VENEZUELA: AUTHORIES ENFORCES RURAL LAND DISTRIBUTION AND INSPECTS BRITISH OWNED RANCH
Record ID:
648305
VENEZUELA: AUTHORIES ENFORCES RURAL LAND DISTRIBUTION AND INSPECTS BRITISH OWNED RANCH
- Title: VENEZUELA: AUTHORIES ENFORCES RURAL LAND DISTRIBUTION AND INSPECTS BRITISH OWNED RANCH
- Date: 8th January 2005
- Summary: (W1) COJEDES, VENEZUELA (JANUARY 08, 2005) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS OF RANCHERS TENDING TO CATTLE ON BRITISH-OWNED RANCH 0.13 2. VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS AT CHECKPOINT AT ENTRANCE TO BRITISH-OWNED RANCH 0.24 3. PULLOUT FROM SIGN OF RANCH TO VEHICLE LEAVING 0.35 4. WIDE OF DIANA DOS SANTOS, PRESIDENT OF AGROFLORA, UNIT OF BRITISH COMPANY THAT OPERATES RANCH, SURROUNDED BY MEDIA 0.39 5. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) DOS SANTOS SAYING: "We are very proud of what we represent in the country and that we are a company that is totally productive. During all of the years of our operating in the country, we have been leaders in everything that has to do with the development of cattle ranching." 0.54 6. VARIOUS OF SQUATTERS WHO HAVE INVADED THE RANCH, HOLDING MACHETES AND SIGNS 1.03 7. CLOSE OF SQUATTERS SHARPENING MACHETES ON THE ROAD 1.08 8. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ALFREDO RODRIGUEZ, LEADER OF GROUP OF SQUATTERS SAYING: "The British have no reason to come here and take our land. They treat us as if we were invaders but they are the ones who have invaded us." 1.19 9. WIDE OF SQUATTERS CHANTING 1.24 10. VARIOUS OF HOMES BUILT BY SQUATTERS ON RANCH 1.41 11. VARIOUS OF INTERIOR OF SHELTER, WOMAN WASHING DISHES 1.51 12. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) SQUATTER, PABLO RODRIGUEZ SAYING: "If they can demonstrate that they are operating legally and that this is their's - fine. However, they haven't demonstrated anything. They should now give everything over to us by this Venezuelan law." 2.06 13. VARIOUS OF NATIONAL GUARDS ARRIVING AT RANCH 2.17 14. WIDE OF GOVERNOR JHONNY YANEZ DURING NEWS CONFERENCE 2.22 15. SLV MEDIA 2.23 16. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) YANEZ SAYING: "We did not come here to expropriate, we came here to do justice. Whoever owns the land, as long as they do no have it idle, they have all of their documents in order and they are productive, will enjoy our support and security. But that land that we know there is a lot of here in Cojedes that was seized, land that is idle or they lack any of the proper documents, well, they need to be prepared because this (land reform) law is irreversible." 2.57 17. WIDE OF TOWNS PEOPLE APPLAUDING 3.01 18. SLV NATIONAL GUARD CONVOY IN AREA 3.07 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 23rd January 2005 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: COJEDES, VENEZUELA
- Country: Venezuela
- Reuters ID: LVA82TM5QXAUKZIWJ27FFSEWAPNW
- Story Text: Venezuela enforces rural land redistriburtion law
with inspection of British-owned cattle ranch.
Venezuelan troops and police escorted local
authorities to inspect a cattle ranch owned by Britain's
Vestey Group on Saturday (January 08) in the first
government enforcement of a rural land redistribution law
that critics say threatens private property.
Dozens of national guard soldiers and police lined up
on the edge of the 32,000-acre (13,000-hectare) El Charcote
ranch as officials ordered land inspections as part of
left-wing President Hugo Chavez's agrarian reforms for the
poor.
Government officials are demanding El Charcote hand
over public land used by the ranch and any idle farming
territory under a 2001 law that allows the state to take
over and redistribute farmland judged unproductive.
"We are not here to expropriate, we are here to do
justice. Those with land that is not idle, who have their
documents in order and who have farms in production will
enjoy our support," said Cojedes state governor Jhonny
Yanez.
Four helicopters buzzed overhead while the governor ordered an
inqu
iry into the ranch, where officials planned
a week-long review of property titles, production and land
use. Officials say at least 8,650 acres (3,500 hectares)
belong to the state.
Agroflora, the Vestey unit that operates El Charcote
and other farms in Venezuela, said it owns the property and
that the ranch is in full production. But the company, one
of the country's top beef producers, has welcomed the
measure to clear up illegal land invasions by pro-Chavez
squatters.
"We are very proud of what we represent in the country
and that we are a company that is totally productive,"
Agroflora President Diana Dos Santos said at the farm.
Some of the peasants on the land said they rejected the
local governor's move to inspect the farm, fearing
authorities could take away their squatter plots. They
appealed to Chavez for support and land titles.
The British government has asked Venezuelan authorities
to help resolve the invasion problems at the El Charcote
ranch.
Chavez, a populist former army officer first elected in
1998, says the land law is a centerpiece of his self-styled
"revolution" to end inequality and poverty in the world's
No. 5 oil exporter.
He says many private estates are left to waste, but
critics fear the land drive is another step in turning
Venezuela into a Cuba-style communist state.
At El Charcote, the land is dotted with wooden and tin
shacks where poor Chavez supporters have laid claim to
plots they say belong to the government.
Nearby the farm's ranch hands corral cattle on
horseback.
Local state police kept back a group of squatters
protesting the governor's measure by trying to block a
rural road running through the farm.
"The governor cannot force us out. We want to rescue
the land of El Charcote that is in English hands. They are
the ones who invaded this land," said Alfredo Rodriguez as
peasants waved machetes and chanted "Liberate the land".
El Charcote has become a high-profile test case for the
law's application since Chavez won an August referendum
vowing to deepen his social reforms. Officials say since
December last year they have pinpointed at least 24 million
acres (10 million hectares) of idle land, some of it on
private estates.
But local ranchers say the latest measure to hunt out
unproductive private estates is riding roughshod over the
law as local authorities ignore due process.
The land law was one of a dozen reforms implemented in
2001 that triggered nearly three years of political
conflict including a brief coup and a crippling oil strike,
until Chavez strengthened his mandate by winning the August
recall vote.
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