CARACAS, Tuesday August 19, 2008 | Update
Mexican pro-government and opposition deputies made on Tuesday
a call to the government of President Felipe Calderón
to act cautiously and prevent the nationalization of Cemex's
assets from straining relations with Venezuela.
Alejandro Landero, of ruling Partido Acción Nacional
(PAN), told Efe that regretfully, no deal was made to nationalize
Cemex's assets, unlike companies Holcim and Lafarge, which
managed to agree on a sale price.
"While there was news since April, this action took us unawares,
given the character of the relations that President Calderón
has tried to hold with his counterpart, President (Hugo) Chávez,"
he added.
Landero, a member of the Commission of Foreign Affairs of
the Chamber of Deputies, lamented that the price offered to
Cemex by the Venezuelan government had not met the expectations
of the Mexican firm.
10:07 AM. DIPLOMACY. Admired by the Colombian guerrilla after his coup attempt in 1992, the then lieutenant colonel Hugo Chávez Frías received financial support by the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) for his projects after his capture that year. This mostly explains the relationship and "debt" between the parties, as revealed by a paper of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) of the United Kingdom.