Chavez Frias hands over 400 land deeds to peasants in Apure

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, March 30, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

President Chavez Frias has handed over land deeds and agricultural credits to more than 400 peasants in the border State of Apure.

The media has picked up on the President's cue from Pope John Paul II  that private property over land  is not sacred. "If land is left idle and unproductive, others should have the right to produce on it."

Launching another idea during the visit to Apure, Chavez Frias hints that lands could be handed over to military garrisons to grow food for soldiers.

The President says he wants to hand over 1.5 million hectares of land and land deeds to peasants this year. It is part of his policy to depend less and less on imports and to create a different attitude towards the land.

Speaking to peasants, Chavez Frias announced the creation of food wholesale micro-businesses to include a new economic sector into the provincial economy and his Zamora Agricultural Plan.