Bolivia unveils plan to distribute land to poor By Carlos Quiroga
Tue May 16, 10:14 PM ET
Bolivia's leftist government on Tuesday outlined its plan to redistribute idle land to poor peasants, ruling out mass expropriations and proposing instead the distribution of state-owned property.
The announcement came two weeks after President Evo Morales nationalized the country's energy industry, surprising neighboring states and foreign oil companies that had expected to be consulted before Bolivia took action.
Land reform is another pillar of Morales' policy to increase the state's role in managing natural resources, but the government sought to soothe landowners' fears of arbitrary expropriations by ruling out seizures of productive lands.
"As long as the land fulfills its economic and social function, the state will respect it. But if it doesn't fulfill that role, the state will act with the necessary force," Vice President Alvaro Garcia said.
He urged Bolivians to discuss the proposal and said rumors about expropriations or government-backed squatting stemmed from blackmail by those opposed to the "agrarian revolution."
The first step of the proposal involves distributing up to 5 million hectares (12.36 million acres) of state-owned property to indigenous groups and then identify unproductive private land for possible redistribution.
Wealthy landowners concentrated in eastern parts of Bolivia have expressed concern over the reform plans, which fit into Morales' wider agenda to champion the rights of the poor, indigenous majority from where he draws his support.
Morales, Bolivia's first Indian president, comes from a poor peasant family and rose into politics as the leader of the country's coca farmers.
DEEP DIVISIONS
While the sweeping May 1 energy nationalization has been relatively noncontroversial within Bolivia, land reform has exposed the deep divisions between its indigenous people and the richer European-descended elite.
Unease has been strongest in the eastern economic powerhouse of Santa Cruz, where fertile soils are home to vast soy plantations, cattle ranches and migrants who moved from the impoverished Andean highlands in search of a better life.
"It's important that the government avoids creating uncertainty and confrontations," said Gabriel Dabdoub, head of the powerful Santa Cruz business association CAINCO.
"We need to unify the country and the important thing is for government ministers to sit around a negotiating table in a transparent way," he told Reuters after the announcement.
Despite assurances that productive farmland will not be earmarked for redistribution, some landowners say the definitions are unclear.
"What concerns us is that the rules of the game aren't clear," said Mauricio Roca, acting president of the Eastern Agricultural Chamber, which represents landowners.
Despite previous attempts to redistribute land in South America's poorest country, a recent report by the Roman Catholic Church found a small group of wealthy businessmen owned 90 percent of the country's territory.
The rest is shared among Bolivia's 3 million indigenous peasant farmers, who form Morales' support base.
"That is the reality we have to fix," Garcia said as he detailed the reform proposals. "This will bring justice for communities and for the peasants."
Meanwhile the government is negotiating with foreign companies affected by the energy nationalization.
The president of a private Bolivian pension fund run by Zurich Financial Services of Switzerland said on Tuesday it had agreed to hand over shares in three energy companies to the Bolivian government in accordance with the May 1 decree.
(With additional reporting by Helen Popper) |
