Posted on 05/21/2007 5:15:53 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
"We're heading toward socialism, and nothing and no one can prevent it," said Venezuela's strongman president, Hugo Chavez, in a televised address in January. Mr. Chavez had won re-election the month before after a campaign in which he promised to more aggressively advance socialism in Venezuela. Included in this push is what Mr. Chavez calls land reform: the redistribution of Venezuela's arable land from large farms to cooperatives, often nothing more than squatter homesteads. The Chavez government encourages the practice by offering loans de facto grants, as they are regularly not repaid to co-ops. Mr. Chavez argues for land redistribution in his usual Marxist rhetoric of social equality and class struggle, but the Venezuelan government also hails the practice as an essential step toward agricultural self-sufficiency.
The irony, if history is any guide, is that this kind of land reform promises to make Venezuela even more dependent on imported food. Mr. Chavez's brand of land reform is a proven failure, and in some cases, has led to disaster. One example that the Venezuelan leader is quite familiar with is Cuba, where the collective farming that Fidel Castro introduced proved ruinous.
Land redistribution has been ongoing since 2005, and the results are starting to emerge already. By some estimates, Venezuelan farmers produced 8 percent less food in 2006 than in 2005. Sugar cane production in particular is down, in one northwestern state by 40 percent. Landowners are trying to sell their property, knowing that if the land is taken over by one of the cooperatives financed by the Chavez government, they will not be compensated.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Didn’t Uncle Joe try forced agricultural collectivization in the Ukraine during the 1930s?
How did that work out?
God has the final word. Prayers for the people of Venezuela.
Oh for a moment there I thought he meant this Country and our politicians, who "can't"(?) or WON'T prevent it?
I believe Mugabi did the same thing in Zimbabwe. We know how that turned out.
Xuygo "Mugabe" Chavez
Land reform can work IF you can get the people to work the farm. Lazy farmers end up starving. Just dividing up the land and turning it into a collective will require overseers to make the farmers work. (Sounds like the ole south to me.) The produce will be collected and the majority of it will go to feed the populated cities. This will also require a state run transportation system. There will be no real incentive for the farmers to produce if they can’t benefit from it. The price will be controlled by the state not the market. I’m sure Chavez is getting ready for the resistance to the programs he wants to introduce by arming his supporters. Its going to be Zimbabwe all over again. Venezuela was a nice place to visit, don’t think I want to be there now. I have friends that own homes there, I believe they are quite worried about what is going down. One of my in-laws lost their cigar factory in Cuba, they were never compensated for it. I see the same thing coming in the near future in Venezuela for those who own real estate there.
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