Before I get into discussing the seizure of EXITO stores by chavista goons today I thought that it would be good to add a sense of perspective. The major stockholder of the CATIVEN group which holds EXITO and CADA is the Casino group of France. They declared today that losing the EXITO stores would simply not affect their balance sheets because the Venezuelan operation represents about 1% of its turnover and almost zero profit. So here, at home, we have been anguishing over the EXITO takeover, watching workers fighting it out among themselves, thinking for ourselves it was a big deal, wondering how it will affect our access to increasingly scarce and expensive items, when in fact EXITO is almost irrelevant for its owner.
I cannot think of a better example to illustrate how irrelevant Venezuela is becoming in a globalized economy. Imagine what we will represent in 5 years from now if Chavez does not leave office. No more than a mediocre occasional oil supplier?