Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: P-40

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!


14 posted on 05/17/2007 5:53:19 AM PDT by Muzzle_em (A proud warrior of the Pajamahadeen)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies ]


To: Muzzle_em
Here's another excerpt:
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.


19 posted on 05/17/2007 6:14:23 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson