UC Berkeley

217 Pages·2016·3.06 MB·English

by  Daniel Lavelle

UC Berkeley
UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Title
Petro-Socialism and Agrarianism: Agrarian Reform, Food, and Oil in Chavista Venezuela
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https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3pf0v5q1
Author
Lavelle, Daniel Brian
Publication Date
2016

Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation
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Petro-Socialism and Agrarianism:
Agrarian Reform, Food, and Oil in Chavista Venezuela

by

Daniel Brian Lavelle

A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction
of the requirements for the degree of:

Doctor of Philosophy

in

Environmental Science, Policy and Management

in the

Graduate Division

of the

University of California, Berkeley

Committee in charge:

Professor Claudia Carr, Chair
Professor Miguel Altieri
Professor John Hurst

Spring 2016
Copyright Daniel Lavelle

March 11, 2016
Abstract

Petro-Socialism and Agrarianism:
Agrarian Reform, Food, and Oil in Chavista Venezuela

by

Daniel Brian Lavelle

Doctor of Philosophy in
Environmental Science, Policy and Management

University of California, Berkeley

Professor Claudia J. Carr, Chair

This dissertation examines the policy and socio-economic dynamics of the
Venezuelan agrarian reform in the Chavista era. As a self-proclaimed socialist state,
the Chavista government has framed its agrarian policies as a reordering of the food
system that prioritized land redistribution, smallholder agriculture, and sustainable
forms of production. The agrarian reform purported to place peasant farmers at the
core of a new agricultural regime that would build national food sovereignty. Yet
despite increased state support for smallholders, aggressive pro-peasant rhetoric,
popular support for the Chavista party in rural areas, and oil wealth to fund
agriculture development, rural dynamics have been characterized by conflict over
land and a geographically and temporally uneven process of policy development in
the countryside.

This dissertation argues that the land reform program in Venezuela has
plateaued as a redistributive process and has to come to serve as primarily social
rather than productive policy in rural areas. In this study I seek to analyze the
determining factors that have impacted and restricted the agrarian reform process
and produced this limited outcome.

To understand the limits of the agrarian reform I argue that it is necessary to
examine policy processes within an analysis of the broader political economy of
Venezuela as an oil state with a mixed economy. I also posit that analyses of agrarian
dynamics that focus on peasant-state relationships without addressing the
commercial agriculture sector have omitted a critical dimension of the agro-food
system. I therefore take a multi-sectoral approach to agro-food policy that draws
these understudied components of agrarian Venezuela—petro-state dynamics and
1
the commercial agriculture sector—into an analysis anchored on peasant-state
policy relationships.

Through this multi-sectoral approach I argue that the complex and often
contradictory objectives of state policy in the agrarian realm are illustrative of
macro-level, petro-state constraints on progressive reform more broadly, as well as
tensions between political and economic development objectives of state policy. I
show how oil dynamics create political economic challenges to structural change
and feed into the construction of particular state ‘needs’ for agriculture, food
production and agrarian reform. These dynamics help to explain the apparent
contradiction of why much of state agricultural policy in Venezuela contributes to
maintaining the viability and local economic position of large farmers even as
government discourse continues to highlight the state’s promotion of agrarian
reform and smallholder production.

I propose the term ‘petro-socialism’ to refer to the political economy
emerging from the amalgam of oil state dynamics and the anti-neoliberal/socialist
framing of the government’s policies. The concept of petro-socialism connotes that
the shape of state reforms in the Chavista period were inherently constrained and
often contradictory in nature.

2
Acknowledgements

Dissertations are both labors of solitude and collaborative projects that are
only made possible with the input, effort and solidarity of many people. I am deeply
appreciative of all those whose thoughtful aid and support made this project
possible.

First I would like to thank my dissertation committee chair, mentor and
friend, Claudia Carr. Claudia’s unending patience, unwavering support, and keen
intellectual insights were key along each step of the process. Claudia continually
challenged me to think critically and politically about the key issues facing rural
peoples in the Global South and how my work fit into the broader world we both
deeply care about. For all her assistance I am extremely grateful.

