The Venezuelan government has seized a 1,500 hectare plot of land owned by Smurfit Kappa Carton de Venezuela SA in Lara state.
Smurfit confirmed this afternoon that the land had been taken over and said the estimated value of the property concerned was approximately €500,000. "Our Venezuelan management are in discussions with the local authorities," the company said.
Speaking on state television last night President Hugo Chavez said the land to grow eucalyptus trees and the government planned to harvest the trees and plant other “more rational” crops like yucca and beans.
"We have intervened in Smurfit," Mr Chavez said. "We are going to use this wood in a rational manner and then we will change the vocation of the land; we are going to plant other things that are not eucalyptus," Mr Chavez added during a televised address.
“This eucalyptus crop sucks all of the water from the subsoil.“The rivers are drying up.”
Since winning a referendum to abolish term limits on February 15th, Mr Chavez has expropriated a rice processing plant owned by Minnesota-based Cargill, and threatened to take over the South American country’s largest privately owned company, Empresas Polar SA, for evading price controls.
Venezuela has seized large plots of land during Chavez’s 10-year rule in a bid to redistribute them to small farmers and cooperatives.
Bloomberg