Venezuela's agrarian reform drifting towards war of words and bullets
- 23 July 2006
VHeadline.com News Editor Patrick J. O'Donoghue writes: The Venezuelan government has reacted strongly to an attempt on the life of agrarian leader, Braulio Alvarez last Saturday.
The Movimiento Quinta Republica (MVR) National Assembly deputy for Yaracuy came under a hail of bullets, while driving his car in Yaracuy State, fortunately receiving light injuries.
Alvarez is in charge of a special AN committee investigating massacres by security forces in the sixties and seventies. One of the more famous is Yumare, which is in Yaracuy State.
Speaking from Argentina as Information & Communications (Minci) Minister, Willian Lara has condemned the attack saying it is the second attempt on the life of Alvarez. "The attempts respond to strategies of internal elements that use hired killers to eliminate social leaders, especially agrarian leaders."
The attempt in no way will diminish the government's resolve to push through its agrarian reform.
Executive Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel says the attempt on Braulio's life is a part of a campaign to avoid implementation of the government's Lands Law.
"150 agrarian and social leaders have been assassinated ... it's an offensive by people representing powerful interests in the rural areas."
Members of the Ezequiel Zamora National Peasant Front (FNCEZ) have highlighted six deaths last Thursday of a peasant family in Apure, supposedly by soldier, who not only riddled them with bullets but also set fire to the bodies.
The group chides that the deaths will surely cause less scandal in the world of Caracas politics than attempts on top political and business figures.
The attack on Alvarez has heated up a war of words and deeds. National Ranchers Federation (Fedeagro) leader, Genaro Mendez has challenged the Agriculture & Lands and Interior & Justice (MIJ) Ministers to prove that landowners and ranchers are implicated in the deaths of agrarian leaders ... "it's not the first time that accusations have been made without evidence."
MAT Minister Elias Jaua has ordered National Lands Institute (INTI) president, Juan Carlos Loyo to resolve all the loose ends in land recovery cases in Yaracuy as an answer to the attempt on Alvarez. "It's a legal and revolutionary response on the part of the State against blackmailers ... each act of terrorism will be answered with more revolution."
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