Chavez's Economic Plans Set Latin Markets Reeling

Financial markets from Buenos Aires to Caracas reeled on Tuesday following Venezuelan President Hugo Ch?vez's announcement that he plans to nationalize some private companies, and the White House warned that it expects U.S.-based corporations to be compensated for any losses.

The U.S. Energy Department also expressed concern after Ch?vez, who has pledged to accelerate his socialist "revolution," said Monday that he would nationalize telephone and electric utility companies and increase state control over four major oil projects in which American and other foreign companies have invested $17 billion.

At the White House, Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said that "if any U.S. companies are affected, we would expect them to be promptly and fairly compensated." He also said that a nationalization plan, if it proved far-reaching, could be harmful to Venezuela.

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