[Marxism] Tensions rise as Bolivia moves to bring land reform effort to rightist-held east

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<http://view.atdmt.com/ORG/view/nwyrkfxs0040000007org/direct;at.orgfxs00
000890/01/>
By REUTERS
Published: June 4, 2006

Filed at 11:34 a.m. ET

By Edwin Guzman' .

SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - Bolivia's leftist president, Evo
Morales, took a first step on Saturday toward handing over a fifth of
the country's territory to poor farmers, a day after angry landowners
vowed to form self-defense groups.

Morales chose the eastern city of Santa Cruz, the landowners' power base
in Bolivia's agricultural heartland, to award 60 titles to 7.8 million
acres of former government land to some of the poor peasants who support
him.

``The historical enemies of the poor must accept this land revolution,''
Morales said at a ceremony in a square packed with thousands of
indigenous people.

Morales, a coca farmer from a peasant background, unveiled the land
reform program on May 1, the same day he nationalized the oil industry
in South America's poorest country.

Although Morales' oil nationalization plans have worried foreign
investors and stoked fears in Washington of continuing a leftward,
nationalist trend begun by Venezuela's Hugo
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/hugo_chave
z/index.html?inline=nyt-per> Chavez, criticism at home has not been
widespread.

But his land reform plans have laid bare fault lines in a country where
the Roman
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/rom
an_catholic_church/index.html?inline=nyt-org> Catholic Church estimates
a handful of families own 90 percent of all farmland, while 3 million
indigenous peasant farmers share the rest.

TALKS BREAK DOWN

Government pledges to redistribute only idle land and avoid massive
seizures have failed to reassure landowners, and talks broke down
between the government and landowners on Friday.

Jose Cespedes, a leader of a farm group in eastern Santa Cruz, told
local television late on Friday that landowners would form committees to
defend properties in the region, home to vast cattle ranches and soy
plantations.

``If the law of the land doesn't defend us, we have the right to seek
defense mechanisms,'' Cespedes said.

Cespedes did not say whether the groups would be armed, and government
officials said earlier this week they would not tolerate ``delinquent
groups.''

Bolivia has seen only isolated invasions of farms by landless peasants
in recent years.

At first, the government said it planned to hand over up to 12 million
acres of state property to indigenous groups. It then planned to
identify idle private farmland for possible later distribution.

The government said in newspaper advertisements on Wednesday it had
raised its target to 48 million acres, or almost a fifth of Bolivia's
entire territory, within five years.

Morales' opponents have charged him with electioneering ahead of an
election next month for a constituent assembly. If he gains control,
Morales has pledged to ``redirect'' a land reform program begun 53 years
ago that focused on the western highlands but left large eastern
plantations mostly untouched.



<http://promos.hotbar.com/promos/promodll.dll?RunPromo&El=&SG=&RAND=6973
8&partner=hbtools> Upgrade Your Email - Click here!

________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism