Handing it the land on a silver platter

VenEconomy Thursday June 17, 2010:

Venezuela has become a country of surrealisms and backwardness.

On the one hand, the flies are having a banquet thanks to the tons of food that has been left to rot by the government, PDVSA, and its affiliates that import, distribute, and market basic food products. Just a small example of a much announced disaster!

On the other hand, the property predators, with which the corridors of power are crawling, every day appropriate companies that other people have built up with their work and money. Today, the government has in its possession land suitable for primary production that had been proved to be under production. It also owns coffee roasters and food processing plants of all kinds that had been supplying the domestic market when their owners were private businessmen, not to mention sugar mills, silos, a cold chain, food distribution companies, and food wholesalers and marketing chains that, before passing into the hands of the State, were among the biggest in the country. And that is quite apart from its own networks, such as PDVAL, Mercal, and CASA. The government has no excuse for not guaranteeing the country's food sovereignty. But it is far from doing that; quite the contrary.

Now, this Tuesday, July 15, the redder-than-reds in the National Assembly unanimously passed a Land and Agricultural Development Act that will "govern the functioning of public and private lands with agricultural potential."

Despite the government's proven failure, incompetence, and corruption in managing the supply of basic food products, the National Assembly has taken it into its collective head to give it the power to directly assume "ownership of all primary production, industrialization, distribution, exchange, and marketing activities" within Venezuela's agricultural sector, allegedly "to strengthen the domestic productive apparatus."

There are several points in the new law that give cause for concern. One is the elimination of the latifundio (large estate) and the working of the land by persons other than the owners, as they are considered "systems contrary to justice, the general interest, and peace in the countryside"; and another is that, in recognizing the right to "allocate lands," it establishes that this shall be in accordance with the socialist principle of "the land is for he who works it."

Furthermore the law establishes, in terms that are discretionary and very broad, that private land shall fulfill "the social function of food security of the nation," and to that end, it must be used to meet the food production needs as established by the Venezuelan Government.

Another article that warrants attention is the one that establishes that the registration, transfer, and encumbrance of land with agricultural potential or improvements thereon may not be officially filed, recognized, or authenticated without the due authorization of the National Lands Institute.

In other words, the INTI, known for its predilection for grabbing land and properties, will have full discretionary powers to decide to whom it will allocate or grant property rights over agricultural land and what will be produced there. What a nerve!