New Paraguay leader\'s first challenge: land reform

Tag : Wire Fence

They are demanding a slice of the wealthy landowner's property togrow food for their families. And if Paraguay president-electFernando Lugo doesn't help them get it, they plan to swarm theprivate property, just as thousands of other landless farmers havedone throughout the country.
"The Paraguayan people are awakening," said Salomon RuizDiaz, 29, a protest leader.
Land reform is the single biggest issue in this tiny nation of justunder 7 million people, where 1 percent of the population controls77 percent of the arable fields. It is also the biggest challengefacing Lugo, a bearded, sandal-clad former Roman Catholic bishopwho won election in April when Paraguay joined the continent'sswing to the left and ended six decades of conservativesingle-party rule.
With the Aug. 15 inauguration of the man known as "the bishopof the poor," peasants like Ruiz Diaz see Paraguay's firstreal chance to address an age-old land dilemma. The way Lugo dealswith the land issue will go a long way toward determining whetherhe will govern as a revolutionary leftist, like Hugo Chavez in Venezuela , or more of a middle-of-the-road pragmatist, like Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Across Latin America, land reform has been the battle cry ofgenerations of populist leaders. But results have generally beenmodest, as in Mexico and Brazil. In Bolivia , President Evo Morales has provoked a constitutional crisis withhis efforts to seize land from large agribusiness for the poorindigenous majority.
In Paraguay, South America's second poorest nation after Bolivia,land ownership is the key to wealth, or even survival. The countryhas very little industry, and as much as 42 percent of its peoplelive in poverty.
By most accounts, the land gap dates back nearly 140 years to a warParaguay lost to Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Devastated andsaddled with crushing war debt, Paraguay began selling off itsgovernment holdings that at the time amounted to 95 percent of thecountry. Over the years, the most fertile parcels went to politicalcronies, and many profited by reselling land to wealthy foreigners.
Privatization accelerated under the dictatorship of AlfredoStroessner from 1954 to 1989 and into the early 1990s. A 2004government study found that some 17 million acres ended up in thehands of just 1,877 people.
The hope of land reform helped drive Lugo's election, and now thepressure is on him to deliver. In dozens of land invasions sincethe election, peasant groups have burned tractors, briefly takenhostages and helped themselves to tools and cell phones beforeretreating.
Nationwide, an estimated 150,000 to 225,000 Paraguayans claim someaffiliation with the various, scattered land groups, and some50,000 are camped illegally on soy farms and ranches.
So far Lugo has managed to balance both sides. He has persuadedmost peasant leaders to stop invading property by promisingpriority for land relief. He has also assured private landownersthat he'll respect their holdings.