Analysis: Land Reform

Venezuela Makes Progress towards Fairer Food System

ewan — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 15:29:39 +0000

Miriam Ross – Positive News

A combination of government support and community food growing initiatives is changing the face of the Venezuela’s food sustainability. Miriam Ross shares a taste of the results.

Fighting for Land and Territory in Urban Caracas: An Interview with Héctor Madera

Rachael — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 12:05:12 +0000

Jeffery R. Webber and Susan Spronk - Socialist Project

Jeffery R. Webber and Susan Spronk (JW and SS) interviewed Héctor Madera in Caracas Venezuela. Madera is one of the founders of the Comités de Tierras Urbanas (Committees of Urban Land, CUTs) and member of Movimiento de Pobladores (Poor Peoples’ Movement, MP).

A Personal Account of Land Occupations in Barquisimeto

ewan — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 00:28:18 +0000

Jacob Foucault

Jacob Foucault writes his personal experience of a grassroots land occupation in a wealthy area of the city of Barquisimeto, in Lara state to the west of Venezuela.

Impunity for Venezuela's Big Landowners

Rachael — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 20:02:48 +0000

Joe Emersberger and Jeb Sprague

In this piece, Joe Emersberger and Jeb Sprague discuss filmaker Edward Ellis' documentary "Tierras Libres". The documentary explores the assassinations of peasant-activists killed by hired assassins for trying to implement the government's land reform project and their families' quest for justice within a judicial system that is still controlled in large part by the national elite.

Murder of the Campesinos

tamara — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 15:07:58 +0000

Edward Ellis - The Guardian

It is not Hugo Chavez who endangers Venezuelans, but the greedy landowners killing peasant farmers with impunity.

Interview with Edward Ellis, Director of "Tierras Libres"

Rachael — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 15:23:14 +0000

Filmmaker, Edward Ellis, interviewed by Joe Emersberger

Joe Emersberger interviews Edward Ellis, director of "Tierras Libres," a documentary on the struggle for land reform in Venezuela. In this interview, Ellis discusses the murders of over 250 peasant activists and the Venezuelan government's response to these human rights abuses.

“Without Confrontation, There Can Be No Social Gains” – An Interview with Vice-president Elias Jaua

Rachael — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 19:05:36 +0000

MinCi and Elias Jaua

In this interview with the Ministry of Communication and Information in April, Venezuelan Vice-president Elias Jaua discusses the opposition, the dynamics of the PSUV party and his time as Minister of Agriculture. Jaua has recently been granted some presidential authorities, such as the right to approve expropriations, and would assume the presidency should Chávez become unable to continue governing.

Venezuela: Rural Killers Enjoy Impunity

tamara — Tue, 24 May 2011 18:20:16 +0000

Federico Fuentes - Green Left Weekly

Having arrived back in Caracas after more than two weeks visiting various rural communities, leaders from the National Campesino Front Ezequiel Zamora (FNCEZ) told us that the bodies of two of their comrades, missing since April 12, had been found.

Venezuela’s Battle for Food Sovereignty

tamara — Tue, 24 May 2011 14:32:19 +0000

Federico Fuentes - Green Left Weekly

Thanks to Prolesa, a milk processing co-operative in Tachira state, local milk farmers now have an alternative source to sell their milk to rather than being at the mercy of prices set by profit hungry multinationals that often exported the product for higher profits.

Venezuela: Battling Land Inequality and Farmer Exploitation

tamara — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 13:29:42 +0000

Edward Ellis - Correo del Orinoco International

Venezuela’s battle against land inequality and the exploitation of small agricultural producers has increased in intensity recently as the Chavez government steps up measures to redistribute fallow lands in the area known as South of Lake Maracaibo.

Venezuela: Food Sovereignty Project Launched

juan — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 15:49:45 +0000

Lisa MacDonald - Green Left Weekly

In October, Chavez called for the acceleration of the nationalisation of agricultural assets, to put more land and property owned by huge food corporations under public control. The land reforms undertaken as part of Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution have reduced hunger and poverty by allowing field hands to own the land they work.

Moving Toward Land Reform, Food Sovereignty and Agroecology in Venezuela

admin1 — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:09:49 +0000

Alan Broughton - Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network

A massive transformation of agriculture is occurring in Venezuela, a transformation that has lessons for every other country in the world.

Urban Gardens & Self Revolution

admin1 — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 23:10:22 +0000

Matthew Higgins

The rural life has been all but abandoned throughout the years in Venezuela, replaced by mass importation and consumption. Venezuela’s agricultural innovations have come out of a desire to create a viable alternative to the industrialized agriculture complex that has dominated. We, in the United States, can significantly draw from this government-supported and people-powered agricultural revolution.

The Food Sovereignty Movement in Venezuela, Part 2

admin1 — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 22:49:45 +0000

Anna Isaacs, Basil Weiner, Grace Bell, Courtney Frantz and Katie Bowen

Through their communal councils, many agricultural villages and towns are organizing to develop transportation infrastructure in order to make production economically viable.

The Food Sovereignty Movement in Venezuela, Part 1

admin1 — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 22:28:25 +0000

Anna Isaacs, Basil Weiner, Grace Bell, Courtney Frantz and Katie Bowen

One of the goals of the Venezuelan government and its people is a food system that is just and sustainable, that is able to provide what people need. Based on the examples provided here, it is certain that great strides have been made in the 10 years of the Chavez administration to address issues of food sovereignty, but Venezuela is working against years and years of damage that has already been done.

