The Militant - March 14, 2005 -- Venezuela gov’t expropriates half of British firm’s cattle ranch

Vol. 69/No. 10 March 14, 2005

Venezuela gov’t expropriates half
of British firm’s cattle ranch

BY SAM MANUEL
Landless peasants in Venezuela won a big victory when the government announced it will expropriate about half the land on a cattle farm owned by a large British company. The decision follows a government inspection of the El Charcote farm to decide whether any of the land had been obtained illegally, what sections were idle, and how much should be turned over to landless peasants who have occupied part of the farmlands for four years, cultivating vegetables and other crops.

The government will expropriate nearly 2,000 acres, said Alexis Ortiz, an official in the central state of Cojedes where the farm is located. According to the February 24 Business Week, Ortiz said the government’s inspection showed that 12,350 acres of the farm’s land had been claimed illegally, and actually belongs to the state. Ortiz explained the expropriated land would be given to poor farmers.

Ortiz also said that the owners of the farm would be charged for having used state lands and that the amount could be deducted from the compensation the government would normally pay for expropriated land. (No details were given regarding the remaining 10,000 acres found to be illegally obtained or idle.)

The El Charcote farm is run by Agroflora, a subsidiary of the Vestey Group, owned by British food tycoon Sam Vestey. It normally produces 3.3 million tons of beef annually but now produces about a third of that. Agroflora operates 13 farms in Venezuela, and Vestey also owns farms in Argentina and Brazil, and an export shipping line. Vestey’s wealth is estimated at $1.4 billion.

On January 8 some 200 Venezuelan troops and police accompanied government inspectors onto the farm to conduct a survey. When landless peasants began to occupy the farm four years ago, El Charcote’s managers responded by hiring thugs to shoot and kill several peasants. About 80 peasants have been killed by ranch owners throughout Venezuela in the last six years, according to the New York Times.

Peasants at El Charcote responded to the rancher’s effort to drive them off the land by organizing a protest that took over the offices of the National Land Institute (INTi). Following a meeting by a delegation of the peasants with Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez they have been allowed to remain on the land. Some of the peasants are plowing fields with tractors bought with government credit.

“I will not abandon this land,” said Félix Rodríguez, 41, as other peasants nodded in agreement during an interview with the Times. Peasant José Pimentel called the British company “invaders,” adding, “They are on land that is not theirs.”

According to INTi about 115,000 landless peasant families obtained titles to more than 9 million acres of land between the enactment of land reform legislation in the fall of 2001 and the end of 2004. On January 10 the Venezuelan government announced a special decree aimed at accelerating land distribution. More than 10,000 peasants went to Caracas, the country’s capital, to hear the announcement by Chávez, according to the BBC.

In February the Venezuelan government said it had identified more than 500 idle farms and is reviewing the status of another 40,000.

A 1998 census found that 60 percent of Venezuelan farmland was owned by less than 1 percent of the population. It also said 90 percent of farmland given to landless peasants under a 1960 agrarian reform had since been returned to large landowners.

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