‘My Venezuela Experience’ MN Man Describes Working In Venezuela

A Minnesota man took to social media yesterday and described his time working in Venezuela. The post, which was shared by the man after the United States arrested Nicolás Maduro, shed light on what working in the South American country was like, and what steps the US should take next.

'Our Office Was An Armed Compound'

Minnesotan Jeff Kazin, who was the former head of trading for Minnesota-based Cargill, took to X yesterday to share his experiences of working in Venezuela after the United States arrested politician Nicolás Maduro.

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Kazin described different things in his now viral post, one of which was where he worked, which he described as an 'gym, high speed internet, global communications, and a weekly box of basic staples'.

Cargill was/is the leading producer of critical staple ingredients such as flour, pasta, vegetable oil, and rice in VZ. I am not saying I agree with grabbing the dictator, but I did have a front row seat to the damage a kleptocracy did to innocent people.

1. The government took over our "minute rice" facility at gunpoint because we were "gouging" the nation's poor. The government was never able to run the plant. It never ran again. It was returned years later with no equipment inside

2. There are 1000's of generals in the army. They are each given a slice of the economy to loot. The large number of generals made it difficult to organize a coup against the regime.

3. The government opened grocery stores and sold staples below the cost we sold them to the government. In theory, they used petro oil money to lower grocery prices. Our regular grocery outlets were forced out of business. When the government demanded we sell them products below cost, we simply had to shut down. The populous became ever more dependent on the government handouts. (PS, this is the mayor of New York City's proposal.

4. Dollars- We needed dollars to go buy raw materials like wheat from places like the US and Canada. The government would periodically allocate us some dollars that could only be spent for raw materials and freight. Eventually, only the local companies that can and would pay bribes got dollar allocations. We had several facilities closed for lack of raw material

5. My employees liked working for Cargill. The office was an armed compound with access to a gym, high-speed internet, global communications, and a weekly box of basic staples. Cargill provided a safe and secure environment if only for the working hours.

6. Employees became very close to others inside the apartment building. Going out on the street with a desperate population was not advisable.

7. I needed wood pallets for feed. We tried to export wood pallets to swap for grain. We refused to pay the bribes it would take to export the pallets

8. I once tried to set up a closed-loop wheat planting to flour mill supply chain. A. They came and stole all the seed wheat for food. When we tried to ship in seed wheat in containers via US donors, there was no way to get it out of the port without it being stolen

9. Livestock- Our feed business completely collapsed. Even if you could raise a pig, you couldn't defend it from being stolen. People with guns were hungry.

10. Employees- In the end, my highly skilled team alone with other highly educated people, chose to leave. Cargill often found jobs for them in other Latin countries. The regime was more than happy to see the well-educated leave the country. Setting these employees up with high-quality stable jobs after fleeing remains one of the best things I ever done in my career. No one remembers millions in trading earnings. This is a short list. In my opinion, the first money spent needs to happen now, and it needs to be on food.

The US is already on the clock. The current regime does not care if it starves the population. The orgy of theft will actually accelerate if they believe their days are numbered. VZ should be an outstanding customer of US-grown ag products. Rice, bread, wheat, veg oil ect. Feed the people first.

Jeff Kazin, Former head trading Cargill

Jeff left Cargill 3 years ago in pursuit of another opportunity in agriculture, where he founded the Agris Academy, which you can learn more about here.

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