During the last week Venezuela has quit the IMF and World Bank. President Hugo Chávez paid off his country's debts with the IMF a few years ago, and now says it wants nothing more to do with 'institutions dominated by US imperialism'. Instead he plans to set up The Bank of the South (or Banco del Sur) which will lend to Latin American countries. Chávez is also threatening to nationalise all the other private banks as well as Venezuela's biggest steel firm unless they operate on with more social objectives. Earlier in the week he took control of the last privately run oil operations - effectively forcing the multi-national oil giants to accept a minority stake in joint ventures. Meanwhile, in nearby Brazil, 'Red April' has just taken place. According to the Economist article on Agrarian reform in Brazil, the Landless Rural Workers' Movement (or MST), 'sponsor a nationwide bout of land invasions, takeovers of buildings and other protests' every April. Apparently, 'In the past the main targets were local land barons. More and more they are big companies, be they Brazilian or foreign'. This 'championship of the downtrodden has something like 1,500 full-time organisers who focus on expropriating resources that are not fulfilling their 'social function'. The Economist says that in Brazil '1% of owners controlled 45% of farmland'.
