VÍCTOR SALMERÓN
EL UNIVERSAL

As he is certain he has found a formula to put an end to years and years of hardships and poverty, President Hugo Chávez is hastily moving forward towards a new Constitution which, according to the Preamble of the draft reform, is paving the way to socialism.

A cornerstone in the new socialist gear is property. "Acknowledgment and guarantee of the different kinds of property is left to the sole discretion of the head of State," said Ronald Balza Guanipa, an economist and professor at the Andrés Bello Catholic University.

Balza stresses that under the modified Article 115 of the Venezuelan Constitution the State preserves as public property that related to state bodies. The State exercises the so-called "indirect social property" "on behalf of the community" and allocates the "direct social property -also called community property or citizens' property, depending on whether it is awarded to communities, communes or cities.

Balza adds that under the proposed changes the so-called "mixed property" -comprising combinations of all the property types outlined in the reform- is subject to "the nation's economic and social sovereignty." The changes advanced by President Chávez, adds Balza, provide that private property may be expropriated "for purposes of public use or social interest" and that such private property may be seized before any judgment on the matter.

An example of likely expropriation transfer of property is provided for under Article 305 of the proposed changes to the Constitution. It establishes that given the need to ensure "food security, the Republic may take control of sectors in the areas of agriculture, cattle-raising, fisheries, and aquaculture, and may transfer control to autonomous bodies, state firms and social, community and cooperative entities."

Political control
Based on the proposed modifications, community property will be in the hands of the people's power, which will not necessarily be elected in a vote.

Under Article 136, the people exercises sovereignty through the people's power, "which is not born from suffrage or any election whatsoever, but from the status of human groups organized as the foundations of the population."

The provision adds that "the people's power is represented by the construction of communities, communes and self-governance of cities through community councils, workers' councils, peasants' councils, students' councils and other bodies as provided for under the laws."

The result of these articles is a State that controls, assigns and distributes property among organized groups that are headed by leaders who are not elected in a vote and which are allocated a part of oil revenues.

This scenario may help boost Venezuela's dependence on oil revenues -one of the classic features of the inefficient Venezuelan economy.
 
Impact
For Balza, one of the key aspects to be considered is the fact that the constitutional reform is intended as a transition to socialism, to the extent that decision-making regarding investments could come to a halt, as investors are not certain whether in a second phase private property of the means of production would be fully suppressed.

Translated by Maryflor Suárez R.
msuarez@eluniversal.com

SEE THE SPECIAL FEATURE ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM