Lider Chavez is accelerating his plan to seize underused ranch lands:

"We are not carrying out expropriation, this belongs to the nation, to the state," he said at the Marquesena farm [that had just been seized]... "We can't stop with the Marquesena, we have to accelerate all of this," said Mr Chavez, who was accompanied by members of Brazil's Landless Movement... "I extend my hand to the supposed landowners to find a constructive solution," he added.

The non-owners have been offered part of the land; the rest will be used to build a state-owned co-operative. And, all the peasants will live in peace and harmony.

In other news:

"In Cuba, when they know a hurricane is coming, chickens, hens and people are all evacuated," Chavez said in an interview with The Washington Post and Newsweek magazine, stepping up his rhetoric against the US government. "A hurricane recently destroyed many towns in Cuba but not a single person died because no one was there. The government prepared its people and took them to shelters, whereas here (in the United States) they left the poor without protection, especially the blacks."