9 well as between those illegal armed groups and the Venezuelan army.14 The State has said that it is aware of the activities of Colombian paramilitaries and hired killers in the area, for which reason it has strengthened security measures through increased police and military vigilance in the border zones adjoining the Colombian State.15 Specifically, over the last nine years two new Theaters of Military Operations were established in Apure and Zulia.16 1.2 Land claim movements and the agrarian reform process in Venezuela 46. The Land and Agrarian Development Law came into force in Venezuela on November 13, 2001. Its aim is “a fair distribution of wealth and a democratic and participatory system of strategic planning of land ownership and development in all agrarian activity.” 17 To implement the above law the government issued Decree 2.292 which provided that […] Those autonomous institutes, State-owned enterprises, and any other persons and in which the aforementioned entities have a share of more than 50% of the capital stock, and State foundations, shall transfer to the National Land Institute title of those lands in their possession that are not necessary for the accomplishment of their purposes and which have agricultural potential. To that end, the government authorized the National Land Institute (INTI) to expedite the procedures […] for placing said lands, as well as those under its ownership, in the possession of the organized campesino communities spread throughout the national territory. The National Land Institute shall proceed to publish Agrarian Maps which shall certify those campesino groups that express their will to organize for productive purposes and to proceed, forthwith, to cultivate and develop said lands.18 47. According to PROVEA, in November 2002 the INTI, in the framework of the land distribution process, took control of purportedly publicly owned lands that were in private hands. The organization indicated that in “the State of Zulia 20 properties were appropriated after INTI officials conducted technical and land records studies and determined that the persons who claimed to own them did not have title over them.”19 In that context, a number of violent land occupations occurred that heightened tensions between owners’ associations and peasants.20 14 El Mundo, editions of March 12, 2003, and March 18, 2003, in Petitioners’ brief on merits received at the IACHR on July 15 Note AGEV/000080 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, January 21, 2008, p. 5. 16 Note AGEV/000080 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, January 21, 2008, p. 13, 2007. 13. 17 Explanatory Statement of the Land and Agrarian Development Law. Petitioners’ brief on merits received at the IACHR on July 13, 2007. 18 Article 1 of Decree 2.292 on Transfer of Title to the INTI of Lands of the State, State Entities, and State-owned Enterprises that are not necessary for the operations thereof. Available at http://www.inti.gob.ve/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=35. 19 Programa Venezolano de Educación – Acción en Derechos Humanos (PROVEA). Annual Report October 2002 September 2003. Available at http://www.derechos.org.ve/proveaweb/wp-content/uploads/03_derecho_a_la_tierra.pdf. 20 Alleged by the petitioners in their brief on merits received at the IACHR on July 13, 2007. Not contested by the State. In its Annual Report October 2002 - September 2003 PROVEA said, "While it is true that the number of forcible occupations has not been significant and does not fundamentally affect the right to property of those who possess large or medium-sized tracts of land, he few that have occurred have increased the tensions that have existed for years because of the inequitable distribution of land. Furthermore, the associations that represent the cattle ranchers and landowners accused the national government of encouraging land occupations and using the Armed Forces to back the invaders. [...] For his part, in the state of Zulia, Luis Elías Martínez, Vice President of the Machiques Cattle Ranchers Association, said ‘We are not going to let them take the land from us like the Barinas producers […]. They will have to kill us first, one by one, because we are going to unite and are prepared to defend, with arms if need be, what our grandfathers built in the greatest hardship and adversity more than 100 years ago.” Programa Venezolano de Educación – Acción en Derechos Humanos (PROVEA). Annual Report October 2002 - September 2003. Available at http://www.derechos.org.ve/proveaweb/wp-content/uploads/03_derecho_al_asilo_y_al_refugio.pdf.