US embassy cable - 05CARACAS1441

C O N F I D E N T I A L  CARACAS 001441 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
NSC FOR CBARTON 
HQ SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/30/2015 
TAGS: ECON, PGOV, SENV, VE 
SUBJECT: LAND "REFORM" PLACES NATURE RESERVE IN JEOPARDY 
 
REF: CARACAS 1356 
 
Classified By: ECONOMIC COUNSELOR RICHARD M. SANDERS FOR REASON 1.4 D 
 
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Summary 
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1.(U) The Venezuelan government's "land reform" project 
threatens one of Venezuela's premiere wildlife refuges.  Hato 
Pinero, located in the "llanos" or plains region of 
Venezuela's Cojedes state has a 50 year history of 
conservation and has for decades served as Venezuela's best 
example of sustainable development.  Venezuela's National 
Land Institute (INTI) under the leadership of Eliezer Otaiza 
has launched a no-holds-barred attack on Pinero variously 
accusing it of environmental crimes, slavery, and illegal 
irrigation as well as claiming that the ranch is idle land 
and land to which its owners have no legitimate title.  The 
Branger family, which owns Pinero, is fighting the action in 
the courts.  Observers worry about the environmental impact 
of an eventual state seizure should the family lose its case. 
 Pinero contains hundreds of species of plants and animals, 
several of which are threatened and many of which are found 
nowhere else in the region.  Environmentalists point to the 
GOV's poor track record of land management on public lands 
and worry that government action could cause irreversible 
harm to a fragile ecosystem.  End Summary. 
 
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Hato Pinero 
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2. (SBU) Hato Pinero is a nature reserve and cattle ranch 
located in Venezuela's central plains, known as the "llanos". 
 The ranch extends over 80,000 hectares of mountains, 
wetlands, grasslands, and forest.  Pinero, Venezuela's oldest 
private nature reserve, began its conservation efforts in 
1953 shortly after the Branger family purchased the land, and 
started promoting itself as an eco-tourism destination in 
1985.  Pinero is home to over 500 animal species (including 
several threatened feline and reptile species), 850 plant 
species (over 28% of the species found in Venezuela), a large 
tract of virgin jungle, and a research center.  In addition 
to the nature reserve, which is visited by over 1500 tourists 
and researchers annually, Pinero is a functioning ranch with 
over 11,000 head of cattle. 
 
3. (C) Pinero is the largest private reserve in Venezuela 
according to Deborah Bigio, President of the Fundacion para 
la Defensa de la Naturaleza (Fudena), a Venezuelan 
environmental NGO which focuses on the llanos region and has 
been particularly active in promoting private conservation 
efforts.  Bigio notes that Pinero is the crown jewel of 
APRINATURA, a network of private reserves and refuges in 
Venezuela that includes more than 37 ranches and has over 
400,000 hectares under protection.  A section of Pinero also 
forms part of a jaguar habitat that was established jointly 
by 20 ranchers in Cojedes. 
 
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What is the GOV up to? 
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4. (SBU) Along with Hato Charcote (reftel), Hato Pinero has 
been the focus of the GOV's public attacks on "latifundios" 
or large rural estates.  The GOV claims that the "alleged 
owners" do not have clear title to the land, and that the 
land is not being used productively.  The GOV -- which itself 
is the largest holder of idle lands in the country -- claims 
that it plans to seize idle lands and turn them over to 
peasants for farming.  This has exacerbated the problem of 
illegal squatters on a number of ranches (which the GOV has 
been loathe to confront) and has encouraged more squatters to 
stake their claims in anticipation of a seizure.  Pinero, 
unlike other Branger-owned ranches and the Charcote ranch 
(owned by the British Vestey company), has not faced a 
squatter problem. 
 
