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Chavez's land reforms

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  • 02-07-2007 12:37pm
    #1
    silverharp
    Registered Users Posts: 18,367 ✭✭✭✭


    Has anyone got anything good to say about Chavez’s land reforms. I caught the end of a doc. On BBC last night and it seems that despite all the oil wealth there is still shortages of basic foods in the shops (sugar and milk) except at election time. He seems to have taken a leaf out of Mugabe’s book and is redistributing productive land to the peasants and the land in some cases is now idle for 5 years. He also seems to have put price controls in place but the result is that farmers are now producing less.

    A belief in gender identity involves a level of faith as there is nothing tangible to prove its existence which, as something divorced from the physical body, is similar to the idea of a soul. - Colette Colfer



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    #2
    DadaKopf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,731 ✭✭✭DadaKopf


    You seem to have taken a leaf out of the BBC's book by comparing him to Mugabe. Like it or not, Chavez is giving Venezuelans greater say in the running of their communities and the country. Where that will go is another question.

    As for the government's land reforms: they're very moderate. There are two land reform policies: rural and urban.

    The rural land reform policies enable the state to purchase land unused by the owners (supremely wealthy landlords) for over 5 years at market prices. The idea is also to provide these new farmers with tools and education in farming practices. Combined with this are the co-operatives which are granting farmers greater market access, and therefore incomes. Like any such policy, this has risks, but it is moderate by any measure.

    Urban land reform aims to transform the urban slums by granting dwellers property rights over the land which they have built their house, which, legally, may be owned by a supremely wealthy landlord. Since cities require far greater levels of utilities organisation and delivery, access to water, sanitation, electricity and telephone lines, the redistribution law requires urban communities to form a district committee which then negotiates with the city and utilities company a plan to rollout the service. New laws regulate the price of essential services so that most can afford it. Again, this land is unused, approptiated at market prices and is moderate by any measure.


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    #3
    Pazaz 21
    Closed Accounts Posts: 294 ✭✭Pazaz 21


    The reforms sound all well and good in theory but they don't seem to be appearing as facts on the ground. I caught most of the documentary on BBC as well and it seemed that the land owners main complaint wasn't that his land had been taken but that the people now living on it were not making any use of it. Nothing had been grown on it in the 5 years that it had been occupied. The people living there said it was because they had no deeds for the land so they could not secure finance to buy materials to work the land.

    Does this mean that Chavez's government has not bought the land from the landowner or are they just choosing not to pass it on?

    I agree that chavez is giving the people of Venezuala a greater say in the running of their country but the question IS where will this lead? What happens when the oil money runs out?


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