Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered the military to seize more than 30 sugar farms in the Venezuelan state of Lara on April 11. The Venezuelan military entered the farms, claiming the land and infrastructure, while trying to allow production to continue normally. The move comes in the wake of the nationalization of the three largest cement firms and the largest steel plant in Venezuela the week of April 6. These past three nationalizations mark a turning point in Chavez's rule. Rather than nationalizing companies for political aims, the Venezuelan president is using nationalization to appear to address larger economic issues negatively affecting his supporters. More such nationalizations can be expected. Chavez used the sugar farm seizure mainly as a public gesture to address food supply issues. The country has seen food shortages in recent months, with produce and dairy supplies especially hard hit. Restrictions on neighboring Colombian exports to Venezuela — mainly consisting of agricultural products — have exacerbated these shortages. Venezuela remains the only Latin American nation that is a net importer of agricultural products, importing most of the food it consumes on a daily basis. With inflation at an estimated 20 percent during 2007, it is Venezuela's poor who have suffered the most. After being on the political defensive following his referendum defeat in December 2007, Chavez is trying to recover his image by taking steps to address his nation's economic ills. To this end, Chavez is continuing to push reforms rejected in the recent constitutional referendum, but in less overt ways. Rather than gaining outright economic control as outlined in the referendum, he is attacking economic issues through blunt nationalization of sagging industries. If today's military seizure signals the start of a trend, it would constitute a redistribution of land from private estates, something also rejected in the referendum. Although Venezuela's land redistribution plan has been in place for several years, and has seen the redistribution of land not used by corporations, this marks the first time Chavez has taken over privately owned land already farmed on a large scale. While previously redistributing land ownership from wealthy corporations was the goal, the new goal is increased basic agricultural production. Facing new depths of unpopularity, Chavez now must address issues related to the basic needs of his constituents, rather than picking off political opponents. As part of this effort, Chavez nationalized both Venezuela's largest dairy producer and several meat packing plants in March. He explained his recent nationalizations of the steel and cement industries as the result of domestic shortages due to exports. These moves were intended to display government action addressing Venezuela's housing shortage and its need for new health infrastructure. Given the simultaneous announcement of a huge Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA)-funded housing project, the political motivation behind these announcements becomes clear. Nationalizations, however, may do little to fix Venezuela's present shortages. Although short-term improvement is possible given the redistribution of exports to the domestic market, price controls in Venezuela still prevent food companies in particular from being profitable. The government takeovers will do little to improve production efficiency. In fact, more often than not — look at PDVSA over the years — they will reduce it. Nationalization of these industries simply will keep them afloat while the government absorbs the losses. The shift in the use of nationalization shown in the last two weeks from precise political tool to broad technique of economic manipulation means Venezuela can expect a number of quick changes. A series of nationalizations can be expected to continue, spreading across an array of industries, especially when the economic situation begins to affect other aspects of Venezuelans' daily lives. New nationalizations will be concentrated in the food and construction sectors in the short term; potential candidates could be in the poultry and coffee sectors, which have experienced heavy demand but have yet to see nationalization. Ultimately, the shift in policy means any commodity experiencing rising prices or shortages is now on the table for nationalization, making the opportunities for takeovers in Venezuela endless.