SUHELIS TEJERO PUNTES
EL UNIVERSAL

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez Tuesday stressed that "it is not an abuse" to expropriate farms or industrial plants currently idle, thus endorsing the moves the Agriculture and Lands Minister Antonio Albarrán has been conducting in the last few weeks.

Further, the ruler urged governors and mayors to monitor idle urban lands and proceed to confiscation in order to build houses.

"An abuse is businesspeople abandoning their facilities. They have closed down operations and taken their money away. They have failed to pay their workers. They have debts and are taking the country to the fringe of bankruptcy. This is actually an abuse against the Constitution, the law and the Venezuelan people," Chávez asserted.

He called upon regional and local authorities to be attentive. "In Caracas there are idle plots of lands (...) People purchase a plot of land -where one could build 10 houses or one building- and they let the time pass, waiting for revalorization."

He stressed that governors and mayors would have the capacity to ask the owners of such lands for information about their use. "If they do not have any projects, then the Constitution should be enforced."

He added that his government is to pay for expropriated properties "the amounts it can pay, not what they want to be paid." "I could even give them a paper: 'Come in 2030 and charge this to Chávez." The Venezuelan President ensured that his government is seeking justice without abuse and wants "to pay them in two or three installments."

Finally, Chávez rebutted charges that the state is the major landowner in Venezuela. He pointed out that in the past the nation's lands were invaded and turned into large estates.

Chávez' weekly radio and TV show "Hello, President!" will be broadcast from an 8,000-hectare ranch recently seized by the government, the Venezuelan ruler vowed.

A decision ratified

Also on Tuesday, Minister Albarrán ratified decree 706, dated January 14, 1975, under which La Marqueseña ranch is declared wasteland.

In this, way the farm is to continue under government control until the Azpúrua family gives away the land claimed by Chávez' administration. Such plots of lands will be apportioned under agrarian deeds.

According to Albarrán, only 500 out of 8,000 hectares in La Marqueseña are productive. He rejected claims by the farm owner, Carlos Azpúrua, who said that military troopers imposed a siege on the ranch and the workers.

"It is not true. He is not kidnapped. Mr. Azpúrua appeared at the National Lands Institute last Sunday. He was told to leave some areas. Then, he returned to the ranch with no problem at all."

Albarrán stressed that the process of expropriation is to move forward in La Marqueseña, and in other six farms, including La Bendición Ramera (27,273 hectares), Jobito (14,904 hectares), San Paulo Paeño (30,580 hectares), Los Cocos (56,616 hectares), Barrera (3,731 hectares) and La Vaca (33,333 hectares), for a total of 174,987 hectares.

According to Albarrán 1,541 households would benefit from expropriation of these ranches.

Besides, the government is pondering the status of other 317 farms.

Translated by Maryflor Suárez