I would like to thank the other members of my dissertation committee:
Miguel Altieri, who taught me invaluable lessons on the political and ecological
dimensions of agroecology and the linkages to rural social movements; and John
Hurst, who provided critical political and intellectual perspective to this project.

I owe a debt of great gratitude to many more people in Venezuela than I can
possibly thank here. Venezuelans of all stripes were exceedingly welcoming, open,
and accommodating throughout my time in the field. Miguel Angel Nuñez connected
me to a number of key contacts in the government and civil society in all of my field
areas. Angel Marin in Portuguesa state introduced me to commercial growers and
peasant prodcuacmeprse sainliok e, and shuttled me to endless meetings and interviews. In
Yaracuy, Laura Lorenzo’s energy and dedication provided valuable insights into
Venezuela’s movements. Wildcearm inp eYsainroacs uy provided transportation to
many remote land reform settlements and meetings and has become a good friend. I
would especially like to thank the many that chose to share their
experiences with me, sometimes under difficult or inconvenient circumstances.

Finally, I would like to thank my family. Nico and Camila grew up throughout
this process and were a constant source of grounding and sanity in the difficult
phases of the dissertation. My wife, Beatriz, endured the torment of the long years of
the PhD process with positive energy and good humor. Without her endless love and
support this dissertation would not have come to pass.

i
Table of Contents
List of Figures

List of Tables
......................................................................................................................................... vii
List of Abbreviations
............................................................................................................................................. ix

............................................................................................................................ x
Chapter 1: Understanding Venezuela’s Agrarian Reform: A Multi-Sectoral
Approach

...................................................................................................................................................... 1
Chapter 2: Food Sovereignty and Agrarian Reform
......................................................... 10
The Enemy is the Model: Food Sovereignty and Agrarian Change ......................... 10
The Role of the State in Food and Agriculture? ............................................................... 12
st
A Complicated Legacy: 20th Century Land Reform in Latin America
Seeds of a new model: Agrarian Reform in the 21 Century and Agroecology 15
Shifting to the Market: Neoliberal Land Reform
......... 16
The Emergence of ‘New’ Rural and Food Sovereignty Movements
................................................ 18
............. 18
AgrarianReform in the Twenty-First Century ................................................................ 19
Chapter 3: Petro-Socialism: Oil Dynamics, Agrarian Reform and 21st Century

Socialism in Venezuela
...................................................................................................................... 23
Approaches to Chavista Venezuela ....................................................................................... 24
Oil States and the Resource Curse ........................................................................................ 26
The Persistence of Agriculture in Petro-States
Oil Development and Agriculture ......................................................................................... 28
................................................... 29
Early land Reform Efforts
Oil, Agriculture, and Chavismo in Venezuela ................................................................... 30
Nationalization and the 1970s Oil Price Boom
............................................................................................ 33
Economic and political crisis and the rise of Chávez
.................................................. 35
....................................... 37
Petro-Socialism: Endogenous Development in the Chavista Era ............................ 38
ii
Setting the Stage for Chavista Land Reform Policies: The Continued
Weakness of Agriculture and Dominance of Oil
Chavista Oil Policy
............................... 38
Interpreting Chavista Oil Policy and Social Spending
.......................................................................................................... 39
...................................... 42
Does Socialism Matter? Oil Dynamics, Capital Accumulation and the Nature of
Oil wealth and social conflict: Oil dynamics and the constrained
the State ............................................................................................................................................ 44
implementation of Venezuela’s agrarian reform
............................. 46
The Petro-Socialist Framework Socialist Framework: Analyzing the Agrarian

