[Marxism] BBC: Chavez govt presses forward with agrarian reform

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Published: Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Bylined to: VHeadline.com Reporters

BBC News UK: Chavez righting decades of neglect; continues land reform
policy

BBC News UK reports that to his supporters, President Chavez is
righting decades of neglect. Venezuelan authorities have identified
more than 500 farms, including 56 large estates, as idle as it
continues with its controversial land reform policy.

Under a 2001 land law, the government can tax or seize unused farm
sites.

    * A further 40,000 farms are yet to be inspected, the state's
National Land Institute has told Associated Press.

Executive Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel has said farmers and
ranchers with their titles in order and their lands productive have
"nothing to fear."

Critics of the land reform policy claim president Hugo Chavez is
trying to enforce a communist-style economic program that ignores
property rights and will damage the country. Land owners claim the
National Land Institute has made mistakes in classifying lands as
public or private. The opposition has accused the state of invading
private property

But the government -- Venezuela's largest land owner -- says it is
proceeding cautiously to prevent conflicts.  In a statement, Mr.
Rangel said the land reform is not against the Constitution ... which
permits private property ... while stressing the efforts are to
"vindicate social and economically" years of inequality in the country.

Foreign owners: One property in conflict with the government is the El
Charcote cattle ranch, run by Agroflora, a subsidiary of the UK food
group Vestey.

Agriculture minister Arnoldo Marquez told Reuters news agency the
site's documents "do not guarantee that this is a private land."
Administrators of the ranch, however, have complained that pro-Chavez
squatters have taken over 80% of the property in the last four years,
and the UK government has asked Venezuelan authorities to resolve the
conflict.  "You should ask the company when they are going to put
their papers in order and hand over the land that is not theirs," said
Mr. Marquez.





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