There is one thing President Chávez did not forget to do before leaving for Cuba to receive chemotherapy treatment for cancer: he delegated the power of expropriation to his Vice-President Elias Jaua.  And, why not? Expropriating private companies is about the only thing the government appears to be efficient at executing.

Last week,  among the other decrees signed by Chávez was the expropriation of a rice processing plant in central Guarico state, which he said had been violating labor laws and other requirements.  He made this announcement via his Twitter account. The process came to its expected conclusion after first being seized by government officials a year ago. The government’s intervention with the rice industry, a very important staple in Venezuela’s consumer market, started in 2009. Since then, the government has seized a variety of privately owned rice processing plants, twelve to be exact. This translates to 48 percent of the rice industry in the country at the hands of the government, ironically since it is against “capitalist monopolies.”  Venezuelans soon learn that when the government takes over these industries, it is not capable of producing the products. The scarcity of basic goods in Venezuela is well documented. Just last week, the Venezuelan daily El Universal reported that its own survey of six supermarkets and government-owned food outlets found that out of 16 price-regulated staples, at least 10 were scarce.

But the expropriations do not stop there. On Saturday, during a typical-style TV marathon appearance, Chávez raised the specter of expropriating water-bottling companies in Venezuela. In his usual bombastic style, Chávez alleged that private companies “own the water” in Venezuela.  This is not the case. The fact is that water in Venezuela is completely managed by the State. The State then provides concessions to private companies to bottle water and sell it throughout the country. In a country were water is not potable in many areas, the ability to distribute and purchase drinking water is a valuable commodity for the Venezuelan people. Yet despite an attempt by his Environmental Minister to correct him, Chávez ignored the facts and continued his rant against water bottling companies. This may be the first case of the government expropriating something and in this case water- that it is already in full control of.

Over the past 12 years that Chávez has been in office, the government has repeatedly attacked private businesses and frequently accuses them of hoarding products, leading to food shortages and contributing to the high inflation rates. Referring to them as speculators, Chávez has also charged them with trying to destabilize the economy in a bid to remove him from office.

This systematic takeover of the food industry is causing catastrophic failure with the country’s food supply. Food shortages are on the rise, inflation is rampant, and meanwhile the Chávez administration’s answer to these problems is to continue to intervene with the country’s food supply.