VENEZUELA Country Profile

Land Administration

Individual Corruption

Individual property rights are protected by law. However, according to Global Integrity 2004, there have been cases of land and property invasions in which the authorities have failed to react, thus failing to protect the rights of the owners.

According to a press release in May 2006 by the Human Rights Ombudsman, several peasants were killed and some were wounded between 1999 and 2006 because of their activities in defence of land claims, particularly after the Law on Land and Agrarian Development entered into force in 2001. The law allows the government to take over and redistribute land it identifies as unused. According to the Ombudsman, contract killers hired by private landowners appear to have been responsible for most of the killings. According to a 2007 New York Times article, more than 160 peasants were killed by hired gunmen in Venezuela between 2001 and 2007.

Business Corruption

A 2001 Law on Land and Agrarian Development states that property which is not being used for agricultural or other productive purposes can be redistributed by the government. The Government claims to have seized 4.7 million acres of land since 1998 and according to the US Department of State 2009, a part of this land was expropriated without compensation. Furthermore, cement and steel manufacturers that export the majority of their goods have been told that they will be expropriated if they do not start committing more goods to the national market.

Political Corruption

The National Land Institute (INTI) is the key institution involved in implementing land reforms. INTI identifies, administers and regulates landed property and distributes land. According to INTI, an estimated 10 million hectares of land was under dispute in 2006.

Frequency

The World Bank & IFC: Doing Business 2010:
- Registering property requires a company to pay a little over 2.2% of the property value on average and to go through 8 administrative procedures, which take an average of 47 days - well below the regional average of 70.4 days.

World Economic Forum: The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010:
- Business executives give the protection of property rights, including financial assets, in Venezuela a score of 2.1 on a 7-point scale (1 being 'very weak' and 7 'very strong').

The New York Times: 'Clash of Hope and Fear as Venezuela Seizes Land', 17 May 2007:
- 5% of the population was estimated to possess 80% of the country's private land before a land reform was initiated in 2002.

- The government has seized over 3.4 million acres of land and resettled more than 15,000 families since 2002.