I know Zimbabwe's land reforms are more to do with Mugabe's need to stay in power then giving black people land, but do you think he's become an inadvertant catalyst to the Countries below? Will this catch on, where next Australia, Canada, USA(Just for you 101stAirborne), Maybe Britain, instead of the Country side alliance invading the London, why not city people occupying the "Great" British Country side - It may stop them from going to other peoples countries stealing their land then bitching when people take it back.
Landless Brazilians occupy farms
Campaigners say they are occupying only disused landMembers of Brazil's Landless Workers Movement (MST) have occupied 12 farms to try to pressure the government to speed up land reform.
More than 5,000 families from the MST have moved on to the farms in the north-eastern state of Pernambuco, one of Brazil's poorest.
The MST said the government had failed to live up to its election promises to have settled 400,000 families by 2007.
The government says it has settled little over a quarter of that number.
The MST said the real figure is much lower.
Brazil has one of the biggest wealth gaps in the world. Nearly half of all farmland is owned by just 1% of the population.
'Unused' land
Brazil's Landless Movement, the MST, usually steps up action in April to commemorate the murders of 19 activists in 1996.
MST leaders said they still had hope in Brazil's first working-class president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who promised to buy disused land and redistribute it to poor families with no home of their own.
"We still believe in Lula; it's his economic team which is neo-liberal," Joao Paulo Rodrigues, a national coordinator for the MST, told the Reuters news agency.
"The government has to make a radical change in its land reform policy. Next year there are elections so Lula has to do it now."
The MST has said it has occupied only unused land.
However, it is angry the government has prioritised debt payments and cut the land reform budget.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4415205.stm
UK firm faces Venezuelan land row
President Chavez says he is trying to reduce inequality in VenezuelaVenezuelan authorities have said they will seize land owned by a British company as part of President Chavez's agrarian reform programme.
Officials in Cojedes state said on Friday that farmland owned by a subsidiary of the Vestey Group would be taken and used to settle poor farmers.
The government is cracking down on so-called latifundios, or large rural estates, which it says are lying idle.
The Vestey Group said it had not been informed of any planned seizure.
Ownership dispute
The firm, whose Agroflora subsidiary operates 13 farms in Venezuela, insisted that it had complied fully with Venezuelan law.
Prosecutors in the south of the country have targeted Hato El Charcote, a beef cattle ranch owned by Agroflora.
According to Reuters, they plan to seize 12,900 acres (5,200 hectares) from the 32,000 acre (13,000 hectare) farm.
The government has taken action 
Alexis Ortiz, state prosecutor
Officials claim that Agroflora does not possess valid documents proving its ownership of the land in question.
They also allege that areas of the ranch are not being used for any form of active production.
"The legal boundaries did not match up with the actual boundaries and there is surplus," state prosecutor Alexis Ortiz told Reuters.
"As a consequence the government has taken action."
Controversial reform
Controversial reforms passed in 2001 give the government the right to take control of private property if it is declared idle or ownership cannot be traced back to the 19th Century.
Agroflora is absolutely confident that it will demonstrate the legality of its title to the land
Vestey Group spokesman
Critics say the powers - which President Chavez argues are needed to help the country's poorest citizens and develop the Venezuelan economy - trample all over private property rights.
The Vestey Group said it had owned the land since 1920 and would co-operate fully with the authorities.
But a spokesman added: "Agroflora is absolutely confident that what it has submitted will demonstrate the legality of its title to the land."
The company pointed out that the farm, which employs 300 workers, provides meat solely for the Venezuelan market.
'Nothing to fear'
Last month, the government said it had identified more than 500 idle farms and had yet to consider the status of a further 40,000.
The authorities said landowners whose titles were in order and whose farms were productive had "nothing to fear".
Under President Chavez, the Venezuelan government has steadily expanded the state's involvement in the country's economy.
It recently said all mining contracts involving foreign firms would be examined to ensure they provided sufficient economic benefits to the state.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4297427.stm
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18-05-05, 03:52 AM
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