Posted on 03/13/2005 6:21:39 PM PST by nypokerface
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuela plans this week to take land from four private farms, including a British-owned cattle ranch and an eco-tourism reserve, as part of President Hugo Chavez's agrarian reforms for the poor, authorities said on Sunday.
National Land Institute director Eliezer Otaiza told Reuters the government would take parts of El Charcote farm, run by British meat producer Vestey, and the Hato Pinero reserve to develop state-sponsored agriculture projects.
"The land is going to pass over to us now," Otaiza said in an interview. "Tomorrow starts the rescue process."
Chavez says the agrarian reform campaign will respect private property rights, but his aggressive call for land redistribution has stirred fears that authorities will ignore due process and carry out illegal land grabs.
Otaiza said the state would take control of the land, because the four farms had failed to prove ownership, but they had 60 days to appeal to the courts.
Agroflora, the local Vestey representatives, were unavailable for comment, and the owners of Hato Pinero could not be contacted.
The 2001 land law allows the government to take land ruled as belonging to the state and expropriate private farmland judged idle or unproductive.
The land law was one of several reforms that triggered three years of conflict between the populist Chavez and his opponents, who say he wants to copy Cuba's Communist model.
The decision on the four farms follows weeks of land inspections, begun at the start of this year when Chavez ordered regional authorities to speed up the agrarian reform after he won an August referendum.
Otaiza said the state would take around 12,350 acres of the 32,000-acre (13,000-hectare) El Charcote farm and "80 to 90 percent" of the 198,123-acre (80,212-hectare) Hato Pinero farm reserve.
But he said the measures were not expropriations because the land was public. The government must pay compensation at market price for any land it expropriates, but not if the land is judged to belong to the state.
Chavez, a former army officer elected in 1998 promising to use the country's oil revenues to fight poverty, has said he wants to redistribute hundreds of acres of idle farmland nationwide to farm cooperatives.
Jimmah must be so proud.
Mugabe' must be proud.
Jimmy Carter, the worst President in American history, is STLL supporting thug dictator Hugo Chavez, after "certifying" the blatant theft of the last election.
It does sound awfully familiar.
Starvation and disease are a-comin to Venezuela - The logical and historical outcome of all attempts at State Collectivization.
Wonder how Carter would like having the State take his peanut farm? NO!
Britain should seize assets commensurate with the Chavez theft. Chavez is visiting more not less poverty upon his politically repressed populace. Stalinism seldom feeds anyone.
just a fat little Castro wanna be.......hope the next coup works out and he does his Mussolini impression
Chavez is going to ruin the Venezuelan economy if he follows the magnificentMugabe patented technique. They will be starving in the streets in 3 years in Caracas.
Actually, the Carter Center is back at work down there, supposedly trying to heal the divisions in the country, and just last week Carter was vacationing there guest of the Cisneros family.
And what will happen in the United States when "La Raza" becomes enough of a political force to start engaging in "land redistribution" as Sr. Chavez has shown them how to do?
All we're seeing is the future of the Americas at the hands of those who were allowed to dominate it.
Why should the government take away my property to give to another private individual?
Maybe in 2-3 years Venezuela can be a deserted wasteland like Zimbwabe.
And butt ugly too.
Wanna bet Chavez is already siphoning millions in oil and narco money into off-shore accounts? Chavez is busum buddies and protector of the narco-Commies of Columbia and their lucrative cocaine trade.
Did I say that? No way. Read the first sentence of the post. What I DID say was that, as outrageous and illegal as the Conn seizure is, the Venezuelan matter is even worse (If that is possible)
Sounds like the "People's State of Venezuela"....
ATLAS SHRUGGED PING!
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