Richard Howard at the Globalisation Institute thinks Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez is taking a dangerous route:
The Venezuelan government has just seized more than 330,000 hectares of land in order to redistribute them under agrarian reforms. They announced that in the coming weeks they would expropriate thirteen additional farms. In the past five years of Chavez’ presidency, 2 million hectares of land have been seized…
It is important for farms to be in private hands to ensure competition and efficiency in agriculture. Chavez should be careful that he does not harm Venezuela as much as Mugabe has harmed Zimbabwe. However, having praised Mugabe’s land grabs as undoing “ the unfair structures of colonialism” it is unlikely that Chavez will take heed.
Trade Diversion 
Leaving aside the highly pertinent question of justice in the distribution of natural endowments, there is plenty of good evidence that done right, land reform can be hugely positive for poorer countries, as in the cases of Korea and Japan. Done wrong it can just cause waste and conflict, as in Zimbabwe. It seems to work best when land ends up as small private holdings so it remains to be seen how the Venezuelan case will end up.