QUEST: General Motors is backing out of Venezuela. The company ceased operations after the plant was seized by authorities last month. There are fresh protests in the country as the Venezuelan president pushes for changes to the constitution. This question over GM has been a right royal mess, hasn't it, over whether they're already there, whether they've already left, whether they're doing any production anyway. But the underlying point is true, which is that western companies are pulling out.</s>STEFANO POZZEBON, FREELANCE JOURNALIST: Yes, absolutely, Richard. The end of the line here is that 2700 families, 2,700 people who used to work for general motors in Venezuela are not working, they're out of jobs since the end of April, because the company is leaving the country, amid one of the strongest regulation recessions in the history of the country. General Motors, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, they've struggled to make business in Venezuela amid rampant inflation, chronic difficulty of getting hold of basic goods. Venezuela is going through a massive scarcity crisis.</s>QUEST: Is it your feeling that the situation is deteriorating at a very rapid pace? Or is it just basically continuing in a sort of sludge and trudge?</s>POZZEBON: Richard, the sludge and trudge in the last few weeks have reached the political stage, with people taking the streets. We haven't seen any major difference on the economic and social point of view between I would say six months ago and now. Go we're seeing that now the people are really getting tired of the scarcity, really getting tired of not being able to buy basic goods such as corn flour, milk, and coffee. They're starting to take the streets. It looks like they're not going to leave the streets, they'll keep protesting as long as somebody isn't able to fix the massive economic shortages.</s>QUEST: Thank you for keeping us up to date on what's happening in Venezuela. We'll have a Profitable Moment after the break.
General Motors Ceases Operations in Venezuela