5. (C) According to Jaime Perez Branger, President of 
Agropecuaria San Francisco (the Branger family holding 
company for its agricultural interests including Pinero), the 
GOV does not communicate with his company directly, but 
instead has chosen to speak through the press.  In a 
newspaper interview in early April, Eliezer Otaiza, head of 
 
Venezuela's National Land Institute (INTI) claimed that 
though Pinero charges in dollars for tourism it "provides no 
benefits (to its employees) and pays no taxes".  (Note: It 
was in this interview that he exhorted Venezuelans to "learn 
to hate the gringos" in anticipation of a coming military 
conflict with the U.S.)  He also accused Pinero of egregious 
environmental damage, but gave as his only concrete example 
an allegation that the ranch cut down trees to make corrals. 
Pinero has also been publicly accused by the government of 
treating their employees as "slaves" and of diverting rivers 
for their own use. 
 
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Land "Reform" 
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6. (U) The attack on Pinero is part of the government's 
well-publicized war on "latifundios" and "oligarchs." 
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has called for the seizure 
of these "latifundios" for redistribution to the poor. 
Unlike previous Venezuelan land reform efforts, the Chavez 
scheme does not give the poor title to the land, rather they 
are be given "cartas agrarias" which only allows them to act 
as tenant farmers as the land cannot be sold or mortgaged by 
the farmer. 
 
7. (U) Under the land reform law originally published in 2001 
and updated in April of 2005, lands can be taken by the 
government if the current "alleged owner" cannot prove 
legitimate title for his holdings not only from the time of 
purchase but also in an uninterrupted string back to before 
1848.  Many landowners do not have the capacity or ability to 
comply with this requirement.  Once a landowner has been 
notified that his land is to be seized, he has a 60-day 
period to appeal the INTI decision to the courts. 
 
8. (C) Diego Diaz Martin, President of Vitalis -- Venezuela's 
largest environmental NGO, points out that the government's 
political agenda seems confused and inconsistent.  Local, and 
often national laws do not support the actions of INTI and 
the government, but the issue's high profile could make 
government retreat embarrassing.  The government, says Diaz, 
is making excuses after the fact to justify its actions. 
 
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The Impact of a Seizure 
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9. (C) Environmentalists from Venezuela and around the world 
are fearful of a GOV seizure of Pinero.  As Venezuela's 
oldest and highest profile private eco-tourism reserve, the 
loss of Pinero could have far reaching effects.  Vitalis' 
Diaz says that while the extent is uncertain, the loss of 
biodiversity could be enormous.  Diaz also points out that 
researchers from around the world have published over 500 
papers on work done at Pinero, and the loss of Pinero would 
be a major blow to the ecological and biological research 
community.  Fudena's Bigio is concerned that the entire 
private conservation movement might be derailed by a seizure 
of Pinero.  She notes that private ranchers have made 
significant investments and incurred significant opportunity 
costs in setting up refuges and protected areas on their 
lands, hoping that this would encourage the GOV to allow them 
to keep their lands.  Landowners would be extremely hesitant 
to make such a commitment in the future. 
 
10. (SBU) The government has suggested that it is best 
equipped to manage the country's biological resources and 
claim that the country's biodiversity is part of the 
country's patrimony.  According to INTI's Otaiza "no private 
owner can manage biological and forest reserves for their own 
benefit, exploiting as a tourist business this resource that 
belongs to the whole country."  Venezuela's environmental 
NGOs do not share Otaiza's belief.  The NGOs emphasize that 
Inparques, Venezuela's National Parks management authority, 
has a terrible record for managing lands.  Illegal building, 
mining, and hunting are perennial problems throughout the 
country's national parks system. 
 
11. (C) Venezuelan environmentalists repeatedly complain that 
the state has never dedicated the resources or manpower to 
effectively manage its national parks.   As an example, they 
point to Canaima National Park in the Gran Sabana which 
covers an area of over one million hectares yet has only six 
employees.  Guatopo National Park, a fairly heavily used 
 
park, located only 56 kilometers from Caracas covers over 
120,000 hectares yet employs less than a dozen rangers.  Diaz 
points out that the Avila National Park, which lies between 
Caracas and the Caribbean, is home to thousands of illegal 
buildings, and the government has taken little action to 
control further expansion on national lands.  A GOV takeover 
of Pinero, according to Fudena's Bigio, threatens one of 
Venezuela's best opportunities for successful sustainable 
development. 
 
