The famous Sugar Mill of Táchira (CATZA), located in Ureña, Táchira State, which once was one of the important sources of employment on the Táchira border, is currently paralyzed and in the hands of the Ministry of Penitentiary Affairs, which has not wanted to release it to the Venezuelan Sugar Corporation, which is in charge of this type of industry.
By La Patilla
Feb 26, 2023
CATZA was a national company with foreign capital, that belonged to the Colombian group Comercializadora de Azúcares y Mieles S.A. (CIAMSA), which was expropriated under decree No. 7,392 of the Presidency of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, during the mandate of Hugo Chávez, in 2010. This sugar mill generated 2,500 direct and indirect jobs.
Sources close to the sugar mill consulted by lapatilla.com indicated that since March 2020 this production center has been inoperative.
However, it was disclosed that Maduro’s regime is looking for investors to inject money into it, but due to the advanced deterioration of the facilities, which would need more than 4 million dollars to be restored, coupled with the lack of raw materials such as raw sugar, which would need to be imported from Brazil, no businessman has wanted to bet his capital on this company.
“They have looked for investors, but when these see its state of abandonment, they all back down, because it would take a very long time to recover it, and there is also no legal certainty,” said a former Catza worker.
Additionally, in the Ureña area, sufficient sugar cane production stopped, so this input is also in short supply. Nearly 170,000 tons of cane were milled at the sugar mill, of which 70% used to be Venezuelan and 30% Colombian production, the source noted.
Much of the sugar cane that was milled in Catza came from Norte de Santander and from sugar cane plantations in the border municipalities of Táchira, where now only weeds and invasions reign.
The karma of nationalization
The Minister of Agriculture and Land in the year 2009, Elías Jaua, justified the nationalization of the company, because supposedly the company wanted to blackmail the government to let them import sugar to Venezuela from Colombia, or if not they would paralyze the milling activities.
Regarding these facilities, Jaua said that their owners decided to stop production, because they were not allowed to sell the sugar at the price they wanted.
“They stopped producing because they cannot sell sugar at the price they want, because there is a government that has regulated prices to guarantee the people access to basic food,” former minister Jaua justified at the time.
For the year 2016, after the expropriation, the Catza workers began to report the drop in production due to lack of maintenance, loss of skilled labor and labor debts, since for that year workers were already owed Bs 9,621,000. But in addition to requesting this payment, the working class demanded safe working conditions, taking into account that the plant’s maintenance service was suspended.
A foreman who was consulted gave details of how the operation used to be before 2010. He narrated that Catza bought the cane from the producers of the municipality, between 1998 and 1999, the date on which Venezuela had a ban on sugar cane imports, so it became very complex to receive raw material such as raw sugar and cane from Norte de Santander. After they released imports, the situation improved.
Every January 15th, the harvest began. At the beginning it lasted three months, then the harvest was extended up to six months and later, the whole year was dedicated to grinding and extracting sugar with about 400 suppliers.
Within the Catza facilities there were at least 10 houses, a swimming pool, a field, and recreational areas. Every November, the company entered the maintenance phase and started up again in January to work without setbacks, explained the foreman consulted.
In the hands of the Ministry of Penitentiary Affairs
Over the years, the nationalized company was losing type 1 land, dedicated solely to this crop located around it as a result of the invasions promoted by Chavismo, which later became shantytowns and lost to agriculture.
In 2019, the regime decided to hand over the reins of Catza to the Ministry of Penitentiary Affairs with the promise of reactivating the Ureña Sugar Mill. From that moment on, its name was changed from Cazta to the Sugar Mill of the Autonomous Institute of Penitentiary Labor Fund (Caziactp), where the brand “La Azureña” would be produced, and which would have a production capacity of 200 tons of refined sugar.
According to the information provided by the Ministry of Penitentiary Affairs at that time, a steam power production system was designed, which would fully cover the requirements of the sugar complex to deal with power failures that are frequent and prolonged in the border area.
“This sugar mill will be a truly important source of employment for this municipality, which will have an impact on the Ureña, San Antonio, Rubio, Capacho and San Cristóbal municipalities,” Iris Varela said at the time.
For several months, the CPO inmates were observed doing work in the mill facilities, but now not even those men in yellow suits are seen in these areas. To date, the Penitentiary Ministry has not reported on the number of kilos produced since the facility reopened.
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