Venezuela to take over Aeropostal, more airports

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced he would nationalize the country's private airline Aeropostal, citing government allegations it is linked to international drug networks.

Chavez, whose military on Saturday took control of all the country's major airports and maritime ports, said "we will renew (Aeropostal) as a social property."

He compared the projected transformation to that of state-owned airline Conviasa, which was created from the shell of bankrupt Venezuelan airline Viasa.

Chavez also said there would be an effort to grasp total regulatory control of the country's aviation industry.

But Humberto Figuera, president of the Airline Association of Venezuela, told AFP that a final decision is pending on the airline's expropriation, and its supposed links to drug trafficking.

Speaking earlier to governors and parliamentarians from his ruling United Socialist Party, Chavez announced the creation of two state firms to run the country's ports and airports that were taken over from regional authorities.

At the meeting Chavez ramped up his political attacks, slamming opposition leaders as "bandits" and arguing that their "crimes" have gone "unpunished" due to their political position.

Also Wednesday Venezuela's military moved to take control of five smaller airports in the northwest of the country, after the weekend's action that saw the military take control of all the country's major airports and maritime ports.

The expropriation was legal, following a recently enacted law handing management of the facilities to the central government.

Soldiers occupied maritime terminals in the opposition stronghold city of Maracaibo in the state of Zulia, the port of Guanta in Anzoategui and others in the states of Carabobo and Nueva Esparta.

The move was to "reverse the disintegration of national unity," said Chavez, referring to the reversal of decentralization moves 20 years ago that handed authority of ports and airports to state governments.

"We are reunifying the motherland, which was in pieces. This is a very important step."

When Chavez announced the move last week he threatened to arrest opposition governors if they resisted.

Many opponents decried the order as unconstitutional and as an attempt to concentrate all power in Chavez's hands.

Thousands of people took to the streets of Caracas in protest Friday over the president's jail threats to opposition figures.