The regional legislative council in southwestern Barinas state urged Governor Hugo de los Reyes Chávez (father of the Venezuelan President) to declare company Promabasa "for public use" for subsequent seizure and allocation to a group of ex workers, under a co-management scheme.

The legislature approved unanimously the proposal during a special session dealing with seizure as the single item in the agenda.

Deputies Jesús Graterol and Marcos López -the members of an ad-hoc committee appointed by the National Assembly (AN)- and representatives of the town council, farmers, and several members of the Venezuelan National Ranchers' Confederation backed the group of 80 ex workers led by Juan Guzmán, Alvaro Gámez and Simón Laguna.

Laguna explained that the initiative comes from ex Probamasa employees, who maintain that commissioning is possible under co-management. "We rely on the experience provided by the Venezuelan Paper Industry (Invepal) and the Venezuelan Valves Industry (Inveval.) They were declared as company for public use and seized by the Venezuelan state. Subsequently, they were allocated to cooperatives that operate them according to co-management principles."

"The government should seize that company property of  Polar Group," he added.