Solidarity with Venezuelan peasants fighting against latifundia and contract killings

On 6 August, hundreds of peasants and their supporters marched in Caracas on the first anniversary of the Marcha Campesina Admirable (the Admirable Peasant March). They were demanding the fulfilment of the agreements they reached with the government at the time, an end to contract killings of land reform activists and in defence of Chavez’s land redistribution programme.

In the last year alone, 25 peasant activists have been killed by hired guns of the landowners, peasants have been evicted from land which was given to them by the Land Reform Institute, and they have been arrested when fighting for land reform and against the privatisation of state-owned agricultural companies.

We note with concern that there was an attempt by the police to prevent the peasant march in Caracas from following its course to the National Constituent Assembly, and then it was effectively blocked from reaching the presidential palace at Miraflores.

The Hands off Venezuela campaign expresses its full support for the just demands of the Venezuelan peasant movement. We demand an end to contract killings (sicariato), the continuation and deepening of agrarian reform and an end to repression against peasant activists. We demand that the Venezuelan government should meet with the peasant movement and fulfil its promises to it.

Tierra y hombres libres!