Hugo Chavez urges stepped up land seizures

CARACAS, Venezuela, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez urged his followers to ramp up the seizure of land in Caracas so it can be used for low-income housing.

In a nationally broadcast address, Chavez said the nation's poor were being forced to live on landslide-prone hillsides in west Caracas rather than on more appropriate real estate on the affluent east side.

"A commission should be established soon and the militia must occupy abandoned plots of land," said Chavez.

El Universal said Monday that Chavez also condemned the recent attack on the National Lands Institute office in Zulia state. Zulia has been the scene of recent clashes over government seizures of ranch and farmlands Chavez ordered, ostensibly to redistribute to the poor.

Chavez called the arson fire an act of terrorism and vowed to step up the "recovery" of lands nationwide.