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View from the Ground 
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12. (C) Emboffs visited Hato Pinero in April 2005.  During 
the visit, Econoff did not observe any government officials 
either on the periphery or inside the reserve.  According to 
Antonio Julio Hands Branger, the director of the Hato Pinero 
Foundation, which oversees the conservation activities of 
Hato Pinero, there have been several visits and surveys by 
various GOV agencies during the last few months.  In 
mid-April, the Hato was visited by a team of 20 people drawn 
from INTI, SENIAT (the Venezuelan tax authority), the 
Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARN), and 
Inparques.  This group, according to Hands, was far more 
concerned with trying to find problems with Pinero than in 
understanding how the reserve was operated.  According to 
Hands, the group, which stayed at the reserve for 2 days, did 
not contain a single scientist. 
 
13. (C) Econoff was shown the areas of alleged environmental 
"destruction," which amounted to small areas of earth 
movement to facilitate road maintenance (of gravel/dirt 
roads).  Econoff also observed the dismantled irrigation 
system adjoining the Cojedes River, which, according to 
Hands, diverted only .004% of the water from the river. 
According to Jaime Perez Branger, Pinero had a permit in 
place for the irrigation system from 1999-2005, but the GOV 
has not allowed them to renew the permit. 
 
14. (C) Econoff also had the opportunity to speak freely and 
privately with workers at the Hato, 85 percent of whom are 
drawn from towns near the Hato.  These employees, many of 
whom have worked for decades at the Hato, told Econoff that 
they were offended by the accusations leveled by the GOV and 
pointed out that several families have multiple members and 
multiple generations working at Pinero. 
 
15. (C) Hands told Econoff of a visit by members of the 
National Assembly's committee on the environment and natural 
resources who visited the ranch after the first allegations 
were publicized.  Hands said the Assembly deputies -- 
including some pro-Chavez legislators -- left the ranch 
convinced that the allegations were baseless. (Comment: This 
account was also relayed to Econoff in conversations with 
environmental NGOs.  It should be noted, however, that the 
power of a National Assembly committee is almost negligible. 
End Comment.) 
 
16. (C) Jaime Perez Branger, for his part, remains cautiously 
hopeful.  In a meeting with Econoff on May 2 -- even as INTI 
inspectors were counting head of cattle at Pinero -- Perez 
noted that the pace of INTI actions had slowed, which he took 
as a positive sign that the government is becoming more 
deliberative in its process.  He said that he felt that the 
evidence for the motions presented to the presiding judge was 
strong. 
 
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Comment 
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17. (C) The evolving history of GOV actions as part of its 
"land redistribution" program doesn't give much reason to 
believe that the GOV will not do what it has said it will. 
The recent passage of the revised land law that reintroduces 
provisions of the 2001 law that were struck down by the 
Venezuelan Supreme Court, merely codifies a course of action 
that is already taking place.  Venezuela's environmental 
groups are extremely pessimistic, and have developed no real 
course of action.  Environmental NGOs in Venezuela have 
traditionally taken a non-political stance that is unlikely 
to change in the current political climate of Venezuela. 
Environmental causes in Venezuela do not have much of a 
political constituency.  MARN is weak and lacks both 
 
resources and scientific expertise to accomplish much.  The 
owners of Pinero have been somewhat successful in appealing 
for pressure on the GOV from international NGO's, scientists, 
and academics, but it is unclear what if any impact this 
might have.  For now, the Branger family's best hope is to 
battle the GOV to a draw in the current legal proceeding. 
The GOV holds the power in this asymmetric war, and even a 
short-term victory for Pinero this month may not mean much in 
the long run. 
Brownfield 
 
 
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      2005CARACA01441 - CONFIDENTIAL