---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Steven L. Robinson <srobin21@comcast.net>
Date: Sat, Apr 9, 2011 at 10:55 AM
Subject: [bangla-vision] Venezuela turns over vacant land and buildings to the homeless
Venezuela polarized over Chavez's land policy
President Hugo Chavez's decree has put the force of law behind his
longtime practice of urging the poor to occupy vacant buildings or
unproductive farmland. The result is strife between his beneficiaries
and those who believe in private property rights.
By Chris Kraul
The Los Angeles Times
April 7, 2011
Reporting from Caracas, Venezuela—When Elbert Santiago, a poor messenger
service employee and father of three, heard about a chance to trade up
from his "hole" of a slum apartment to a place a short stroll from the
presidential palace, he didn't think twice.
After all, the price was the same for both places: practically nothing.
Santiago is a squatter, one of the army of poor who with the
encouragement of leftist President Hugo Chavez have taken over an
estimated 155 office, apartment and government buildings here in the
Venezuelan capital.
Sure, he shares the place with 27 other families, and the seven-story
office building is a shambles. At street level, the windows have been
boarded up and graffitied over; inside, a dingy, narrow corridor leads
to elevators that no longer work. But it's home.
"It's sad, but it's necessary," Santiago said as he repaired his
motorcycle on the building's sidewalk along busy Urdaneta Avenue. "There
is a shortage of decent housing in the city."
Across the nation, squatters have also taken over parking lots, storage
yards, factories and 6.5 million acres of farmland.
"Land for the people, not for landowners, nor for fascists," Chavez said
during a recent broadcast of his "Alo Presidente" TV program.
For most of Chavez's 12 years in office, there was no hard and fast
legal basis for property invasions, although he made it known that his
government would make no effort to dislodge people who occupied what he
deemed "unproductive" farms or abandoned apartment buildings.
That legal basis materialized in late January when Chavez issued a
decree authorizing the takeover of land and buildings to provide housing
for thousands of people left homeless by devastating floods over the
winter. The government then relocated them to entire floors of
government buildings, including the Foreign Ministry, and forced several
hotels, including the five-star Intercontinental in Caracas, to take in
affected families.
A tenet of Chavez's socialist "Bolivarian Revolution," the policy is
meant to redistribute the nation's wealth and address what Chavez says
are illegal accumulations by the wealthy of underused or idle land and
buildings.
But it has deeply polarized the nation, with Chavez supporters and
beneficiaries on one side and those who believe in private property
rights on the other.
One such believer is Maria Paz Raga, a Caracas-based media consultant
and mother of two who said she has lost two properties to squatters in
six years, a one-acre plot that she inherited from her grandmother and a
weekend beach condo she saved for 25 years to buy.
"My apartment on La Guaira beach was taken over by a band of criminals
that now charges squatters a monthly fee so they can stay," Raga said.
"My little farm in Aragua state was taken along with several other
parcels by a man who fenced them all in and now keeps them under an
armed guard."
The conflicts that arise from Chavez's policy are evident in the Caracas
suburb of El Hatillo. There, squatters have taken over part of a 50-acre
parcel where Rafael Viso had planned to build a 66-house subdivision
called Bosques Corralito.
Viso has had violent confrontations with squatters who he says are led
by criminal bands that take over property and then broker them to
others. (Encountered on a makeshift access path, several squatters
declined to be interviewed.) Viso also says squatters smashed his car's
windows and fired a shotgun at him to frighten him into leaving.
"Most of my neighbors are afraid to confront them, but I'm not," Viso said.
"If it comes to a gunfight, so be it," said Viso, who added that he, his
son and his three caretakers are armed to prevent more squatters from
invading.
Viso and others blame local officials for not enforcing laws they say
favor property owners. But El Hatillo Mayor Myriam do Nascimento said
she is caught in the middle.
"On the one hand, my responsibility is to maintain public order; at the
same time, we have a president that appears on TV and tells people to go
out and occupy land," Do Nascimento said. "We're in a very difficult
position."
The January decree unleashed a wave of illegal takeovers that even
Chavez can't control, including a mass takeover of properties Jan. 22 in
the municipality of Chacao, an affluent and mostly anti-Chavez district
of greater Caracas.
Officials heard of a plan by dozens of Chavez-backed squatters to take
over properties at 3 a.m. and were ready for them. Sirens sounded and
700 police emerged to defend properties. Despite efforts of Interior
Minister Tarek El Aissami to dissuade them, by daybreak invaders had
taken over 19 properties.
After negotiations, 13 groups of squatters left voluntarily, while six
retained control of empty parcels, mainly parking lots, and vowed they
would build houses there.
"We maintain permanent vigilance, especially at night when the squatters
like to operate," developer Viso said. "Chavez wants to deny us the
right of private property, but he can't. It's too deeply rooted."
