VENEZUELA
Land reform moves ahead
By Leslie Feinberg
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is reportedly about to sign
into law an "agrarian revolution" that will dispossess many of
the country's richest landowners and turn over their estates to
poor farmers. According to a 1998 government census, 1 percent
of the population of Venezuela owns 60 percent of the country's
arable land.
The legislation could limit farm size in some regions to 250
acres and empower the state to expropriate idle land without
compensation to the owners of giant estates and cattle herds
known as latifundios.
"The latifundio is the enemy of the country," Chavez said in
an October speech about land reform.
The landslide election of Chavez in 1998 sparked a political
revolution that is showing signs of developing into a social
transformation. Chavez enjoys a base of support among the 80
percent of Venezuelans who live in poverty.
Big landowners were already enraged when Chavez, flanked by
visiting Cuban officials, parceled out 101,000 acres to 2,164
peasants in early September. The owners of the massive private
estates vowed to fight the more equitable redistribution of the
land.
"I believe it is the beginning of the Cubanization of
Venezuela," stated Sisoes Valbuena, who bemoaned the loss of
360 acres of his family's 7,400-acre ranch to landless peasants
during the ongoing land reform.
But peasants who have no land on which to eke out an
existence have been emboldened by the call for an agrarian
revolution. In the town of Machiques, squatters fought
landowners recently when the rich owners of the estates tried
to evict the poor.
Reprinted from the Oct. 25, 2001, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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