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Venezuela set for property reforms

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced that his administration's sweeping reforms toward socialism will include the creation of "collective property."

Vowing to undermine capitalism's continued influence in Venezuela, Chavez said on Sunday that his government was "advancing quickly" with a concept of "social, or collective, property" to be included in forthcoming constitutional reforms.

"It's property that belongs to everyone and it's going to benefit everyone," said Chavez, speaking during his television and radio program Hello President.

Chavez did not elaborate, but he stressed that collective property must benefit workers equally.

"It cannot be production to generate profits for one person or a small group of people that become rich exploiting peons who end up becoming slaves, living in poverty and misery their entire lives," he said.

Government advisers preparing a blueprint for pending constitutional reforms have floated proposals which would roughly define collective property as state-owned assets, such as farms, that are managed by workers who share profits.

Venezuela's government already helps to organize and finance thousands of cooperatives, but the state does not have full ownership of the real estate or infrastructure used by most co-ops.

Chavez, who hosted Sunday's program from a ranch in the nation's sun-baked plains, said his government would move to seize control of large ranches and farms spanning more than 300,000 hectares and redistribute lands deemed "idle" to the poor under a nationwide agrarian reform.
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