Kraul is a special correspondent. Special correspondent Mery Mogollon
contributed to this report.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-venezuela-squatters-20110408,0,4627865.story
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From: Steven L. Robinson <srobin21@comcast.net>
Date: Sat, Apr 9, 2011 at 10:55 AM
Subject: [bangla-vision] Venezuela turns over vacant land and buildings to the homeless
Venezuela polarized over Chavez's land policy
President Hugo Chavez's decree has put the force of law behind his
longtime practice of urging the poor to occupy vacant buildings or
unproductive farmland. The result is strife between his beneficiaries
and those who believe in private property rights.
By Chris Kraul
The Los Angeles Times
April 7, 2011
Reporting from Caracas, Venezuela—When Elbert Santiago, a poor messenger
service employee and father of three, heard about a chance to trade up
from his "hole" of a slum apartment to a place a short stroll from the
presidential palace, he didn't think twice.
After all, the price was the same for both places: practically nothing.
Santiago is a squatter, one of the army of poor who with the
encouragement of leftist President Hugo Chavez have taken over an
estimated 155 office, apartment and government buildings here in the
Venezuelan capital.
Sure, he shares the place with 27 other families, and the seven-story
office building is a shambles. At street level, the windows have been
boarded up and graffitied over; inside, a dingy, narrow corridor leads
to elevators that no longer work. But it's home.
"It's sad, but it's necessary," Santiago said as he repaired his
motorcycle on the building's sidewalk along busy Urdaneta Avenue. "There
is a shortage of decent housing in the city."
Across the nation, squatters have also taken over parking lots, storage
yards, factories and 6.5 million acres of farmland.
"Land for the people, not for landowners, nor for fascists," Chavez said
during a recent broadcast of his "Alo Presidente" TV program.
For most of Chavez's 12 years in office, there was no hard and fast
legal basis for property invasions, although he made it known that his
government would make no effort to dislodge people who occupied what he
deemed "unproductive" farms or abandoned apartment buildings.
That legal basis materialized in late January when Chavez issued a
decree authorizing the takeover of land and buildings to provide housing
for thousands of people left homeless by devastating floods over the
winter. The government then relocated them to entire floors of
government buildings, including the Foreign Ministry, and forced several
hotels, including the five-star Intercontinental in Caracas, to take in
affected families.
A tenet of Chavez's socialist "Bolivarian Revolution," the policy is
meant to redistribute the nation's wealth and address what Chavez says
are illegal accumulations by the wealthy of underused or idle land and
buildings.
But it has deeply polarized the nation, with Chavez supporters and
beneficiaries on one side and those who believe in private property
rights on the other.
One such believer is Maria Paz Raga, a Caracas-based media consultant
and mother of two who said she has lost two properties to squatters in
six years, a one-acre plot that she inherited from her grandmother and a
weekend beach condo she saved for 25 years to buy.
"My apartment on La Guaira beach was taken over by a band of criminals
that now charges squatters a monthly fee so they can stay," Raga said.
"My little farm in Aragua state was taken along with several other
parcels by a man who fenced them all in and now keeps them under an
armed guard."
The conflicts that arise from Chavez's policy are evident in the Caracas
suburb of El Hatillo. There, squatters have taken over part of a 50-acre
parcel where Rafael Viso had planned to build a 66-house subdivision
called Bosques Corralito.
Viso has had violent confrontations with squatters who he says are led
by criminal bands that take over property and then broker them to
others. (Encountered on a makeshift access path, several squatters
declined to be interviewed.) Viso also says squatters smashed his car's
windows and fired a shotgun at him to frighten him into leaving.
"Most of my neighbors are afraid to confront them, but I'm not," Viso said.
"If it comes to a gunfight, so be it," said Viso, who added that he, his
son and his three caretakers are armed to prevent more squatters from
invading.
Viso and others blame local officials for not enforcing laws they say
favor property owners. But El Hatillo Mayor Myriam do Nascimento said
she is caught in the middle.
"On the one hand, my responsibility is to maintain public order; at the
same time, we have a president that appears on TV and tells people to go
out and occupy land," Do Nascimento said. "We're in a very difficult
position."
The January decree unleashed a wave of illegal takeovers that even
Chavez can't control, including a mass takeover of properties Jan. 22 in
the municipality of Chacao, an affluent and mostly anti-Chavez district
of greater Caracas.
Officials heard of a plan by dozens of Chavez-backed squatters to take
over properties at 3 a.m. and were ready for them. Sirens sounded and
700 police emerged to defend properties. Despite efforts of Interior
Minister Tarek El Aissami to dissuade them, by daybreak invaders had
taken over 19 properties.
After negotiations, 13 groups of squatters left voluntarily, while six
retained control of empty parcels, mainly parking lots, and vowed they
would build houses there.
"We maintain permanent vigilance, especially at night when the squatters
like to operate," developer Viso said. "Chavez wants to deny us the
right of private property, but he can't. It's too deeply rooted."
Kraul is a special correspondent. Special correspondent Mery Mogollon
contributed to this report.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-venezuela-squatters-20110408,0,4627865.story
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