CARACAS (From The Wall Street Journal) -- Venezuela's government said it occupied Kimberly Clark Corp.'s local plant, days after the diapers maker had halted operations because of shortages of raw materials in the crisis-stricken country.

"Kimberly Clark will continue producing for all Venezuelans and is now in the hands of the workers," Labor Minister Oswaldo Vera said Monday in a televised address from the company's plant in central Aragua state, before signing an order to take it over. The labor ministry claims Kimberly Clark had violated Venezuelan law by firing over 900 workers without consulting the government.

A company spokesman said they are aware of the minister's order, but are unable to confirm the occupation.

The collapse in oil revenue has left Venezuela without dollars to import food for its people and inputs for the industry, forcing foreign companies including Generals Mills Inc. and Bridgestone Corp. to leave the country this year. Strict currency controls prevent companies in Venezuela from buying dollars with local earnings.

"It doesn't matter who's running the factory," said Henkel Garcia, director of the Caracas business consultancy Econometrica. "The bottom line is that there are no raw materials that anyone can afford to import."

Mr. Garcia called the plant takeover a last ditch effort by the government to show that it is tackling a worsening crisis. "It's impossible to restart the factory given the conditions in the country," he said.

Venezuela's imports per capita this year will fall to the lowest level since the 1950's, according to Caracas-based consultancy Sintesis Financiera. The economy will contract by at least 10%, they estimate.

President Nicolas Maduro has threatened companies who stop production with expropriation. "Plant closed, plant reclaimed by the working class," he said in April.

Since taking power 17 years ago, Venezuela's leftist government--first under late leader Hugo Chavez and now under his successor, Mr. Maduro--have seized over 1,200 farms, companies and other private businesses in the name of the Socialist Revolution. Production has plummeted, helping to empty shops of goods.

The shutdown of the Kimberly Clark plant came as up to 35,000 Venezuelans, unable to buy hygiene products, food and other basic goods, stormed into the Colombian city of Cucuta on Sunday, when Mr. Maduro's government opened a pedestrian border crossing for a day.

The Venezuelan government has closed the border nearly a year ago and deported thousands of Colombians, accusing them of fueling food shortages with smuggling.

The shoppers promptly swamped supermarkets, carrying toilet paper and diapers back to Venezuela on foot.