Venezuelan VP threatens with "temporary occupation" of chocolate factories

Executive Vice President Elías Jaua, who is also the Minister of Agriculture and Lands, warned national and foreign chocolate companies based in Venezuela that failure to pay the raw cocoa price set by the government will lead to "temporary occupation" of those factories, as provided under the Organic Law on Food Reliable Supply and Sovereignty and the Law on Defense of People in the Access to Goods and Services.

Jaua, who is also the candidate of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) to the governor's office of the state of Miranda, said at a meeting with cocoa growers that the price of cocoa F1 will be VEB 25 (USD 5.81) per kilogram, and that of cocoa F2 will be VEB 20 (USD 4.65) per kilogram.

The Venezuelan Vice-President urged people not to fight and protest "against the Bolivarian government but against exploiters."

With reporting by Ernesto J. Tovar