Venezuelan President Chavez may order the closure of Alunasa, a Costa Rican aluminum processing company of the Guyana company in Venezuela, because of disagreements with Costa Rican President Arias. General Foreign News reported on February 26th that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez may order the closure of Alunasa, a Costa Rican aluminium processing company under the management of the Venezuelan state-owned heavy industry group Guyana (CVG), because of its relationship with Costa Rican president Arias (Oscar Arias). Differing. Venezuela and Costa Rica’s media said that Chavez expressed his anger at Arias’ recent comments. Arias said that the special power granted to Venezuela’s leaders recently violated democracy. In response, Chavez has allegedly decided to relocate Alunasa to another country in Central America and ordered an immediate suspension of exports of aluminum from Venezuela. However, the office of President of San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, did not receive any official information and therefore did not comment on the matter. Alunasa employees have sent letters to Arias expressing concern about the news. The Venezuelan National Assembly (AN) granted Chavez the right to issue decrees in various fields under a new act on the 4th. Chavez asked the National Assembly to pass the bill in January before he was re-elected as president of Venezuela, but the scope of the rights granted under the new bill remains unknown. Alunasa is located in the province of Puntarenas, Costa Rica and processes nearly 9,000 tons of rolled and semi-finished aluminum every year. The aluminium required is supplied by Alcasa, a company owned by Guyana, Venezuela. Alunasa expects aluminum exports in 2007 to increase by 6.2% from 12,424 tons in 2006 to 13,200 tons.