Bolivia 'risks revolt over land'

[dipsydoodle]

Bolivia's President Evo Morales has warned of mass demonstrations if the country's Senate does not approve his plans for land reform.
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But landowners in the province, one of the country's most fertile, have threatened to withhold agricultural produce from the rest of Bolivia if the plans are approved.
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Mr Morales, who was elected last year, has vowed to redistribute 200,000 sq km (77,000 sq miles) by the end of his term in 2011.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6156698.stm

Land reform........hmmmmmm........Guatemala started a bit like that back in the fifties. Hope there's no US investments there.

[Judi Lynn]

1. It would be good to think Latin Americans have kept a close watch,

and developed the necessary amount of wariness over the years, after seeing how much hell can come their way after watching what happened to Guatemala, as you mentioned, then the other countries around it, and have a more complex plan developed for dealing with a super power (when under right-wing pResidents) which has been waiting eagerly for even the faintest shadow of an excuse to wreak havoc on them.

I hope the new movement toward regional unity is going to lend courage for the weaker countries to make the changes they have had to forget, at the expense of the poor, during their long years before Latin America had a chance to stand up to its bullies.

More on the coming event from MercoPress:

Mercosur
Friday, 17 November

Bolivia: Land reform or clash?

Bolivia risks a new popular uprising, like protests over energy that toppled two governments in recent years, if Congress does not approve the administration’s land reform bill, President Evo Morales said yesterday.

The opposition, which has a slight majority in the Senate, and business leaders oppose Morales’ land reform bill, which would make it easier for the state to take over lands acquired illegally or not being used, and redistribute them among poor peasants.

The lower house of Congress, where Morales’ Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party has a majority, passed the legislation late on Wednesday. The Senate will debate and vote on the bill next week.

“If some members of Congress don’t want to modify the (agrarian) law like they didn’t want to modify the hydrocarbons law in 2003, the people will rise up to modify those norms by force, in benefit of the majority,” Morales said in a news conference.
(snip/...)

http://www.mercopress.com/Detalle.asp?NUM=9240

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From what I've heard, in cases of appropriated land, the owner, if legally in possession, is ALWAYS compensated. This is to assist the slower ones who would leap to the improper conclusion the owners are being cheated.

[Peace Patriot]

2. I have some doubts about mercopress as a source. I roamed around their site

and got the impression that they serve corporate interests, rather like AP--with focus, in this case, on making No./So. America all into one big "free trade" (free piracy) zone. However, the rest of this article is interesting, and does NOT have typical AP tags and slant. (None of their "the leftist president of...." construction; no mention of Chavez or Castro.)

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"Bolivia had a land reform in 1953, but according to recent government and Catholic Church reports, 90 percent of arable land is in the hands of a few hundred landowners.

"A group of about 1,000 indigenous people from eastern Bolivia are marching 1,000 km to the capital to show support for land reform, and several unions have announced they will join the march.

"Morales, the country’s first indigenous president and a former coca grower, came to political prominence as a leader of protests by farmers of coca, the raw ingredient for cocaine, which is also used in teas and herbal remedies.

"Morales said the government would respect properties legally obtained and that were productive, regardless of their size, but said non-producing estates would revert to the state for redistribution among 'those most in need.'

“'There will not be consensus with the landholders, the owners of large estates, that’s the underlying issue and I only believe in the power of the people, because that is the engine that drives history,' he said.

"The MAS party has 12 votes in the Senate, two less than needed to dominate the 27-member upper house. "

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Sounds a little like OUR situation. 70% of the American people want the war on Iraq ended, and voted overwhelmingly to achieve that purpose, which dinosaurs in the Senate will surely prevent. And now there's some ungodly new amount of money the war profiteers are demanding--hundreds of billions--to continue it. The fascists rob us in different ways here. But it's all the same, ain't it?

[Vidar]

6. Good analysis, Judi. Sounds like misinformation. Viva Morales.

[wholetruth00]

3. One would think that the wealty elite would want to give up SOME of their wealth

in their own best interests. That goes for the wealthy elite in every country including the USA. It would serve everyone's interest to avoid harsh class wars, destablize economies by not supporting and protecting indiginous workers, support the best PUBLIC education systems possible and do all that is possible to develop and nurture a viable middle class within each country where the wealthy elite enjoy the privilege of controlling most of the wealth and the governments. A backlash is on hand within the S. American countries that have suffered the outrageous growth of the wealthy elite and the widening gap between the rich and the poor. It must be as difficult for the obscenely wealthy to think logically and critically about the welfare of those around them as it is for them to get into heaven according the Jesus Christ?

[Igel]

4. As important as redistribution is the issuing of deeds.

Mexico and Venezuela couldn't be bothered. Redistribution was more important, who could care about trivia like paperwork?

Banks and other commercial interests, that's who. Now proving ownership or getting loans with the land as collateral is difficult.

[dipsydoodle]

5. Good point

I guess it's just something we take for granted in own countries.