Persistent Peasants : Smallholders, State Agencies and Involuntary Migration in Western Venezuela

Worldwide, waterpower is recognized as being a safe, clean, reliable source of energy. Yet often dams are constructed in populated areas and have a large impact on the local people. Dam construction may require the removal and resettlement of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands, of people and dams transform the environment, establishing new rules and priorities for land use. This study investigates a dam scheme constructed in the Uribante foothills of the Venezuelan Andes, and focuses on the social consequences of the scheme. An estimated 1,200 peasant families were compensated for their landholdings, and left their homes. What became of them? Using an actor-oriented approach, the study analyzes the strategies which these peasants followed when faced with involuntary migration. How did they invest their cash compensations? Were they able to re-establish themselves as farmers, or did they choose to migrate to urban areas? What elements affected their decisions? The answers to such questions reveal the nature of the farming economy of the Uribante area, and its historical interrelationship with the agricultural frontier. They also shed light on the nature of the conflicts which arise when the central state begins to compete with peasants over land resources.