"According to a report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), just 100 families own 25 million hectares, while two million small farmers have access to only five million hectares."
"But the land will be granted to groups rather than individual owners, thus eliminating the distribution of large extensions of farmland to a few individuals."
The era of the latifundium or large landed estate seems to be coming to an end in South America's poorest country, where Morales proclaimed an "agrarian revolution" Thursday on the 54th anniversary of the enactment of the first law that distributed land to peasant farmers.
Morales - Bolivia's first-ever indigenous president -- announced the country's "second era" of agrarian reform in Ucurena, in the central department (province) of Cochabamba in a speech that once again declared his leftist government's commitment to the ongoing struggle for land and in defence of the country's natural resources by Bolivia's native majority.
The programme he announced will focus on the redistribution of land, the mechanisation of small-scale agriculture, the strengthening of a "People's Trade Treaty" signed with Cuba and Venezuela, and agricultural production in line with environmental conservation standards.
He also asked his cabinet to rename Aug. 2 "Agrarian Revolution Day" instead of "Day of the Indian", as it has been commemorated since the first land reform law went into effect in 1953.
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"In economic life there is extreme inequality and exploitation. Although colonialism no longer exists openly in the political and economic sphere, still it persists indirectly, and this should not be tolerated... In this respect you should remember that in economic life, we will have to guarantee the minimum requirements of life to one and all... There cannot be any sort of adjustment as far as this point is concerned. The minimum purchasing requirement must be guaranteed to all. Today these fundamental essentialities are not being guaranteed. Rather, people are being guided by deceptive economic ideas like outdated Marxism, which has proven ineffective in practical life and has not been successfully implemented in any corner of the world. Why do people still believe in such a theory, which has never been proved successful? The time has come for people to make a proper assessment of whether they are being misguided or not." |
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"Human beings have still not been able to form a human society, and have still not learned to move with the spirit of a pilgrim. Although many small groups, motivated by self-interest, work together in particular situations, not even a small fraction of their work is done with a broader social motive. By strict definition, shall we have to declare that each small family unit is a society in itself? If going ahead in mutual adjustment only out of narrow self-interest or momentary self-seeking is called society, then in such a society, no provision can be made for the disabled, the diseased or the helpless, because in most cases nobody can benefit from them in any way... in that case there always remains the possibility of some people getting isolated from the collective. All human beings must attach themselves to others by the common bond of love and march forward hand in hand; then only will I proclaim it a society." |