Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez has reportedly threatened Toyota – stating that it needs to produce more vehicles for its rural areas, as well as increase technology transfer, or face expropriation of its local assembly plant.
President Chavez demanded Wednesday that Toyota needed to bring in more technology from its global operations to the local plant, including manufacturing methods. Chavez complained that Toyota and other automakers were all failing to bring sufficient technology into Venezuela.
Chavez went on to state that his socialist government is going to apply strict quotas in regards to the number and types of vehicles automakers can produce in Venezuela. Chavez also ordered an immediate inspection of Toyota’s facilities to determine how many “rustic” vehicles it was producing, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Chavez said, “They’ll have to fulfill [the quotas], and if not, they can get out. We’ll bring in another company.”
Chavez then went on to explain that if the inspection reveals an improper vehicle production mix or that Toyota is bringing in enough technology, then the Venezuelan government will consider taking over the facilities and transferring it to Chinese companies.
“We’ll take it, we’ll expropriate it, we’ll pay them what it’s worth and immediately call on the Chinese, ” said Chavez.
According to the WSJ, Chavez has nationalized dozens of foreign-owned companies and even entire sectors of the economy as part of his move toward “21st century socialism.”
The local Toyota assembly plant in question currently employs over 2,000 workers, and has been in operation for over 50 years.



12/24, 2:54 PM
posted by:
yarddog82abn
Que se vaya a la mierda este hijo de puta! Castro wannabe,
12/24, 3:08 PM
posted by:
yarddog82abn
TRANSLATION…
This mother F*er can go to hell….
Ohooo…. and Merry X-Mass
12/24, 3:26 PM
posted by:
Fx NauGhtY
SAY WHAT? WTF!!!! HE SHOULD BE GLAD 2000 PEOPLE AT LEAST HAVE A JOB
12/24, 3:26 PM
posted by:
Samintosh
Please do it and bring the Chinese in, live long Chavez….. Merry Christmas to you sir… Salute
12/24, 3:29 PM
posted by:
Auto X
eat a dick
12/24, 3:45 PM
posted by:
howsmydriving
The CIA should manipulate Chavez to bring in Ford…then, the entire populace will die of boredom…..
12/24, 3:48 PM
posted by:
Bosley
He sounds alomst as moronic as his Asian socialist counterpart Kim Jong Il (that’s not the 2nd, but a capital i and a small L, but they look the same with this font)…….
The best way to get better cars made and sold in ‘his’ country is to create an economy where most people can afford them, not just the political ‘elite’ or whatever……..
Toyota doesn’t make alot of high end cars or ones with a bunch of high tech innovations for that market ’cause no-one can buy them……
12/24, 3:49 PM
posted by:
Bosley
He sounds even more dumb than Kim Jong il……
12/24, 3:59 PM
posted by:
andy
@howsmydriving: yea because toyota washing machines are oh so much more exciting that ford toasters
12/24, 4:20 PM
posted by:
JakeK66
A couple of well placed snipers could solve this problem. Just Sayin’
Anyone else see the picture they had up on AB with Hugo in the 80’s Cadillac Limo? It’s almost like his goal is to be the bad guy in a bad 80’s Action movie or Miami Vice.
12/24, 4:21 PM
posted by:
idrinorbarsaku
screw toyota!
12/24, 4:38 PM
posted by:
CarsNut
we need to stick a cruise missile in his ass just like we did with Sadam Husein. Sick and tired of this clown
12/24, 4:46 PM
posted by:
A4
Is he the pug-faced latino, or the bird?
12/24, 4:51 PM
posted by:
DrFill
There are losers
And then there’s Hugo
I think he’s trying to set a record
For worst politician in South America
That’s a tough title to capture
But where there’s a will, there’s a way
Toyota should drive a Land Cruiser through the bodega he calls an office
Like Will Smith did in Bad Boys 2
DrFill
12/24, 4:53 PM
posted by:
ochy38
What a douche. However, LLN, that is an awesome picture of him haha
12/24, 4:54 PM
posted by:
Mark Kleis
Thanks ochy38, I particularly found it amusing and fitting for this piece
12/24, 5:12 PM
posted by:
johnnycanuck
So if a Toyota accelerates unintentionally in the Venezuelan rainforest does it rust out before it makes a sound?