Reform in a Petro-State Context ............................................................................................ 48
Chapter 4: The Evolution of Chavista Venezuelan Agrarian Policy
......................... 50
The Land Law
Phase One: 1999 – 2003 ............................................................................................................ 53
................................................................................................................... 53
Phase 2: Missions and Cooperatives 2003-2005 ............................................................ 57
The Political Project: Popular Power- Communal Councils
Phase 3: 2006: Communal Councils and EPS’s ................................................................ 60
........................... 61
The Political Context: The New Geometry of Power and the Communal
Phase 4: 2007-2014: The Communal State and State-led Food Sovereignty .... 65
State
Food Security and Sovereignty Law
................................................................................................................... 65
Price Inflation and Food Shortages
........................................................................ 67
Securing the Food Supply: Marketing and Distribution
......................................................................... 69
Securing the Food Supply: The Productive Sector
.................................. 71
Securing the Food Supply: Agricultural Financing
............................................. 72
AgroVenezuela
............................................ 73
Securing the Food Supply: Upstream
................................................................................................................. 75
PDVSA Agrícola
...................................................................... 78
Land Reform: Deepening or stagnation?
............................................................................................................... 79
............................................................... 80
iii
Fourth Agro-Food Policy Stage Summary
............................................................. 83

Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 87
Chapter 5: Commercial Agriculture and the Venezuelan State
................................. 91
The Necessity of Conflict? Commercial Agriculture and the Chavista State ....... 91
The Historical Formation of Agrarian Relations in Portuguesa............................... 93
Commercial Agriculture in the Chavista Era .................................................................... 96
Expropriation in the Broader Agro-Food System
Land Redistribution: The Rhetoric and Reality of Land Expropriation ............... 99
State Intervention in Land in Portuguesa
............................................ 103
Undermining Reform: Landowner Power
.......................................................... 103
The Ambivalence of Conflict
.......................................................... 105
.................................................................................... 107
Input Subsidies
The Capture of Agricultural Credit and Currency Policies ...................................... 108
Price controls and Export Restrictions
.............................................................................................................. 112
Imports and Prices
................................................................ 114
...................................................................................................... 118
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 119
Chapter 6: Peasant State Relationships in Venezuela:

................................................. 124
Field Sites: Mérida, Portuguesa and Yaracuy ................................................................ 125
The Importance of Peasant Pressure in Agrarian Reform
Land Access: Peasant Pressure and Government Institutions .............................. 125
The Rules of the Game: Land Petitions and Occupation
........................... 127
Occupation in Yaracuy
............................... 128
Occupation in Portuguesa
.............................................................................................. 129
Variation of relations with INTI
........................................................................................ 130
............................................................................ 131
The Contestation of Productivity and Land Claims .................................................... 133
iv
The Contestation of Productivity in Portuguesa
The Contestation of Productivity in Yaracuy
............................................. 133
Conclusions on Land Access: Peasant Pressure and Government
.................................................... 135
Institutions
................................................................................................... 136
The Multiplication of Institutions: The Petro-State and Agricultural
Credit for Whom? Peasant Experiences with State Credit Institutions ............. 136
Credit
Complications for Peasants and State Credit: Credit Timing
.............................................................................................................. 136
Credit Dependency, Peasant Decision-Making and State Agricultural Goals
..................... 137

The Push for Production: State Production Plans and Credit Delivery
.......................................................................................................................... 139
.. 140
State Promotion of Agroecology
State Assistance and the Decline of Agroecology ........................................................ 142
Roadblocks to Agroecology Promotion and Adoption
............................................................................ 142
Chemical Dependency and Agroecology Promotion
.................................. 144
The Decline of State Agroecology Credits
...................................... 145
.......................................................... 145
Marketing ..................................................................................................................................... 146
Participation Framework for Fundos Zamoranos
State Organizational and Participation Structures in Rural Areas ...................... 149
Fundos Zamoranos’ experiences with Local Command Meetings
.......................................... 151
Dual Function of Organization and Participatory structures
............. 153
.................... 154
Peasants outside of the cooperative agrarian reform sector: Coffee in
Venezuela ...................................................................................................................................... 155
Rural perspectives on Chavismo and the Agrarian Reform ................................... 159
Assessing the Agrarian Reform ........................................................................................... 163
Petro-Socialism and the Construction of Agrarian Reform
Conclusions .................................................................................................................................. 168

........................ 170
v