The Conflict between State-led Revolution and Popular Militancy in Venezuela

admin1 — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:39:52 +0000

Zachary Lown – Venezuelanalysis.com

In Merida, Venezuela socialist governing officials clashed last June with families that took over unproductive farm land. This clash illustrates an apparent contradiction within the Chavez government's "participatory and protagonistic democracy" which calls on citizens to seize control over their communities and lives yet must also ensure political stability in strategic regions of the country.

Chávez and Morales Take On Sweeping Measures at Land Reform

greg — Thu, 07 May 2009 00:14:53 +0000

Adam Kott and David Rosenblum Felson - COHA

Latin America’s battalion of left-leaning leaders has been in full voice as they turn to achieve the land reform goals of the Bolivarian Revolution. The tenets of this revolution are best seen today at work in Venezuela and Bolivia.

Land Reform Conflict in Venezuela’s Strategic Water Source

greg — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:38:48 +0000

James Suggett - Venezuelanalysis.com

Cooperativist ecological farmers supported by the Venezuelan government’s land reform programs were attacked last Thursday by armed and masked men who, the farmers say, were hired by large estate owners in the area to cut short the changes heralded by the “Bolivarian Revolution” in their rural Andean Mountain valley.

Co-operatives Turn Idle Landed Venezuelan Estates Green

greg — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:53:52 +0000

Humberto Marquez - IPS

"As far as you can see, there was not one litre of milk produced, not even an ear of corn," says José Tapia Coirán, turning with his arms outstretched, pointing to the horizon of the Venezuelan savannah dotted by trees. "Now we produce 500 litres of milk per day and we harvested one million kilos of maize."

Look out Florida, here they come! Land and food in Venezuela

kiraz — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 04:17:26 +0000

Patrick Irelan - CounterPunch

Last week, the Los Angeles Times gleefully reported that a crowd in Sabaneta, Venezuela, had looted a food warehouse belonging to the state-owned Mercal grocery-store chain.

Venezuelan Government Announces Offensive Against Paramilitaries

jan — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 23:34:07 +0000

Jim McIlroy & Coral Wynter - Green Left Weekly

“It is not possible [to accept] the continued massacre of our campesinos ”, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez declared on August 6, “The chiefs of police must respond to these acts... if they feel incapable they must resign.”

Feeding Ourselves: Organic Urban Gardens in Caracas, Venezuela

jan — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 01:14:31 +0000

April M. Howard - Toward Freedom

In the middle of the modern, concrete city of Caracas, Venezuela, Noralí Verenzuela is standing in a garden dressed in jeans and work boots. She is the director of the Organopónico Bolivar I, the first urban, organic garden to show its green face in the heart of the city of Caracas, Venezuela.

Venezuela’s Urban Land Committees and Participatory Democracy

jan — Sat, 11 Feb 2006 21:12:35 +0000

Alex Holland – Venezuelanalysis.com

The Urban Land Committees represent one of Venezuela’s most interesting and significant developments. The success or failure of these Committees could be one of the most important factors determining how transformative the current process will be for Venezuela.

MST Representative Visits Venezuela, Sees Country in Transformation

jan — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 02:52:27 +0000

Joao Pedro Stédile - MST

I am writing to you from the bolivarian planes in the state of Barinas, in the centre of Venezuela. I am here doing a "recorrido" [tour], as they say, to learn about the agrarian reform process in Venezuela. I am impressed. I am very impressed.

Venezuelan Land and Factory Expropriations as seen from the Labor Ministry and the Union Federation

jan — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 03:04:25 +0000

Federico Fuentes - Green Left Weekly

Marcela Maspero of the pro-Chavez union federation UNT and José Gregorio Villarroel of the Labor Ministry explain to Green Left Weekly's Frederico Fuentes how they see the recent intensification of expropriations of idle land and businesses.

A Visit to Lord Vestey’s Ranch in Venezuela

jan — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 03:08:36 +0000

Karen Hill

I decided I would go to El Charcote, near San Carlos, as I had heard that there was a land dispute between a wealthy English Company and some campesino families who had occupied the land. I thought that perhaps our solidarity group could do something to support the campesinos in their struggle to stay on the land.

Venezuela’s Quiet Housing Revolution: Urban Land Reform

jan — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 03:57:37 +0000

Gregory Wilpert – Venezuelanalysis.com

Flying below the radar of most Venezuela observers, both pro- and anti-Chavez, Venezuela is undergoing a quiet revolution, in which urban land reform promises to dramatically improve the lives of millions of Venezuela’s poor. The urban land reform is functioning as a catalyst for the unprecedented mobilization of Venezuela’s barrios.

Land for People not for Profit in Venezuela

jan — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 19:53:12 +0000

Gregory Wilpert – Venezuelanalysis.com

The Venezuelan government under President Hugo Chavez is the only government in Latin America, and perhaps even in the world, that is currently trying to pursue an ambitious land and agrarian reform program. A review and assessment of the land reform program's strengths and weaknesses.

Venezuela's Peasant Leaders Demand Justice and Protection

jan — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 21:10:12 +0000

Jonah Gindin – Venezuelanalysis.com

Since the Venezuelan land reform was passed four years ago an estimated 130 peasant leaders and activists have been assassinated. On Monday, land reform and peasant groups marched on Caracas to demand justice and protection from the Venezuelan government.

Venezuela's Agrarian Land Reform: More like Lincoln than Lenin

jan — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 22:14:09 +0000

Seth DeLong - COHA

In the history of land reform, the most accurate analogy to illustrate what is transpiring in Venezuela is not Zimbabwe or Cuba – Chavez officials have repeatedly emphasized that they are not emulating the Cuban model of land reform – but the U.S.’ own Homestead Act.