Vargas' home in Palm Beach"If any banker, the president of a foreign or domestic bank, refuses to comply with the constitution or our laws, not only could we nationalize the bank but that banker could be imprisoned for breaking the law," President Chavez warned in 2001.
I know. There are some of you who have even said that you don’t believe in conspiracy theories. I do. It is probably due to all the fiction I read. However, there is a story here on these dead horses. Hopefully, we will find out this week what exactly killed all these valuable polo ponies. We do know that this “toxin” only affected the Venezuelan ponies. That is strange in itself. Victor Vargas was known to have loved his horses more than anything in the world.
Everything I have been reading about Vargas, the banker indicates that he once was extremely friendly with Chavez, even tripling his wealth after Chavez came to power in 1998. Vargas came from the upper crust, one of the oligarchs of Venezuela with blueblood relatives, royalty it has been said. In 2004, his daughter married the great-grandson of General Franco and Chavez was at the wedding. Vargas is a capitalist in a Socialist country. Chavez, on the other hand, is a die-hard Socialist and in just a decade, has managed to nationalize many industries. In 2002 there was an attempt to overthrow him and he blames the United States, believing to this day that there is a conspiracy to remove him from power. In 2005, U.S. television evangelist Pat Robertson made headlines when he suggested Chavez should be assassinated.
In August 2008, Chavez announced that he was nationalizing the Bank of Venezuela that was controlled and owned by a Group of Spanish businessmen, Spanish bank Grupo Santander, after Chavez learned that this group was trying to sell the bank to Vargas. Chavez said that he was taking over the bank “since this is a country that is recuperating its wealth in order to put it at the service of the people.” This nationalization resulted in Vargas losing an estimated $100 million. Chavez has nationalized the power, telecommunications, oil and cement companies, several of them foreign-owned. Chavez continues to strong-arm businesses in Venezuela and people are worried about private property rights. He has been driving off foreign investment.
So we have a multi-millionaire capitalist living in a socialistic country under Chavez, a man who wants for nothing and is so insolated from socialism. He has over 600 people working for him and all his wealth has been derived through capitalism, something Chavez abhors. He has made it big in banking and lives like royalty and is as mysterious as Howard Hughes. His entire lifestyle is in direct conflict with Chavez. Chavez is taking away the power of the upper crust in Venezuela and perhaps targeted Vargas in particular in the Bank of Venezuela situation. Vargas has been too big to hurt. Vargas, has assets out of Venezuela and the continuing socialism of his country has not really affected him nor has he probably bowed down to it. He has taken a lot of money out of the country even buying the above oceanfront property in Palm Beach.
Hopefully, there is no conspiracy here and the death of these ponies was just caused by some awful, dreadful mistake. If anyone was behind the death of these horses, it would be so cleverly planned that no one would ever be able to figure it out as to who did it and why with 100% certainty. The only thing that would ever make Vargas stand up and take notice to what has been going on around him in his own country would be to take away something he loves more than money, his polo ponies.
How best to get back at someone, bring him to his knees, than to take away what he loves the most? It was reported that he was crying as he was holding them, as they died in his arms.
