Resource information
A ‘pink tide’ swept over Latin America following Hugo Chávez's 1998 election to the presidency in Venezuela, bringing to power multiple left or center-left governments. What possibilities for and obstacles to social change were presented by their having attained power through the ballot box? This question is explored through an examination of Venezuela's agrarian reform and the promotion of agroecology within it. The article paper concludes that, while the reform has been successful in providing resources to the land-poor and landless, the landed class has not passively acquiesced to this redistributive effort. Moreover, a situation of ‘dual power’ – in which parts of the government remain in the hands of the previously predominant class, while the newly powerful class gains influence in others – characterizes the Venezuelan state.
