The reform of Venezuelan land tenure dates from the overthrow of Perez Jiménez in 1958. Acción Democrática, which assumed power after the elections of that year, had already promulgated an Agrarian Reform Law during its short-lived interlude between military governments, 1946-1948. In 1959, it continued its previous policy of subdividing public lands through the agency of the Instituto Agrario Nacional (IAN), established by the earlier law. But the full-scale reform began with the new “Ley de Reforma Agraria” in March 1960. It permits expropriation of lands which are not being adequately used, with the object of replacing the “latifundio system by a just system of property, land tenure and production, based on the equitable distribution of the farmlands, the proper organisation of credit, and the provision of full-scale assistance” (Instituto Agrario Nacional, 1969).