Despite having trouble finding information, the events in Venezuela fascinate me. The government is seizing some 238,000 acres of British farm land, owned by meat producer Agroflora, as a first step to seizing over 1.4 million acres in the coming year. The meat producers, which claim to provide solely for the Venezuelan market, are losing their land because they can prove ownership back to 1840, not back to 1830 as requested by the government. This is all part of a promise to provide plots for 100,000 poor citizens by 2006.
President Chavez is clearly overstepping any stretch of power he may have, and hopefully, Agroflora's current appeal to the country's courts will prove successful and end this potentially disasterous land reform before it gets started.
While I strongly disagree with what's happening, I would say, however, that dramatic steps need to be taken in order to diversify Venezuela's oil-driven economy. Oil wealth is a killer. This is a long read, but very interesting on the subject.
I would also like to note that I heard on NPR that the state is by far the largest land owner in Venezuela, so it does seem as though Chavez is starting in the wrong place, especially if his only objective is to provide land to the poor. I unfortunately can't find anything on the internet that says so, but that's why I'm here. I say so.
No comments:
Post a Comment