Venezuela pays Spanish landowners to end land dispute
Venezuela Tuesday paid more than 3 million U.S. dollars to 12 Spanish farmers for resolving a land dispute caused by President Hugo Chavez's land redistribution campaign.

The Spanish farmers maintained that they were legally entitled to the land in the central state of Yaracuy.

Richard Vivas, the president of Venezuela's National Land Institute, told a news conference that the decision only helped rescue idle land, and Venezuela would not seize land from anyone and then give it to someone else.

The farmers and the Spanish Embassy in Venezuela had reached an agreement with the Venezuelan government, saying they were satisfied with the negotiations.

Chavez decided to redistribute land last year, aiming to boost food production and ease rural poverty. The law allowed the Venezuelan government to expropriate the idle and unproductive land.