12/24, 5:20 PM
posted by:
RICERisNICER
?Por que no hay mas personas que hablan espanol aqui? Quizas porque los articulos estan escrito en ingles. Hablando como un “ricer” verdad, ?no?
12/24, 5:23 PM
posted by:
DrFill
Johnny
Funny
DrFill
12/24, 5:25 PM
posted by:
mavrick
hard to take a guy with a parrot on his shoulder seriously
12/24, 5:43 PM
posted by:
Perez
Well, Why would anybody be surprised by his actios? He’s done more terrible things than that.
He ordered to nationalize PEMEX from Mexico so this is just a minor thing.
@RICERisNicer
Hay muchas personas que hablas espanol. solo es que que nunca se sabe quien es hispano o no.
Hay muchos blanquitos-wannabes tambien, por eso es dificil de distinguir.
12/24, 5:48 PM
posted by:
Perez
He’s done more terrible things than that so I don’t see why I would be surprised by his actions.
He ordered to nationalize PEMEX from Mexico so this is a minor thing.
RICERis NICER
Es dificil de distiguir quien habla espanol y kien no. hay muchos blanquitos wannabes a qui.
12/24, 5:57 PM
posted by:
deneway
Anything to taken people’s minds off the fact that Venezula is bankrupt.
12/24, 6:14 PM
posted by:
gugy
Chavez is just an idiot.
USA should try to assassinate him. lol
12/24, 6:30 PM
posted by:
Zesty Honda
Assassinating foreign heads of states and supporting foreign coups is what got is into this mess in the first place and it has empowered the leftist socialist movement. Oh, how we do not learn from our mistakes!
12/24, 6:33 PM
posted by:
Zesty Honda
The USA’s policy of assassinating foreign heads of states and supporting coups is what got us into this trouble to begin with. This policy of “regime change” has empowered the leftist movement which is spreading throughout South America. We should learn from our mistakes.
12/24, 6:35 PM
posted by:
Zesty Honda
From the comments above it’s clear that we haven’t learnt our lesson.
12/24, 6:44 PM
posted by:
A4
thumbs up johnny
12/24, 7:10 PM
posted by:
2kPlymouthNeonLX
@Zesty Honda and the forum in general
-There are no known or proven cases of CIA personnel or even directly controlled foreign agents that actually killed any leader, but there certainly were cases where the CIA knew of, or supported, plots to overthrow foreign leaders, in the past some of the those plots by those groups involved killing a foreign leader, but the USA did not give the order, suggest, or involve a CIA/directly controlled agent being the tigger man. The USA currently and for some time has a policy against killing heads of state. Yes the USA does target and kill al-Qa’ida agents placed on a “high value target list” in which capture is impractical and civilian casualties can be kept to an acceptable number. I believe the civilian casualties and acceptable number should be tighten so from what it currently is, whatever it is, as it seems a little wide-ranging in practice, so we dont breed more hate.
-The “Regime Change” has not empowered the leftist movement, it is governments that oppress their people and ignore their poor completely (leftist base) and countries that are not well off economically (increases likely hood that peolpe are poor) that has fueled the “leftist movement”. Yes the USA has supported some of these governements that oppress their people, but also support us and/or whatever we are trying to accomplish policy wise. Yes the USA could do a better job of not supporting of these governements, and giving us bad public relations.
12/24, 7:18 PM
posted by:
2kPlymouthNeonLX
Oh yeah should added Hugo Chavez can suck it. Another bad idea from a bad leader. Toyota better sneak out their technology unless they want Chavez and the chinese company he brings in, to jack it. Its hard to reason with a stupidy, sure he could have approached Toyota about a couple of complaints, maybe some of them half-legit, as a whole not like this.
