The Sur del Lago region is resisting the potential narco-guerrilla take over

Dangerous escualidos defending their job

It seems that censorship is working inside Venezuela because I learned late that the 47 farms that were expropriated last week in what we call "Sur del Lago"are resisting the unjust chavista take over.  Not only I learned about this recent development late but I learned it through Colombian TV while Globovision was continuing its "normal " programming.....  Although there are already pictures available on the web the information is meager, just official TV relating that all is going well in the "rescue" of abandoned land and El Universal who is more explicit and which writes that three, 3, battalions of the army have been dispatched to take over these, I assume considering the extensive army deployment.

 So, while we learn more about the situation allow me to give you some background because as it turns out I am familiar with the area economics and I have even friends whose relatives are in one of the expropriated farms.

First the chavista lies are particularity disgusting and manipulative, and I am not even referring to the Komissar display that I mentioned yesterday.  Those are rich lands but hard to work because the climate is unfavorable, the land can frequently flood, critters make your life miserable if you are not prepared.  Contrary to what Chavez would like us to believe, a lot of these lands were developed by people willing to invest, build access roads, etc, etc...   The lone pioneer did not have a chance there, the land was not stolen form anyone as I suspect that even Native Americans preferred by far to move up to easier conditions in the Andes bordering these lands.

In other words those are lands that need constant work, constant attention and are not suitable to absentee landlords because, well, the jungle takes it back real quick if the master's eye is not ever vigilant.

But the rewards are good: it is a great land for dairy farming and banana plantations and a very large portion of Venezuelan food comes from there.  No more soon, we can be certain.

While is the regime taking over something that we all know it cannot manage?  Any precedent from land seizure of this regime, in easier lands to "develop", has been a failure.  What could allow us to think that this time around it will be different?

Several things, in my modest opinion, account for the surge in chavismo harassment for that region.

Sur del Lago is an entrepreneur region and its success is a constant mockery of chavismo agrarian ventures elsewhere.  Shoot the messenger is certainly a motivation for chavismo.

Second, Sur del Lago is shared by the states of Merida and Zulia and those states are increasingly moving away of the chavista orbit, even in the agricultural land.  They must be punished.

Third and in my opinion the most likely one.  The FARC and narco guerilla refuges close to the Colombian borders have been put into evidence shortly before Uribe left office.  They need to be relocated in a humid and wooded area, further from the Colombian border but not that far.   Basically Sur del Lago is the only region available as hinterland farms are difficult to monitor for Colombia security, or so is chavismo hoping.  See, the roads exit, the extensions are important, there is water and banana year round and under the protection of the Nazional Guard narco guerilla can easily commute to Colombia since Sur del Lago is sort of equidistant from the the three major entry points of Colombia, the Arauca, the Tachira and the Catatumbo.  heck! Once the farmers are displaced we could even change the cultures to some more narco palatable stock.....