EL CHARCOTE, Venezuela (AP)--Hundreds of squatters have moved onto this vast cattle ranch and planted crops in hopes the land will one day be declared their own, putting them sharply at odds with the British-owned company that claims rightful ownership.

The long-running dispute--like many others across Venezuela--is reaching a critical point as the government promises swift action on a sweeping plan to give "idle" land to poor farmers.

Most of the estimated 600 squatters farming plots on El Charcote Ranch arrived in the four years since President Hugo Chavez signed a law clearing the way for agrarian reform.

"I trust Chavez and believe he wants the best for us, but we are struggling, working land that may not belong to us in the end," said Santiago Arzola, 40, who farms watermelon, beans and sweet peppers to sustain a family of five.

A 1998 census found that 60 percent of Venezuela's farmland was owned by less than 1 percent of the population. The survey said 90 percent of farmland given to the poor under a 1960 agrarian reform had since returned to the hands of large landholders.

Squatters and ranchers are closely watching what the government says are imminent plans to "intervene" at El Charcote in one of the first major reevaluations of private farmland in recent years.

Government assessors are to arrive Jan. 15, at the ranch. Some are expected to survey the land by helicopter while others negotiate with representatives of the owner, Agropecuaria Flora C.A.--a subsidiary of the British-owned Vestey Group Ltd. and a major beef producer.

"We don't know what will happen when they come," Miguel Espana, a 54-year-old ranch manager, said with a nervous laugh. "We try our best to coexist with the squatters while authorities decide what they are going to do with the ranch."

But coexistence has been marked by tension.

The squatters "cut barbed-wire fences, burn the grasses cattle feed on and occasionally steal them," said Espana, who has worked at the ranch for 28 years.

He said the 32,000-acre ranch, 125 miles southwest of Caracas, boasted 11,000 cattle four years ago. Now there are fewer than 5,000, and the work force has been reduced from about 50 to 30.

"Uncertainty reigns here," Espana said. "I know one thing for sure, this ranch will never be what it once was."

Zinc-roofed shacks made of dried mud, timber and bamboo stalks now overlook meadows where cattle graze. Poor farmers have put up their own barbed wire to keep herds from trampling corn, eggplant, plantains, squash and melon.

The Land Law of 2001 allows the state to expropriate and grant to the poor "idle" farmlands that are not put to adequate use, or properties that owners are unable to show they obtained legally.

El Charcote's owners insist they can prove rightful ownership dating back to 1830 and that the ranch is not "idle" but has simply been invaded by squatters.

Government officials, however, say property titles were obtained illegally and much of the property really belongs to the state.

Officials say land reform should not immediately involve "expropriation," but rather dialogue with landowners and careful study. They also say the poor have been waiting long enough, and that change should help prevent violence.

"We have to recognize that we have not given a fast and timely answer to these poor farmers," said Luis Silva, regional director of Venezuela's Agriculture and Land Ministry. "We have a social debt with them."

Date: 1/27/05

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