Venezuela

Fire of Liberty

It seems that Hugo Chavez making his move to become the next Fidel Castro in South America. Lieutenant Colonel Chavez has solidified his position as a Marxist even further by suspending one of the greatest freedoms which is the right to own property. Chavez's land grab adds yet another page into his dictator scrapbook which already includes the elimination of a free press (Only state-run TV, Radio and Newspapers), deadly crack-downs, court packing, nationalization of the oil industry and now the elimination of property rights. In the same manner as the Bolshevik's of Russia in 1917 or Castro and his henchmen in Cuba in 1959, Chavez has seized the property of a British company's farmland for "the people." El Commandante's land seizure is part of a land redistribution law enacted in 2001, which gives the nation the right to seize land that is illegally obtained or is idle (Talk about eminent domain on steroids). While Chavez has held off from launching his land reform, he has decided the time has come to solidify his Communist credentials and has gone after a "big fish." In this case the "big fish" is Lord Vestey, the largest cattle rancher in Venezuela, and his 29,640 acre cattle ranch. Based on The Financial Times, Venezuelan authorities have declared that 14,000 acres were illegally obtained and will be distributed to a grouping of some 1000 poor farmers. While Lord Vestey notes that his great grandfather bought the land in 1903, the Chavez government refuses to honor the Lord's property rights.

While Chavez might think his Bolivar revolution is the greatest path to power and Venezuelan glory, his land grab will destroy his nation and create dire shortages of food. Throughout history, land grabs has resulted in dire straits, just look at France(French Rev.), Russia(1917-1991), Ukraine(1930's), China(Great Leap), Cuba (1959-Current) as well as current day Zimbabwe. In all of these nations, the government seized the land from the wealthy owners and redistributed it to individuals who had no concept or ability to farm the land. Without a strong working knowledge, these individuals either under-use or over-use the land and are generally unable to produce enough crops thus they create a shortage of food or even worse, a famine. Venezuela's latest seizure will also dry up various foreign investments in the nation. If you don't have a clearly defined law on property rights as well as a legal system that enforces those rights, then why would any business or corporation put money into a place that the government can come and seize up. Even worse, the destruction or decline of property rights takes a toll on the poor. Since the big money moves out, jobs and investments in infrastructure dries up thus leaving everyone without hope or an ability to pull themselves up from the depths of poverty.

Another problem with the elimination of Lord Verey's property rights is the fact that the government has no right to take land from someone who clearly owns the deeds to the property. When someone can't feel at ease with their own possessions they definitely will never feel safe in their own nation. Since the retention of property provides an individual power over the state because they have a say in what happens on the land, a dictatorial state will do whatever it takes to ensure that power doesn't go beyond the state's grasp. One only has to look at Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy or Stalin's USSR to understand how omnipotent states destroy the whole concept of the rule of law to ensure the continuation of power. Therefore, Chavez took the initiative and pushed his reign of terror even further by taking property from wealthy landowners. He has slowly but surely moved his nation into a leftist dictatorial hell-hole, where property rights disappear and the rule of law is now the rules of Hugo Chavez. I guess it helps when someone has packed the legislature and the courts with his legion of sycophantic thugs who do his bidding. I guess the World has met the second coming of Castro, lets hope he doesn't last as long as "the bearded one." The people in Venezuela are bound to find the Fire of Liberty and will learn how warm the flames of freedom really are.