After routing the opposition at the polls last year, Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez has signalled an escalation of his offensive against the country's elites with a "war" on latifundio, big rural estates that he blames for rural poverty. This is a mistake. Land reform is likely to weaken the farm sector. It has regularly failed Latin America in the past and is especially pointless in Venezuela, where nine out of 10 people live in urban areas.

Land reform that gives the government the ability to expropriate land that is idle or unproductive or where owners are unable to prove legal title has been on the statute books for more than three years. But it is only now, after consolidating his power at a recall referendum in August and in subsequent local elections, that Mr Chávez is implementing it. Saturday's theatrical occupation by the national guard of a 13,000 hectare estate owned by Britain's Vestey Group was the first step in a much broader programme.