Instituto Nacional de Tierras


Instituto Nacional de Tierras is one of the Venezuelan governmental organizations overseeing the land distribution program. INTI is charged with identifying fallow plots of land, which via eminent domain it can buy from the owners. After acquiring the land, INTI gives land-use rights to other farmers. Those farmers have the right to pass the land as an inheritance, but they do not own it and cannot sell it. The tenant farmers are often organized into cooperatives. In addition, INTI identifies underused land and taxes landowners who are not producing enough. Mission Vuelta al Campo is also run by INTI.
The underlying legal framework draws on Article 307 of the 1999 Constitution of Venezuela as well as subsequent laws, including the 2001 Ley de Tierras y Desarrollo Agrario, Law of Land and Agricultural Development.