Thursday, February 5, 2009

Bolivia Limits Size of Estates in Land Reform Struggle

Q&A: Bolivia Limits Size of Estates in Land Reform Struggle

 

Franz Chavez interviews JUAN DE DIOS FERNANDEZ, head of

land reform programme

 

January 28, 2009, Inter Press Service

 

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45574

 

LA PAZ, Jan 27 (IPS) - Voters in Bolivia, one of the

countries with the highest concentration of land in the

world, decided in Sunday's referendum to limit the size

of large landed estates, or "latifundia", to 5,000

hectares. In Bolivia, South America's poorest country,

just 100 families own 25 million hectares, while two

million campesinos (peasants) have access to only five

million hectares, according to a report by the United

Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

 

This extreme level of inequality in a country that is

highly polarised between the western highlands, home to

the indigenous majority, and the more ethnically mixed

eastern lowlands, which account for most of the

country's natural gas production, industry,

agribusiness and GDP, makes for an explosive cocktail

when it comes to the government's land reform plan.

 

In Sunday's referendum, an estimated 60 percent of

voters approved a new constitution rewritten under the

left-wing government of Evo Morales. Simultaneously, 70

percent voted in favour of a 5,000-hectare limit on

privately-owned rural estates. (The other option was

10,000 hectares.)

 

Under the agrarian reform programme and the new

constitution, the authorities have the right to

determine whether rural property is serving an economic

and social function, or is unproductive and thus

subject to expropriation - with fair compensation - and

redistribution to poor families.

 

Land reform authorities have verified and legalised

land ownership over more than 30 million hectares, and

have 52 million to go, the secretary general of the

National Agrarian Reform Institute (INRA), Juan de Dios

Fernández, told IPS in this interview.

 

The mission is not an easy one, as demonstrated by the

clash that occurred on the property owned by a U.S.

rancher, Ronald Larsen from the state of Montana, who

has lived in Bolivia for four decades and owns 6,777

hectares in the eastern province of Santa Cruz.

 

When INRA officials attempted to carry out an

inspection of his land in November, Larsen's employees

tried to keep them off the property, even engaging in

skirmishes in which shots were allegedly fired at the

government vehicle.

 

Analysts say the land question is at the centre of the

country's political confrontation.

 

Fernandez explained why the government is closely

studying the ownership of the immense ranches in the

hands of private owners.

 

IPS: What is leading the government to reform the

country's land laws?

 

JUAN DE DIOS FERNANDEZ: This is a social demand that

has been loudly voiced for the past 50 years but has

never been given a definitive, structural response.

What happened between 1953 and 1996 is that the state

distributed 60 million hectares of land, less than 20

million of which actually went to campesinos and

indigenous communities, while the rest was distributed

to large landholders and agribusiness interests in the

eastern part of the country.

 

Eighty percent of the productive land was concentrated

in the hands of a small group of landowners and the

rest was worked by a very large group of campesinos and

indigenous communities.

 

For instance, we have the businessman (Osvaldo)

Monasterios, who owns more than 100,000 hectares, while

there are plots of 24 square metres in the province of

Chuquisaca. How is that situation fixed? Rural farmers

with the least land are the poorest people in the country.

 

IPS: What are the technical and legal mechanisms

involved in achieving a fair distribution of land?

 

JDF: By modifying the structure of rural property, by

cleaning up the land register and regularising and

legalising property ownership, identifying public land,

expropriating land that serves no economic or social

function, in the case of medium and large ranchers, and

the distribution of land to landless campesinos.

 

IPS: Tell me about the new size definition of

"latifundium" (a large landed estate with absentee

ownership and labour often in a state of partial

servitude), under this new system of redistributing land.

 

JDF: I believe we are carrying out this reform with a

clear vision. In the old constitution, anything over

50,000 hectares was considered a "latifundium",

although it was not clearly defined. Now, by contrast,

by defining a size limit of 5,000 hectares we are

marking a reference point for a specific policy.

 

This government's policies respect individual,

community- owned and collective property, while

generating a sense of certainty and security in a

scenario where the opposition has been challenging the

process. They have said we are going to take away their

land and distribute it to campesinos from the

highlands, without leaving any land to the agribusiness sector.

 

IPS: What practical experience and results has INRA obtained?

 

JDF: In August, landholdings in the northern province

of Pando were inspected, and 98 percent of the land was

claimed as privately owned. But when we completed the

process, only 25 percent was legally recognised as

such, and another 25 percent had been distributed

earlier to campesinos and indigenous people. The other

half was actually publicly owned nature reserves and parks.

 

IPS: Is there a link between inadequate distribution of

land and a political elite that this government is fighting?

 

JDF: A large part of the 40 million hectares (that went

to large landholders and agribusiness interests in the

eastern part of the country) was handed out in payment

for political favours. By law no one could receive more

than one plot of land, but there were people who

received two and even three.

 

IPS: How long do you think it will take to reduce

poverty by means of the redistribution of land?

 

JDF: We have four more years to complete the process of

clarifying land ownership. Land titles generate a sense

of legal security which, in the case of community-owned

property, allows access to credit, and to participating

in productive processes.

 

You have to understand the political context in

Bolivia. One thing was the (1959) Cuban revolution or

the Bolivian revolution of 1952, where the structure of

the state was changed by force and new institutions were built.

 

In that context, land can be seized because there is no

Congress and (the revolutionaries) have the strength

and the power. But in the scenario of a democratic

revolution like the one being carried out by this

government, we can't do that.

 

A central pillar of a country's institutionality is

guaranteeing legal security. If you have a property

that was acquired either rightfully or wrongly, and

which is larger than 5,000 hectares, I can't take it

from you retroactively. That would be an attack on the

owner and we would be breaking the property rules of this society.

 

This government is not going to do that. But the most

important issue is this: the new constitution

explicitly states that every two years, we are going to

verify that land fulfils an economic and social

function. Through this process, we will be able to

recover public lands and limit unproductive latifundia.

(END/2009)

 

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