Venezuela which has signaled that it plans to nationalize some of its industries as part of a move to build a socialist state is a "basket case,"
says James Baker III, a former U.S. Secretary of State who has had the ear of several U.S. administrations.
Baker made his comments at a conference sponsored by industry group The Turnaround Management Association and The Deal last week in Las Vegas.
"Its becoming a basket case," Baker told an audience of lenders, bankers and attorneys at the conference on Thursday, January 18.
Referring to its leader Hugo Chavez, Baker said Venezuela is "run by a flake."
A former Army paratrooper, Chavez has styled an image as a successor to Cuba's Fidel Castro and Simon Bolivar who led independence movements against Spain in the early 19th century.
Chavez has been critical of U.S. foreign policy and has signaled that he plans to nationalize electricity and telephone industries. The plans to nationalize the utilities are seen as part of a campaign to transform Venezuela into a socialist state.
A former Democrat who is now a Republican, Baker held several senior government positions under three U.S. Presidents. Under President George Bush, he was secretary of state between 1989 and 1992 and he served as chief of staff for President Ronald Reagan between 1981 and 1985. In 2003, Baker was appointed by the current Bush administration as special envoy on the issue of Iraqi debt. Recently, he served as a co-chair of the Iraq Study Group.
In remarks to the audience of lenders and bankers, Baker said that "despite scandals we (the United States) remain at the forefront of economic efficiency" and he added that "communism is in the dustbin of history."
Referring to Venezuela's plans to nationalize, Baker told the audience there is "serious backsliding in South America." - Aleksandrs Rozens
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