[NYTr] Venezuela: The Revolution of the Land

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Granma Daily - Oct 26, 2007
http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/english/news/art40.html

The Revolution of the Land

By RONALD SUAREZ RIVAS
Photos by ALBERTO BORREGO AVILA

MERIDA, Venezuela.— Jesus Guerrero was murdered for defending small
farmers’ right to work the land. A bullet ended his life in front of
his comrades while they worked a piece of land taken from a large
estate.

He left a wife, children and his example of courage to the 67 men and
women who consider him a martyr of their struggle. They decided to
name, after him, the cooperative they began four years ago, despite the
siege of the large landowners and their hired assassins.

The healthy looking cattle and their banana, yucca and cocoa crops are
their pride, the fruit of their hard work.

For many years back, and until that afternoon of 2003 when they broke
the fence and occupied the piece of land given them by the Venezuelan
government, these 651 hectares were idle, covered in weeds and part of
an extensive landholding three times as big.

Housewives, workers and other unemployed persons joined the group that
hoped to make farming a way of life. They knew the struggle would be
hard. Even though President Hugo Chavez had signed the Land Law and
they received authorization to occupy the land, the real struggle would
begin when the affected landowners decided to use violence to plant
terror.

Venezuelan Ministry of Agriculture and Lands statistics speak for
themselves. More than six million tons of food consumed each year in
the South American country is imported. Meanwhile, around 60 percent of
the farmland is in the hands of 5 percent of the landowners, who don’t
work them.

The war against the large estate is considered an act of justice by the
Venezuelan revolution. It’s more than just a question of land. The
impetus to the farm sector has attracted people from the cities and
generated a need for knowledge to guide the arms willing to work.

With this in mind, more than 600 Cuban farm technicians are providing
the young cooperatives with assistance. Specialists in plant health and
protection, agronomy and forest engineers, veterinarians and economists
contribute to the local efforts.

Rene Gonzalez is one of them. He’s been in the state of Merida for 13
months on a mission to train the 67 members of the Jesus Guerrero
cooperative, the majority of whom had little knowledge about farming,
seeds, fertilizers and harvests.

"Our role consists in accompanying them in the activities. In Cuba,
there are soil and climate studies, and the farm techniques are more
specific. Here the situation is completely different; we are starting
from scratch," he noted.

"In the beginning we were unorganized but thanks to the experience of
the Cubans we have moved forward," said Ezequiel Luna, a farmer. He
added, "The large estate is one of the great poisons of capitalism. Now
it is different, we are helping to build a better country."

And it’s not all farm work. After each day’s work, the tools are
exchanged for pencils and notebooks. In his wood and zinc-roof house,
Gustavo Contreras improvises a primary school classroom and Deinys
Duran another for high school. Outside, the children are playing; a
gift of those who are making the revolution of the land.