According to Venezuelan Analysis, the Chavez presidency in Venezuela has made land reform a priority in its administration, even going so far as to pass out land, open up public and private land, and encourage squatting by small farmers–but it has done precious little to protect those small farmers that are now on the receiving end of huge estate owners:

Just outside the state headquarters of the National Land Institute (INTI) on September 11th, two unidentified men on a motorcycle shot José Pimentel, a leader of the Simon Bolivar National Farmers Front, in the body and the head, placing Pimentel in critical condition in a hospital emergency room.

Two weeks later, eight armed men attacked a group of 28 families who had collectively occupied idle sections of a large estate and were in the process of obtaining legal land titles from INTI. The assailants beat several people, destroyed property, shot one leader of the group twice in the legs, and ordered the group to leave the estate, according to a report by the Ezequiel Zamora National Farmers Rights Front (FNCEZ), which is named after the legendary 19th Century land reform fighter.

This news should be no surprise to those of us who follow news about Latin America. When you live on land that is looked at as little more than a resource to augment a colonial nation/state’s economy, you know immediately that you are going to have a battle on your hands to keep control of that land. Mexico’s Zapatistas to Brazil’s Sem Terra to Colombia’s FARC can all be traced somehow to the battle over who will control land–with the nation/state often acting as little more than rich estate owner’s personal enforcement.

It seems as if Venezuela is different from other countries as the farmers are actually on the land that was passed out and thus, are in control of it. But–if the nation/state that gave them that land stands by and watches why they are killed off or scared away, is it really any different than what Mexico is doing to the Zapatistas by sending paramilitary on to indigenous land? Is it really any different than what any other colonial nation, including the U.S. is doing–continuing the unending 500+ year long war against Indigenous peoples?

Something to think about on Columbus Day (aka indigenous resistance day)