Land reform ghosts and FARC’s hostages
Just as the 49th anniversary of Fidel Castro’s revolution rolls up on us, his legacy is reaching into Hugo Chavez’ Venezuela according to this report from the Miami Herald’s Casto Ocando;
When Bienvenido JorajurÃa could not get into his family’s La Quinta ranch in the fertile region of Yaracuy, in north central Venezuela, the Cuban-born rancher felt a familiar frustration.
The land was confiscated earlier this year by President Hugo Chávez’s government after armed peasants backed by the national guard invaded it, despite the fact that it was in full production.
For JorajurÃa, it was the second time his family’s land had been expropriated. In 1960, his family’s farm in Matanzas, Cuba, was confiscated by Fidel Castro’s government.
Funny how most of the US media is skipping right over this story. Just a few months ago, Chavez’ main ally, Islamic Republic’s Mahmoud Ahmidinejad proposed an alliance with the king of land reform – Robert Mugabe (FARS link). The subject of the story recalls the parallels between the seizure of his father’s land in Cuba and his own;
”They forced us to provide documents to prove that the property was private as far back as 1850,” said Adivi Ahmad, Bienvenido JorajurÃa’s wife, who inherited part of the land in La Quinta, which was purchased by her father in 1947.
”Finding these documents was extremely difficult because of Venezuela’s public registry disorder,” Ahmad told El Nuevo Herald.
Ahmad said it took six months and about $500 to compile and submit the documents, but later those documents ”got lost” in the office in charge of collecting them.
The JorajurÃa story is similar that of other ranch families of Cuban origin in Venezuela.
Various parts of the story hint at Cuban government involvement in the expropriation particularly of Cuban expatriots. Dirty pool at it’s dirtiest.
Chavez’ opponents claim that these “land reform” measures explain much of the shortages of staples in Venezuela;
”When Chávez arrived in 1999, we produced 35,000 tons a year of sugar cane,” said RodrÃguez, who arrived in Miami in June with his family. He said squatters used death threats to ”expel” him from his own land.
In 2007, after a series of systematic invasions, Vladimir RodrÃguez said he couldn’t harvest anything.
”And the ranch was totally lost, unproductive,” said RodrÃguez, who is still awaiting a response from the Venezuelan government on the value of his confiscated property. He also is using his Cuban heritage to apply for permanent residency in Miami under the U.S. Cuban Adjustment Act.
But seein’s how Chavez can’t solve his own domestic problems, he can get his commie buddies at FARC to release their hostages, apparently (AP/Yahoo link);
President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday that he hopes three hostages will be freed by Colombian rebels within hours, and that Venezuela has planes and helicopters ready to retrieve them.
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“The only thing we need is the authorization of the Colombian government,” Chavez said at a news conference in the presidential palace. “We are ready to activate the humanitarian operation.”Chavez said he hoped it would be completed “in the coming hours.”
But then, Chavez’ extra-Venezuelan image is much more important to him and his allies than Venezuelans’ views. Who cares if Venezuelans can’t get milk, sugar and meat as long as Chavez can score points with the US Bush-hating Left. More on the hostage release press conference at Kate’s hogar.
Category: Foreign Policy, Hugo Chavez, Media, Politics
