Property tug of war hits Venezuela

In mid-March, INTI made its assessment: Five ranches, including Piñero and nearby Charcote - one of Venezuela's top beef-producing ranches, owned by Vestey Group, a British food company - were to be redistributed. The lands were deemed public property and "mostly unproductive," according to the INTI statement. The owners had two months to respond before action was taken.

"We believe that the land agency has been badly advised," Diana Dos Santos, president of the Vestey subsidiary here, said at a press conference last month.

Days before the May deadline, Branger and others appealed INTI's decision in the courts, temporarily slowing down any action against them. "At the end of the day, the government can do whatever they want to us and our land," admits Branger, "but we will not give them any excuse to catch us [napping]." The Vestey Group, meanwhile, may take the case to international arbitration under a Venezuela-British investment-protection agreement.

In Hato Piñero's case, there is an additional element at play. As Branger explains, 75 percent of the land is gallery forests and flood plains that cannot be used for ranching and are maintained as a reserve. Nature lovers from around the world come here, paying $100 a night, to catch a glimpse of tapirs, yellow-knobbed curassows, and jaguars. Branger and other environmentalists are concerned that a government takeover of the land would lead to the depredation of areas in need of protection.

Chávez supporters argue, in turn, that the Brangers are using their conservation efforts as a ruse to protect privilege rather than the ecosystem. "No private owner can manage the biological and forest reserves for their own benefit, exploiting as a tourist business this resource that belongs to the whole country," INTI President Eliécer Otaiza said last month. "This land belongs to all of us."

Unlike other, unsuccessful, land-reform programs in the 1970s, the Venezuelan government this time is promising to form cooperatives, instruct the new farmers, and forbid resale of the land. Initially, at least, the government will be the legal owner of the land. Because of this, says Seth DeLong of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs in Washington, the proper historical parallel with what Chávez is doing is Lincoln during the Civil War.

"As with the Homestead Act, the Chávez government retains ownership of the land until such time as the land is deemed productive by the country's Land Institute," he says.

Far away from Hato Piñero, in Caracas's poor Pinto Salina neighborhood, Manuel Romero has heard about the government offer of land to the poor. Though he is not sure exactly how or what he would farm, he is vaguely interested, he says, in "anything that will bring in more money." He currently makes about $80 a month - more than most Venzeualans, 60 percent of whom live on $2 a day or less, according to government statistics.

His eldest daughter, Nuri, laughs at the idea. "What us? Ranchers?" she teases. "Perhaps Chávez can work such magic."

• Ms. Harman is Latin America bureau chief for the Monitor and USA Today.

Page: 1 | 2