12/24, 7:34 PM
posted by:
volo
@2kPlymouthNeonLX
Thanks for the CIA official statement, which certainly is the truth, because you know, Spy agencies in the world are well known for always stating the truth. And they always tell the secret mission they have done, because of course it’s secret.
Mr CIA spokeman, Does the CIA endorse the fact that it helped the taliban regime against the russian, and later on too? or is it one of these an unproven and unkown case I keep hearing about?
And you admit that CIA support bastard leader, but it is OK because they in return support USA policy wise? Too bad CIA was not yet created during WW2, there was one big bastard that could have supported USA in its policy!
12/24, 9:17 PM
posted by:
gogogodzilla
To: Volo
I guess you don’t realize that the CIA is a direct outgrowth of the OSS, the US clandestine service during WWII.
12/24, 9:48 PM
posted by:
Zesty Honda
@ 2kPlymouthNeonLX, CIA organized Bay of Pigs Cuba “Regime Change”; Taliban-Russian War, Overthrow of President Samuel Doe in Liberia, assassination of President Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic, Support of President Roberto Suazo Cordoba in Honduras during their civil war….the F***** list goes on and on dude! Your statements are false, the CIA has admitted involvement in the Bay of Pigs and other incidents but there official line is that, this is the past and they no longer engage in such acts. All this and more is detailed in the “Family Jewels” a report commissioned in 1973 by then CIA director James R. Schlesinger. I’m sorry to say but you need to stop drinking the cool-aid and read a book every once in a while!
Start by reading this, Family Jewels
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB222/index.htm
12/24, 9:50 PM
posted by:
71fiveanddime
spanishdict.com and its translation service sucks. or yall need to learn better spanish…… but thats not my point(no offense). chavez can go f*** himself and the chinese can have venezuela. let him test the crashworthiness of geely and chery instead of wasting our crash dummies.
12/24, 9:53 PM
posted by:
Zesty Honda
@ 2kPlymouthNeonLX, you are the epitome of a noob not only a noob to geopolitics and but a noob to this forum; to think you can post obviously false statements and get away with it. What do you think this is the 6 O’ Clock news? Come correct noob!
12/24, 9:56 PM
posted by:
Zesty Honda
@ 71fiveanddime, your looking at SpanishDict.com is that some educational gay porn site, lol, I kid, I kid, lol! Try Altavista BabelFish, http://babelfish.yahoo.com/
12/24, 9:57 PM
posted by:
Zesty Honda
*you’re
12/24, 10:44 PM
posted by:
cocojoe53
I think Toyota makes there Floor Mats there…
12/24, 11:08 PM
posted by:
1c3d0g
What a loser. I dislike Toy Ota for various reasons, but this dickhead takes the cake hands down. Living so close geographically to this ignorant prick makes us all wonder what kind of stupid move he’s gonna pull next. Chavez brought nothing but misery and suffering to the Venezuelan people (this is from personal experience talking with those who managed to escape his wrath). I hope he chokes on his own vomit…what a ****ing douchebag!
12/24, 11:36 PM
posted by:
Architect
I know a family who moved to the states from Venezuela, and they are emphatically opposed to Chavez, In true Socialist (Communist) fashion, he’s pitting the halve-nots against the halves. The educated of the country (and the rest of the world) are well aware that he’s a raging lunatic.
But to the point, as if there isn’t already enough fodder for proving the guys insane, the fact that he’d publicly state that he’d swap the Chinese for Toyota pretty much seals the deal.
12/25, 1:17 AM
posted by:
sharpie
Have it your way, Chavez, maybe the US will put an Embargo on you like Cuba and you can then drive you Yugo into the ground.
