Mission Vuelta al Campo ("Return to the Countryside"; implementation announced in mid-2005) is one of the

Bolivarian Missions The Bolivarian missions are a series of over thirty social programs implemented under the administration of former Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez and continued by Chávez's successor, Nicolás Maduro. The programs focus on helping the mos ...

(a series of anti-poverty and social welfare programs) implemented by former

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

n president

Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, except for a brief period in 2002. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Republ ...

. Mission Vuelta al Campo seeks to encourage impoverished and unemployed urban Venezuelans to willingly return to the countryside. Prior to the Chávez administration, Venezuela's rural areas have seen substantial economic disinvestment, depopulation, and abandonment ever since oil wealth discoveries and extraction commenced in the early 20th century; as a consequence Venezuela now has an

urbanization Urbanization (or urbanisation) refers to the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. It is predominantly t ...

rate of more than 85% (far higher than the average for both

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

and the

Third World The term "Third World" arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the " First ...

and is, despite its vast tracts of highly fertile soil and arable land, a net food importer. The ''Ley de Tierras'' — "Law of the Lands" — was passed by presidential decree in November 2001; it included the creation of a ''

Plan Zamora The 2017 Venezuelan protests were a series of protests occurring throughout Venezuela. Protests began in January 2017 after the arrest of multiple opposition leaders and the cancellation of dialogue between the opposition and Nicolás Maduro's g ...

'' to implement

land reform Land reform is a form of agrarian reform involving the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution, generally of agricultural ...

s, including redistribution, in Venezuelan agriculture. Underutilized or unused private corporate and agricultural estates would now be subject to

expropriation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

after fair-market compensation was paid to the owners. Inheritable, inalienable, and at times communal land grants were also made to small farmers and farmer's collectives. The rationale given for this program was that it would provide incentives for the eventual and gradual repopulation of the countryside and provide "

food security Food security speaks to the availability of food in a country (or geography) and the ability of individuals within that country (geography) to access, afford, and source adequate foodstuffs. According to the United Nations' Committee on World F ...

" for the country by lessening the present dependence on foreign imports. There are three types of land that may be distributed under the program: # government land, # land that is claimed by private owners, but whose claims the government disputes, # and underutilized private land. To date, the Chávez government has only distributed the first two types of land. Mission Vuelta al Campo fits into this context by seeking to facilitate the willing migration of urban residents back to the countryside in order to receive the benefits of these redistributions. The Chávez government desires that, with increased small-scale farming and ranching by formerly poor, mostly slum-dwelling Venezuelans, both increased economic opportunities of the poor as well as the

food sovereignty Food sovereignty is a food system in which the people who produce, distribute, and consume food also control the mechanisms and policies of food production and distribution. This stands in contrast to the present corporate food regime, in which ...

of Venezuela may be secured.

External links

Gobierno en Línea: Misiones
— Official government website detailing the Bolivarian Missions. Bolivarian missions Food sovereignty Rural community development {{Venezuela-stub

See also

External links