Venezuela to Compensate Campesino Families for Assassinations

Caracas, Venezuela, July 10, 2006--The government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez decided today to set aside $10 million for a compensation fund for the families of campesino (peasant) leaders who have been assassinated in the past seven years in the course of Venezuela's land reform program. Peasant organizations say that over 170 peasant leaders have been murdered by assassins hired by land owners.

Elias Jaua, the Minister for Agriculture and Land, made the announcement about the new fund today, at the conclusion of a cabinet meeting.

The $10 million will go towards the first 54 families that the country's human rights defender office has identified as victims of the land struggle. The money will not go directly towards the families, but rather towards projects that will improve the families' standard of living and to make sure that "those guilty for the killings pay for their crimes," said Jaua.

"What will definitely be achieved is justice at least with regard to the well-being of the families of those who were murdered by landowners," added Jaua.

A few months ago the Human Rights Defender. German Mundarain, submitted a report on the progress in the prosecution of the assassinations of campesino leaders. According to this report, there have been 54 contract killings of campesino leaders between 1999 and 2006. 72% of the cases are still in investigation, 18.5% are in an intermediary phase, and 9.2% have gone to trial. In addition to the 54 dead, there have been 21 wounded and 41 death threats.

Venezuela initiated an ambitious land reform program in 2001, which was one of the main policy disputes with the opposition, which spurred the 2002 coup attempt. Since the start of the land reform, about 300,000 families or 1.5 million Venezuelans have received plots of land.

While most of the land reform land has been state-owned, land reform beneficiaries often enter into conflict with large landowners because many times large landowners lay claim to land that the government says belongs to the state. Peasant leaders are often killed in the ensuing conflict by assassins who charge very little to carry out murders.