Stuart Munckton
According to a July 23 VHeadline.com report, campesino [peasant] leader Braulio Alvarez escaped with minor injuries after the car he was driving "came under a hail of bullets". Alvarez is a deputy in the National Assembly (AN) for the Movement for the Fifth Republic, the largest of the parties that support socialist President Hugo Chavez and the revolutionary process he is leading. This was the second attempt on Alvarez's life: a year earlier he was shot twice.
Venezuelan minister of communication William Lara condemned the attack and claimed it was part of a campaign by "internal elements" opposed to the revolution who "use hired killers to eliminate social leaders, especially agrarian leaders".
Alvarez is leading attempts by the government to implement its land reform law, which redistributes large, underutilised land from the state and latifundists (large landowners), to landless peasants. The government encourages the formation of cooperatives, via provision of cheap credit to the peasants. This policy is a crucial plank in the revolution, which seeks to both overcome poverty and develop Venezuela's economy away from oil dependency. Over 2 million hectares of land have been redistributed so far.
Venezuelanalysis.com reported on July 25 that Venezuelan vice-president Jose Vicente Rangel said the attack was a crime "of a political nature, intended to eliminate a leader in the agricultural sector". Alvarez is the head of an AN committee investigating deaths and torture during the 1960s, '70s and '80s, and a special committee for the investigation of campesino, indigenous and fisher-person deaths at the hands of assassins. This means Alvarez is leading the investigation into specific cases of alleged killings by large landowners pf peasant activists.
Venezuelanalysis.com reported that Venezuelan justice minister Jesse Chacon said the government's original hypothesis is that the attempt was carried out in order to help protect the interests of the latifundists. Since the land reform law was introduced in 2001, more than 150 peasant leaders have been murdered. Peasants have been demanding greater government action to bring the killers to justice and stop the campaign of terror they blame large landowners for instigating. The government, which has pledged to speed up moves to find those responsible for the killings, announced on July 10 that it would provide compensation to the families of assassinated campesinos.
Venezuelan Ranchers Federation president Genaro Mendez denied government claims that large landowners instigated violence against peasants, according to a July 26 Vheadline.com article. He attacked Alvarez, claiming "he has mobilized people to take over farms [and] destroy plantations". Mendez claimed any violence was the result of landowners shooting at people out of self-defence.
Acts of violence by those who oppose the revolution have been increasing. Chavez is almost certain to win another six-year term in the December presidential elections, causing a section of his opponents to look towards terrorism as a way to undermine the revolutionary process that is challenging the interests of the privileged elite.
There have been increasing reports of right-wing Colombian paramilitaries operating inside Venezuelan territory, allegedly responsible for a large number of deaths in the countryside. In recent months there has also been an ongoing campaign of terror carried out by armed groups backed by high-profile supporters of the opposition in the state of Merida. In December 2004, state prosecutor Danilo Anderson was killed in a car bomb whilst leading an investigation of hundreds of individuals for their role in the April 2002 military coup that briefly ousted Chavez. Those arrested for the crime were linked to the opposition.
Venezuelanalysis.com reported that Lara stated: "In no way are these assassination attempts going to intimidate the campesino movement or the Venezuelan government in our ability to fully execute the Land Law."