Venezuela's government says it will reactivate an assembly line after U.S.-based Goodyear Tire & Rubber announced it will no longer produce tires in the crisis-wracked country.
The socialist government said in a statement Tuesday that it aims to preserve some 1,160 jobs. The government has made similar pledges following other plant closures in the past only to see its efforts fall short.
It called the Akron, Ohio-based company's decision to halt production in the industrial city of Valencia illegal and vowed to pursue legal action against its Venezuelan executives for alleged "sabotage."
Goodyear is the latest international corporation to cease operations in Venezuela amid hyperinflation, price controls, U.S. financial sanctions and an economic contraction worse than the U.S. Great Depression.
A Goodyear billboard emblazoned with the Spanish word for welcome, is posted near a plant entrance company where workers arrived to find the plant is no longer in operation, in Los Guayabos, Venezuela, Monday, Dec. 10, 2018. Image credit: AP Photo/Juan Carlos Hernandez
