The grand tour of Diego Arria has certainly infuriated chavismo. Among other things Diego Arria, ex ambassador to the UN and ex president of the Security Council was received by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, and got published in Le Monde, the newspaper of record in France. In this article French readers will find out how Venezuela has become a neo-colony of Cuba, something that readers of this blog have learned long ago.
Now, what does a spiteful Chavez do? Rebate the argument? Prove the independence of Venezuela? No, not at all. In fact he confirms the article by preparing to seize today a second, much smaller farm of Diego Arria, a farm that under no circumstances could be considered a latifundio, a farm that cannot under any circumstances, with its 80 something acres could be considered a tool of exploitation, of indecent farm revenues at the expense of the poor workers. I speak out of knowledge in saying that such a farm at best provides a decent lively hood, never enough to be an absentee landlord who out of its revenues can manage a luxurious life style in Caracas. And with the current labor laws of Venezuela even if Mr. Arria wanted to exploit his workers, well, he could not do it, certainly not in the area where the farm is located.
With this later robbery the government confirms once again that all the agrarian laws of Venezuela are designed to screw the productive class of Venezuela, to leave alone only the extensive farms of chavista officials such as the numerous ones that the Chavez family owns in Barinas state and who miraculously escape any scrutiny from the INTI or any other public administration office. The Chavez family can go in ten years from 0 hectare to probably thousand but Diego Arria cannot own 44 hectares. You draw your conclusions.