In Venezuela, a Scion Opens His Family Land to the Poor

Washington Post Foreign Service EL CONSEJO, Venezuela Alberto Vollmer is as blue-blooded as they get -- a blond, rakishly handsome heir of one of Venezuela's richest and oldest families. It is a family that owns the fabled Santa Teresa sugar cane hacienda and rum distillery, the one where 19th-century independence hero Simón Bolívar announced an end to slavery. In Venezuela, where President Hugo Chávez divides his countrymen into two groups -- the exploited poor and the malevolent oligarchs -- Vollmer would seem to fall into the latter category. But officialdom does not scorn the U.S.-educated president of the Santa Teresa rum maker. Instead, because he has founded two highly successful programs to provide the poor with land and job opportunities, he has found a way to earn the respect of the self-styled revolutionary... [read full story]