(Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias) - "Lands will be socially owned and managed by agricultural cooperatives. They will be used for cattle-raising. The agricultural projects to be developed will benefit all the Venezuelan society, not individuals.

So far, the Venezuelan State has recovered a total of 3,637,054 hectares formerly owned by estate owners. This was announced by the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez, during his TV show ¡Aló, Presidente! (Hello, President!), aired from Hato Calleja (Calleja Ranch), located in Barinas state, Venezuela 's southwest.

This figure includes 330,796 hectares recovered last week by the National Institute of Lands (INTI, Spanish acronym) in order to promote cattle-raising in different Venezuelans states. This action means a 28.74 % recovery out of 6,630,000 hectares of productive lands, explained President Chávez.

'Out of this total, we have redistributed lands among peasants (49%), state-owned strategic projects (40%) and cooperatives (11%),' added the Venezuelan president, who pointed out that there are 30,000,000 hectares of productive lands; and most of them are owned by few.

President Chávez said that his Government has managed to regulate he possession and use of lands through the Law of Lands and hand over Agricultural Letters, and titles, among other documents, involving 3,637,054 hectares, almost 14% of the total agricultural surface.

Likewise, he stated that the Agricultural Reform of the IV Republic was a shame since it allowed large estate owners to increase their power regarding lands' ownership".