco de Venezuela – announcing that the Venezuelan state would buy it instead.

Just consider the unconventionality of how Mr Chávez described – after announcing the nationalisation – his government’s plans for the Venezuelan bank.

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