It seems Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is at it again.

Chavez has claimed he has seized the landmark Hilton hotel on Margarita Island because its owners dared to impose conditions on its use by his government to host a summit there last month.

“To hold the conference we had to ask for permission… and the owners tried to impose conditions on the revolutionary government. No way,” said Chavez. ”So I said, ‘Let’s expropriate it.’ And now it’s been expropriated.”

I’m sorry?

Mr. Chavez has been a media darling for years now. His antics would be even funnier if he wasn’t the head of one of the most powerful Latin-American, oil-rich nations in the world. This latest expropriation is one in series of expropriations his government has administered. What separates this specific seizure from the rest would be that it seemingly was initiated out of spite.

The hotel, in northeastern Nueva Esparta state, was targeted for nationalization less than a month after it was used to host the South America-Africa Summit on September 26 and 27.

The seizure was apparently billed as part of an “urgent” effort to boost “the social development side of the tourism and hotel industries in Nueva Esparta state.”

On Wednesday, the US-based Hilton chain said it was “evaluating” Venezuela’s seizure of one of its hotels. A Hilton spokeswoman told AFP that, in the meantime, the facility “remains a member of the Hilton system of hotels.”

Venezuela’s Minister of Tourism, Pedro Morejon, on Wednesday said the Hilton and its facilities were in an “advanced state of disrepair” and that the government would refurbish them.

“We’re going to socialize the hotel,” the minister told VTV television.

CorporateForeignPolicy will document the fallout as it occurs, but this is surely unsettling for both the Venezuelan domestic corporate sector and for foreign investors interested in expanding abroad.