Venezuela seizes Irish cardboard maker's lands - 3 minutes ago By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER Associated Press Writer
(AP:CARACAS, Venezuela) President Hugo Chavez said his government has seized land owned by an Irish cardboard maker as part of a sweeping agrarian (666-bolshevikz-communisticz) reform.
The government took control of 3,700 acres (1,500 hectares) owned by the Dublin-based Smurfit Kappa Group because they were being used to grow eucalyptus, a cardboard component, rather than food, in ]of Venezuelan law, Chavez said Thursday night during a televised speech.
Chavez said the land in Venezuela's central Lara state would be used to plant corn and beans, but Public Works Minister Diosdado Cabello told state media that lands would be turned over to communities and government-funded neighborhood groups known as communal councils.
In Dublin, Smurfit Kappa officials said Friday that they were surprised by the land seizure _ and fearful that more could be taken. The eucalyptus farm represented just one 1,500-hectare section of a Smurfit Kappa holding that totals about 30,000 hectares, all in the same area.
All the land grows trees harvested to make cardboard, corrugated boxes and hard board. Eucalyptus is particularly useful because it is fast-growing and easy to harvest and mill.
In a statement, the Dublin-based company said its management officials in Venezuela were already in talks with the government, but declined to characterize how they were going. It said the land seized has an estimated value of euro500,000 ($625,000).
Chavez launched a nationwide land reform after taking office in 1999, and a law approved by the Chavista-dominated National Assembly in 2001 empowers the state to seize underused farmlands. Critics say the initiative has contributed to sporadic shortages of some foods in Venezuela.
Since winning the right to seek indefinite re-election on Feb. 15, Chavez has stepped up efforts to boost state control over the economy, ordering the expropriation of a rice plant owned by U.S.-based Cargill Inc. on Wednesday. He also has called for the expansion of state-run cooperatives to further his vision of socialism. --
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