Venezuela’s Land Reform: The Government’s Latest Attack on Private Property and Ownership Rights

Late Tuesday night, Venezuela’s National Assembly approved a land reform law which gives the Chávez government control over the production and distribution of food and agricultural products (in Spanish). 
 
Ironically, the new law comes two weeks after roughly 2,300 container-loads of food imported by the government were discovered rotting in the port of Puerto Cabello. Some of the spoiled food – milk, meats, and sugar – are the same basic products Venezuela has seen shortages of in recent months.
 
One of the articles of the new land law establishes that “large estates and privately-owned plots are systems that contradict justice, equality and social peace in the countryside.”
 
The new law calls for the “agricultural expropriation” of land plots for the benefit of the farmers who work those plots. Critics of the law, however, point out that the law is nothing but another attack on private property and an attempt to give the State “ownership of the land.” 
 
Since President Chávez rose to power in 1999, the State has seized about 2.5 million hectares of land; only 50,000 of those are currently active. Experts estimate there are about 30 million agricultural hectares in Venezuela which can be cultivated.