CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stepped upthe pressure on wealthy landowners Saturday, saying he will send troops to confiscate unused farmland if large property owners refuse to give up the land to help the poor.
Outlining what he dubbed "the new stage of the revolution," Chavez declared "war against large estates," saying they are an obstacle forensuring more equality in the oil-rich but poverty-stricken, South American country of 25 million.
Owners of large plots of land have two choices, he said: give up their land or have the army take it away."The second option is conflict," Chavez told supporters at a rally inthe capital Caracas."We will take the land with army troops,"Chavez, who enacted sweeping land reforms four years ago, has issued the warnings before. But his comments Saturday are the most strident in months.
Authorities have used the Land Law, which was passed in 2000, as theirlegal basis for confiscating property from wealthy landowners. The lawmainly imposes strict rules on what ranchers and farmers can produce but also permits the state to grant state-owned land to the homeless.Butprivate landowners claim authorities have made numerous errors inclassifying lands as state-owned or private.
Many ranchers and business leaders fear Chavez's land reform initiative is part of aneffort to establish a socialist regime in the country.
Chavez, who has been in power since 1998 and survived a recall referendum in August, said the country's elite capitalized on their connections with officials in previous governments to acquire illegal property titles.A 1998 census shows 60 per cent of Venezuela's farmland,nearly179,200 square kilometres, was owned by less than one per cent of thepopulation. The survey said 90 per cent of farmland given to peasants in a 1960 reform program reverted to large landholders. Chavez also told supporters he will use other legal instruments to confiscate abandoned property in the cities.