CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Thousands of homeless Venezuelans,
                  energized by a new president who champions the rights of the poor, are
                  taking over vacant buildings and lots, provoking concern about respect for
                  private property.

                  President Hugo Chavez's refusal to call in the National Guard has outraged
                  state governors and local police who say they don't have enough manpower
                  to evict the squatters. Critics say the president, a former coup leader vowing
                  to shake up the country's institutions, is sending the wrong message: that it's
                  OK to skirt the law.

                  "I'm not going to send in troops," Chavez said during a trip last week to visit
                  squatters in eastern Monagas state. "I will not rest until every human being
                  who lives in this land has housing, employment and some way to manage his
                  life."

                  Well over half the country's 23 million people live in poverty, and the housing
                  deficit is estimated at more than a million homes.

                  No one knows for sure how many people are involved in the land invasions.
                  Some officials have said the news is being exaggerated to discredit Chavez,
                  who took office Feb. 2, seven years after his coup attempt.

                  But virtually every Venezuelan state -- from the oil-rich jungles of the east to
                  the Andean highlands near Colombia -- has reported a surge in squatting in
                  recent days, with totals easily passing 3,000 families, according to media
                  reports.

                  In the western state of Zulia, several hundred indigenous tribesmen burned
                  tires and hurled bottles before police with tear gas evicted them from a lot
                  they invaded. In the eastern city of Barcelona, 300 families turned the airport
                  into a makeshift shantytown.

                  "It's not that we want anything for free," said 31-year-old Margot Arangure,
                  who along with 34 other single mothers "invaded" an abandoned,
                  government-owned building in downtown Caracas. "We just want a home
                  for our children."

                  Sporadic takeovers of empty buildings and land is nothing new in Venezuela,
                  but the latest invasions are taking place on a scale never seen before.

                  Chavez says the squatters can be made to leave through persuasion and, if
                  that fails, gentle force by local police.

                  Unlike his predecessors who answered squatting with sticks and bullets,
                  Chavez is traveling the country to talk to the squatters in person.

                  "They are not invaders, but brothers in a desperate situation," the president
                  said.

                  For poverty-stricken Venezuelans, Chavez's actions signal a hopeful break
                  from the past. Critics say he has incited the masses.

                  By insisting that local governments restrain squatters without help from
                  federal forces, some also say the president is trying to wash his hands of the
                  problem.

                  "He wants all of the scorn to fall on the governors," said former Defense
                  Minister Gen. Fernando Ochoa Antich.

                  Venezuela's business elite fears the invasions will exacerbate Venezuela's
                  economic recession by jeopardizing the integrity of private property.

                  "This is devastating to the country's image," Antonio Herrera, president of
                  the Venezuelan-American Chamber of Commerce, told reporters
                  Wednesday.

                  Venezuela can ill-afford to scare away foreign investors. A precipitous drop
                  in world petroleum prices is wreaking havoc on the country's oil-based
                  economy.

                  The government is prepared to turn over 6 million acres (2.43 million
                  hectares) of farm land to qualifying families, Vice Agriculture Minister
                  Francisco Visconti told reporters this week. But the proposal won't likely
                  quell invasions because most squatters are from the city and have no farming
                  experience.

                  Antonio Jose Bastide, a 32-year-old magazine vendor, owns a house in a
                  poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Caracas that has been invaded. He
                  said he complained to three different government offices.

                  "The law here has not lent me a hand," he said. "So I've been thinking about
                  taking the law into my own hands" and setting the house on fire.