In March 2007, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez sat down for what looked like a press conference but rather, for the firebrand president, it was part inquisition of his loyalists and part declaration of intent. Chávez was speaking on his revolución in land reform and a move against latifundios, or large estates. Over a session lasting nearly five hours, Chávez spoke of his socialist mission to reappropriate land in Venezuela. He quizzed generals, ministers and officials about the grand ambition, laying out the country’s agricultural potential and how it was being stymied by corporations supposedly hoarding critical plots of land. During the…

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