12/25, 5:08 AM
posted by:
Stinky007
Wait, wait, wait! Does this guy demand higher technology to be brought to the plant in order to produce “rural vehicles”!? He either thinks that’s a master plan for stealing technology and everyone else besides him is an idiot, or he really thinks hybrid technology or V10 F1 engines will make pickups more efficient! Either way, this doesn’t speak highly about his persona. Neither does that picture!
12/25, 10:12 AM
posted by:
Nazenail
The Hussein Clown Posse (Obama administration) already nationalized our auto industry. Seems that Venezuela is starting to trail the US in the quest for complete government control.
12/25, 11:05 AM
posted by:
ToldYa
Obama Saved whats left of the already dying US auto industry…Why bring him into this discussion?
Nazenail you obviously cling to your guns, beer and your F150…Can’t wait for more hybrid and EV US made cars thanks to our new administration.
12/25, 12:07 PM
posted by:
mainstdeath
hey chrysler here is an excellent opportuniy for your new agenda of sacrfice a few for the good of many, a socailist state that truly callls it self socilaist , when chaves throws toyota ou just take over the factory with him and make rams,and 300s . maybe jim press and frit henderson can help export to the usa show obama how it really should be done . then lteach our american comrades how to take more personal property from us citizens not just business’s . perhaps houses from the wealthy (those dirty freemarket entrepenurs who invest thier hard earned cash ) oh yes chrysler would to well here marginal managment woul excell.
12/25, 3:08 PM
posted by:
beatusmongous
Pues chupate el dedo gordo.
Stinky, he wants them to bring the tech over, and THEN he’s going to nationalize them. That way he can steal the tech. Chavez cannot be trusted. Toyota would be smart to tell him to “go to hell” and close up all shops in Venezuela immediately. I have a feeling they will.
Oh, and Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año Nuevo a todos los miembros del Left Lane News, les desea la familia de Beatus Mongous.
12/25, 4:50 PM
posted by:
Borat
Did anyone see Lefty? I can’t believe that he is such a good Christian that he will condemn Chavez AFTER Christmas.
12/26, 12:44 PM
posted by:
johngalt
Muchas gracias, beatus.
If you’re more colorfully dressed than your stupid, filthy pet bird, can you really be taken seriously on a global scale?
12/26, 8:28 PM
posted by:
Nazenail
@Toldya,
Am I to assume that only rednecks care about freedom, free markets, and not falling victim to an oppressive government?
I don’t care for beer, I do not own a Ford or any domestic vehicles, but I do have a side arm. I carried it during two tours to Afghanistan.
If rednecks have the stereotype of being the only people left fighting for and preserving personal freedom from the Democrats and Republicans , then I wouldn’t mind alligning myself with them.
12/26, 10:54 PM
posted by:
oldraven
Parrot? Chavez always made me think of a Pea****.
“Shut up, Chavez.”
– Your King
12/26, 10:55 PM
posted by:
oldraven
peac ock
12/26, 11:51 PM
posted by:
Blakkarr
I don’t know how to feel about this.
I don’t support TOYOTA, but I really can not say enough bad things about Hugo Chavez.
I hope TOYOTA’s troubles only get worse and VW tops them.
I hope Hugo Chavez is violently deposed by the filthy beggars that used to be the proud citizens of his country.
12/27, 12:11 AM
posted by:
2kPlymouthNeonLX
Where did I say that CIA has not committed countless crimes, what I was saying I have not seen a case that the USA has succeded in killing a foreign leader, but yes they have been involved in varous plots. [Castro is alive by the way, on his dead bed, I did not say they did not want him dead, supported groups that tried to kill him, and Yes they had proxy agents try and kill him] The CIA has killed probably countless people, hopefully most of them being bad, but the truth is some of them probably didn’t deserve what happen to them. Yes the USA helped serveral bad groups in proxy wars, where did I say they did not? I know they did.
