BODY: SIXTY years ago, Angel Moran's parents arrived at Santa Barbara, on a river south of Lake Maracaibo, by canoe. Mr Moran, now aged 71, built their original smallholding into a cattle ranch of 1,130-hectares (2,790 acres), clearing some of the land himself with an axe. "The mosquitoes were so thick they killed the chickens," he says. A few years ago, he split the land among his children. But last September, President Hugo Chavez's government, having given Enrique, one of Mr Moran's sons, 48 hours to vacate 160 hectares of his 388-hectare farm, divided this land up among ten landless families.
On coming to power in 1999 and launching his "Bolivarian revolution", Mr Chavez promised a radical land reform. In November he issued a decree aimed at speeding this up. It has landowners up in arms--literally. In January, a peasant leader was shot at his home. Hours before, Jose Huerta, a communist agronomist who had helped draft the land decree, had been shot by gunmen in Maracaibo, barely surviving. In all, supporters of Mr Chavez blame ranchers for more than 40 killings in the past three years, though others put the figure much lower. It is no coincidence that the new wave of rural violence is centred on the area south of Lake Maracaibo. It is the site of Venezuela's richest farmlands and the source of most of its meat and dairy production--and of its most powerful commercial farmers.
The peasants who have been given land at Santa Barbara have put up tin shacks, and plan to grow corn, cacao, yucca, plantain and fruit on what was previously grazing land. They see the government's action as a victory in a long battle. In the 1960s, they say, the government reclaimed marshland for redistribution, but the landowners took it over, by moving their fences. Only now, says one of them, is there a government prepared to stand up for the peasant farmer.
The government says too much land is in too few hands. Certainly, land ownership in Venezuela, as in much of Latin America, is unequal. Just 1% of farms account for 46% of total farmland. But only 12% of the population is rural: most peasants left the land years ago to seek jobs in the oil industry or the cities. Remarkably, the government has no estimate of the number of landless would-be farmers. But such is the labour shortage south of Lake Maracaibo that most farmhands are migrants from Colombia.
Rather than a solution to a social problem, the land reform looks like an attempt by Mr Chavez to punish his opponents and reward his followers. Many of the new settlers at Santa Barbara were previously town-dwellers, working as taxi-drivers or mechanics. Mr Huerta admits that about 60% of the members of land committees are from towns, some from the shanties around Maracaibo. Mr Chavez's dream is to empty the shanties by resettling the unemployed on rural plots. But officials admit that many of those trying to acquire land are doing so in order to sell it--something the new law prohibits.
The ranchers deny any part in the killings, though they express little regret at them. On one point, they agree with Mr Huerta: if nothing is done, the situation will get worse. Ruben Dario Barboza, of the local ranchers' federation, says his group wants talks with the government. But some ranchers will defend themselves, he adds. "They're not going to let some johnny-come-lately take what cost them years of sweat and blood." And if there is no dialogue? "Then we're going to war. Blood will inevitably flow."
Peasant leaders say they will respond in kind. Pamphlets have appeared, signed by a group calling itself the Bolivarian Liberation Forces, threatening that, "not a single comrade's death will go unpunished." The peasant settlers say they just want to work the land in peace.
The danger is of a Colombian-style war between landowner vigilantes and incipient guerrillas. But there is an obvious solution. The state owns much unused land, including 2,000 hectares near Santa Barbara. Clearing and developing it would require hard work and government investment in infrastructure. But unlike Mr Chavez's present policy, a genuine land-settlement programme might create a prosperous and peaceful countryside.
GRAPHIC: Digging in for Chavez; An ill-judged reform prompts bloodshed in the countryside -- Yoshie
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