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Venezuela occupies Clorox factory after operations suspended

In this Aug. 1, 2011 photo, a detail of a label on a bottle of Clorox bleach is displayed in a supermarket, in Walpole, Mass. Consumer products maker Clorox Co. says its fiscal fourth-quarter net income dipped 1 percent as rising commodity costs took a toll. (AP Photo/Steven Senne).
In this Aug. 1, 2011 photo, a detail of a label on a bottle of Clorox bleach is displayed in a supermarket, in Walpole, Mass. Consumer products maker Clorox Co. says its fiscal fourth-quarter net income dipped 1 percent as rising commodity costs took a toll. (AP Photo/Steven Senne).

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuela’s government has occupied a factory belonging to Clorox just days after the U.S. company announced it was shutting down operations in the country due to its economic crisis.

Vice-President Jorge Arreaza says the socialist government decided to occupy the factory Friday to protect hundreds of jobs as a result of the Oakland, California-based company’s decision to abandon the country.

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In Arreaza’s words, “There was nothing else we could do. They left Venezuela and we couldn’t even talk to anyone except with a representative in Argentina on a video conference.”

Clorox Co. said this week that it was ending operations in Venezuela and looking to sell its local affiliate after struggling for years with rigid price controls and galloping inflation that made it impossible to make a profit.

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