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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Emergency law includes provisions to speed up seizures |
| 2011-02-04 |
| [El Universal] The Organic Emergency Law on Lands and Housing not only conditions the ownership of housing solutions, but also includes provisions for prompt seizure of idle and underused urban lands and non-residential buildings. The instrument, which became effective on January 29, provides preemptive measures including urgent and temporary occupations. According to legal experts, the Law on Expropriations in the Public Interest provides for preemptive and temporary occupations, while the new emergency law includes a new concept: urgent occupations, which ensure an expeditious mechanism to expropriate assets. Based on the emergency law, urgent occupations will be applicable when authorities determine that the execution of construction works is "urgent." Then, authorities will occupy idle lands and non-residential buildings. Temporary occupations will be implemented when State agencies decide to occupy assets that are required permanently to execute works or undertake other activities. Further, the instrument provides that friendly negotiations may take place when the State, following the occupation of lands or non-residential buildings, determines that it requires the assets and then attains a sales agreement with the owner. If they fail to reach an agreement, the lands or assets will be seized. The legal framework provides that if the parties fail to reach a (friendly) agreement and the construction works are deemed urgent, they will be declared of public interest and they will be taken over. Experts believe that the government will rank all types of works as urgent. Therefore, the Venezuelan authorities will use the law to order urgent occupation of assets, they said. Felipe Benites, a representative of Observatorio de Derechos de Propiedad (Property Rights Watch), claimed that "this emergency law is trying to use a fast-track method for seizures. In other words, they want to declare public utility of the entire construction sector and legalize previous seizures." Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... Roberto Orta, the president of the Association of Urban Property Owners, said that the process of seizure of lands and buildings is unconstitutional. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Mr. Orta, are you suggesting that your constitution is not a living breathing document open to the interpretations of the current culture? |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2011-02-04 11:51 |
| #1 AHHH...good. "the Venezuelan authorities ..." |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2011-02-04 08:17 |