Federico Fuentes, Caracas
The right-wing controlled opposition media and big business, both foreign and Venezuelan, have unleashed a wave of condemnation against the recent actions of the Ministry of Agriculture and Land (MAT).
The editorial in the September 13 Venezuelan El Nacional criticised the taking over of three shut-down factories and the confiscation of 164,000 hectares of idle land owned by four latifundistas (large landowners), stating that "three states have witnessed these revolutionary advances: Yaracuy, Portuguesa, and Barinas. Also in Monagas, with the take over of [an idle Heinz Baked Beans processing plant]. The process of military occupations has accelerated as the temperature of the political rhetoric rises, and as the slogan is promoted with more ardour: 'Venezuela is on the path to a socialist regime'."
The "war to the death against the latifundia" declared by the MAT, has included a September 4 occupation of the installations of Promabasa, a maize processing plant in Barinas. The action involved MAT representatives, along with more than 3000 people, including ex-workers of Promabasa, community members, cooperatives and the National Guard. Promabasa belongs to the Polar group, one of the biggest corporations in Venezuela. This was followed by the takeover of Fribarsa, a slaughterhouse, and the seizure of the Heinz plant, all of which had closed down and had not functioned for years.
Despite the fact that the takeovers, for which the former owners will be compensated, have targeted only productive land and plants that have been left idle by their owners, El Nacional claimed that "the last 15 days have been particularly traumatic for those that have invested in, and through the years developed, productive entities across the whole country".
Vheadline.com reported on September 8 that agricultural minister Antonio Albarran insisted the government would carry out further interventions and expropriations. "There are 700 installations, some of which are working at half capacity and others that have been shut down ... by the end of the month, we will have a definite census of companies that could be declared public utility, opening the way for state ownership."
At the same time, the National Institute of Land (INTI) — an institution created to implement the December 2001 Land Law, which grants the government the right to expropriate idle land from holdings over 5000 hectares in size to redistribute for use by cooperatives of landless peasants — declared idle a number of large ranches totalling some 164,000 hectares. The redistribution of this previously unused land is set to benefit 1496 families, including hundreds of campesinos (peasants) grouped in cooperatives, Yaruro indigenous people and Vuelvan Caras cooperatives. (Vuelvan Caras is a government-sponsored social mission aiming to promote production for the Venezuelan, rather than foreign, market.)
INTI has plans to redistribute two more areas of land in Barinas and two in Apure, and has declared that 21 latifundios (unacceptably large land holdings) exist in Venezuela, which, combined, have access to 612,289 hectares of idle land. According to article seven of the new land law, large land holdings that are being used at below 80% of potential can be declared idle and redistributed.
The organisations representing Venezuelan business are up in arms. Noel Alvarez, president of the services and trade council Consecomercio, commented in the September 13 El Universal, "business owners are united in defence of private property. The government is controlling the economy, strangling businesses, so business owners are standing up in defence of the centres of private production."
President of the Venezuelan Confederation of Industry Eduardo Gomez Sigala also joined in to claim, "This is not new, there have already been attacks on private property. The army is being used as an instrument of intimidation."
In response, attorney-general Isaias Rodriguez stated on September 12 that he thought opponents of government policies were "trying to politicise this issue". He said: "The right to property is subordinated to contributions, restrictions and obligations which are established in accordance with the public or general interests."
Given that 70% of Venezuela's food for domestic consumption is imported and according to a 1997 census, 5% of the largest landowners controlled 75% of land, questions of food sovereignty and land distribution are being taken seriously by President Hugo Chavez's government. Years of neglect of the needs of the majority of Venezuelan people has left the nation largely dependent on the revenue from the sale of oil and left 80% of the population in poverty.
As part of the Bolivarian revolution, which aims to overcome this legacy of poverty and underdevelopment, the government is insisting that land and industry be put to use in order to help solve these problems, or else the government reserves the right to take land and factories and hand them to those who are willing to use them for the benefit of society. This process is supported by the majority of Venezuelan people, who are actively participating in carrying these measures out. The poor majority has repeatedly taken to the streets to defend the government against big business-sponsored attempts to overthrow it. Current polls put Chavez's approval rating at over 70%.
Quoted in the September 13 issue of Ultima Noticias, Rodriguez said that private property was subordinated to the restrictions and obligations set out in the Venezuelan constitution, supported by over 70% in a referendum in 1999. Article 115 states that only "for reasons of public benefit or social interest by final judgment, with timely payment of fair compensation, the expropriation of any kind of property may be declared".
Rodriguez argued, "This is not even about the interests of the campesino, or the property owners, but rather of society. From this point of view we have to understand the right to property as a social, rather than individual, right."
MAT has invoked article 305 to justify its land reform program, which states that it is the obligation of the state to guarantee the population "a secure food supply, defined as the sufficient and stable availability of food within the national sphere and timely and uninterrupted access to the same for consumers ... Food production is in the national interest and is fundamental to the economic and social development of the nation. To this end, the state shall promulgate such financial, commercial, technological transfer, land tenancy, infrastructure, manpower training and other measures as may be necessary to achieve strategic levels of self-sufficiency."
From Green Left Weekly, September 21, 2005.
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