Venezuela business crackdown

President Nicolas Maduro has promised to step up a pre-election "economic offensive" that has seen hundreds of Venezuelan businesses inspected for price gouging and crowds flocking to shops to take advantage of state-ordered discounts.
 
Since the weekend, soldiers and government inspectors have gone into 1,400 shops, taken over operations at an electronics firm and a battery-making company, begun prosecutions of nearly 30 retail managers, and also rounded up a handful of looters. (Reuters)