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Article: Chavez orders halt to construction of Caracas mall
- Article from:
- AP Online
- Article date:
- December 23, 2008
- Author:
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President Hugo Chavez says he was heading through downtown Caracas when he was shocked by the sight of a huge, nearly finished shopping mall amid the high-rise offices and apartments.
"They had already built a monster there," Chavez said. "I passed by there just recently and said, 'What is this? My God!'"
So the often-impulsive president told an allied mayor to halt construction and said this prime block of urban real estate should be expropriated. He said the sprawling six-story building might be put to better use as a hospital or university.
The exercise in drive-by socialism illustrates Chavez's tendency to govern from his gut, and to leap in when he ...