Posted on 05/17/2007 5:35:08 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
SAN FELIPE, Venezuela -- Vicente Lecuna jabs a wall map of his Santa Isabel ranch so angrily that the map crashes to the floor. "I used to produce 10,000 tons of sugar cane a year," says the 67-year-old Venezuelan cattleman. "Now it's zero! Zero!" he shouts.
Two years ago, squatters seized about half of Mr. Lecuna's 3,000-acre ranch, setting up a cooperative named "Re-Founding the Fatherland." Far from being evicted, the squatters got loans and tractors from the government of President Hugo Chávez. They then uprooted the sugar cane and decided to try their hand at growing plantains.
"We are building socialism and fighting capitalism!" says co-op leader Juan Nava, standing amid wooden shacks on what used to be Mr. Lecuna's land. The rancher's efforts to fight the takeover in court have gone nowhere.
If the rhetoric smacks of the 1960s, it's because Mr. Chávez dreams of transforming Venezuela just as Fidel Castro did Cuba. Mr. Chávez has already sharply cut private companies' role in Venezuela's lucrative oil industry, and uses the state oil company to funnel billions of dollars to his social projects. He has nationalized the leading telephone company and the main electric utility. He speaks of wanting to drive a stake through the heart of capitalism, limiting the role of money and installing a barter system.
Now Mr. Chávez is taking his revolution to the Venezuelan countryside. "We must end latifundios," he said in a televised speech in March, referring to large agrarian estates. "The people order it, and we will do it, whatever the cost." Then he announced the seizure of a land area larger than the state of Rhode Island.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Zimbabwe II
Yeah, “land reform” worked so well there!
Zimbabwe was Uganda II. Venzuela is Uganda III. All are Cuba Redux. Lol!
I am constantly amazed at the how often History repeats itself.
It will take time - but Chavez too will disappear.
Vicente Lecuna should be given green cards for himself and his family. They can come here to the USA and be productive. The other losers in VZ can stay there and rot.
Chavez figuring out how to ZIM his own country. Priceless. Too bad those citizens who don’t know what is about to hit them thanks to this clown.
Chavez’ Cuba model is more Zimbabwe model than anything else.
Here it's called "eminent domain for shopping centers and high-end condos".
Thankfully our farmers produce enough food to feed the entire planet many times over. I am sure we can do the same for Venezuela.
Carolyn
And the DUmmies rejoice.....
Couldn’t read all the article since I’m not a subscriber.
I wonder how well that plantain farming project is coming along? I’m sure the squatters will abandon it in the middle of the harvest. I’m sure the stolen land will end up growing coca and marajuana, a guaranteed cash crop!
Actually it’s communism that this mad dictator is building. One step at time, he’s transforming his country into a poor land with no opportunity. He will then blame his troubles on the USA.
The goals of the American left (dems, pelosi) are really no different.
‘zackly. Its gonna get worse before it gets better.
Good point. Where I’m at a few years ago a local furniture store refused to take the underbid offer of 500k to get out of the way of Smith Barney. They went to court and a jury got them 1.5mil. A happy ending on that one.
At the Re-Founding the Fatherland co-op, the 96 members have four tractors, including a bright red Veniran made by a Venezuelan-Iranian government joint venture. Co-op members have uprooted about 540 acres of sugar cane planted by the former owner, Mr. Lecuna. The co-op's Mr. Nava, a wiry former construction worker in plastic sandals, says members have planted 60 acres of plantains, a figure he ups later in the interview to 170. Lecuna ranch hands say it's 10 acres at most. Co-op members have also planted small plots of corn, beans and watermelons. The co-op's production doesn't come close to sustaining its members, and most work in nearby cities and towns. The dozen or so who live in shacks on the land are currently building a concrete trough that they plan to fill with millions of worms. The worms will be fed cow manure to create a fertilizer called humus de lombrices, or worm humus. The technique comes recommended by Cuba. "By next year, we will live from this," says Mr. Nava, as two rail-thin dogs fight nearby and kick up a cloud of dust. Referring to the rancher whose land was seized, Mr. Nava demands, "Why so much land owned by one man and so many others dying for land? Tell Lecuna we are going to take everything. We are coming his way!"
More info here:
Clash of Hope and Fear as Venezuela Seizes Land - May 17, 2007 - URACHICHE, Venezuela — The squatters arrive before dawn with machetes and rifles, surround the well-ordered rows of sugar cane and threaten to kill anyone who interferes. Then they light a match to the crops and declare the land their own.The violence has gone both ways in the struggle, with more than 160 peasants killed by hired gunmen in Venezuela, including several here in northwestern Yaracuy State, an epicenter of the land reform project, in recent years. Eight landowners have also been killed here. “The oligarchy is always on the attack and trying to say you are no good,” Mr. Chávez said to squatters in a televised visit here. “They think they’re the owners of the world.”
Mr. Chávez’s supporters have formed thousands of state-financed cooperatives to wrest farms and cattle ranches from private owners. Landowners say compensation is hard to obtain. Local officials describe the land seizures as paving stones on “the road to socialism.” “This is agrarian terrorism encouraged by the state,” said Fhandor Quiroga, a landowner and head of Yaracuy’s chamber of commerce, pointing to dozens of kidnappings of landowners by armed gangs in the last two years.
You know, the main reason "collectives" fail is lack of incentive.
Then I started thinking that there may be a way for these collectives to succeed, a way to ensure that incentive for success exists.
All Chavez has to do is threaten to kill each collective member for harvests below state targets. After a few years of poor harvests, I'm sure the incentive will be there and collectives will flourish!
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