I was stating that I do not see a case in which they actually succedding in killing a current leader of a country at the time! The USA has assisted in over throwing governements through out the years. Still trying in Iran probably, just overthrew the goverments in Iraq and Afghanstan. Panama and Haiti come to mind in the past. Yes the CIA has spied on USA citizens as well, amoung other crimes either supported by the current adminstration at the time or on their own. Still probably do in some ways.
I did not mean that is was ok that since bad governments who oppress their people, amount other things, who also support the USA and our policies, mean they were ok, just because they give the USA their support. I think main reason for the leftist movement is from the poor conditions in those respective countries, not the USA’s influnce or policies, we just end up being a talking point, when the problem is the government of their respective home country. I said we could do a better job of not supporting these governments, aka stop or tell them for our contiuned support, we are going to require some changes to take place.
12/27, 9:25 AM
posted by:
SomeGreek
Brainwashed americans always deliver a succesfull stupidity show. “why do they hate us” Bush once asked…
12/27, 12:39 PM
posted by:
DenverGuy217
Maybe Hugo can bring in Tata to replace Toyota. Can’t you just see all those colorful Nanos bopping around the country
12/27, 4:53 PM
posted by:
Borat
SomeGreek, it was your own greek colonels who disposed sickly democracy and established junta rule. We, Americans, give little crap about third world countries (aka Greece) with home made dictators and dysfunctional democracies. They usually fall to Chavez type homegrown “liberators” with birds crapping on their shoulder.
12/27, 7:56 PM
posted by:
reedfast
go ahead and throw toyota out Chavez, i’m sure the chinese are going to give you f-ing excellent cars to go offroad in, safely too.
12/27, 10:35 PM
posted by:
Rafa LL
Weed never dies.
12/27, 10:48 PM
posted by:
Zesty Honda
@2kPlymouthNeonLX; thanks for the clarification I agree with 95% of what you’ve stated! One thing I do not agree with you about is the distinction between helping to plan a coup and being the one that actually pulls the trigger. The U.S. law states that both parties are culpable; the crime boss can be sent to jail just as well as the trigger man; so your notion that because the CIA is only helping to plan the coup they haven’t truly killed the head of state is simply a fallacy. In terms of International law, extra-judicial killings and summary executions (such as killing a head of state) are prohibited under the Geneva convention; of which the U.S. is a signatory.
12/27, 11:12 PM
posted by:
reedfast
^we all know that the government doesn’t follow the same rules as we do, U.S. law doesn’t really apply.
12/28, 5:44 AM
posted by:
MAP
Zesty Honda, sounds like something on a Taco Bell Menu. Now thats funny I don’t care who u r.
12/28, 8:17 AM
posted by:
GTDI
Perez, could you tell us how Chavez did order to nationalize PEMEX if Pemex belongs to Mexico State and Chavez is Venezuela’s President???????
12/28, 11:21 AM
posted by:
tastyorange
boycott Citgo
12/28, 12:24 PM
posted by:
beatusmongous
PEMEX isn’t in Venezuela. That was PDVSA.
12/28, 12:27 PM
posted by:
beatusmongous
@TastyOrange,
Ever since Chavez made that statement concerning the US buying gasoline and funding ant-US movements in Venezuela through Citgo, my city has boycotted them completely. I don’t even think I can find a Citgo station anymore in Las Vegas, and since they were associated with 7-11, I see very few people buying gasoline there anymore. Needless to say, I never go there.
12/28, 1:59 PM
posted by:
beatusmongous
*anti-US. I hate when I do that.
12/28, 4:40 PM
posted by:
sctdiverdown
Chavez is nothing but a thief / greedy thug who is hiding behind the “idea” of a socialist state …..
He reminds me of a cartoon character that has come to life…….
A real “socialist” guy – he owns tons of land, shuts down the press, and turned the police into
a corrupt gang of their own. I pity the people in that la la land …..
The running joke in that country is – if you’re being mugged, don’t yell because the police may come.
01/08, 7:17 PM
posted by:
Matt Thompson
What’s with the face in his photo? Did the bird fart?