Bolivian landless threaten invasions

Landless workers in Bolivia have seized an estate belonging to the family of the former president and are threatening further farm invasions. President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada resigned from office last week after weeks of violent anti-government demonstrations over gas exports.

A group of about 40 people who invaded the estate said the property was unproductive and should be given to landless people.

The invasion came as protest leaders warned the new President, Carlos Mesa, he had to reverse his predecessor's free-market policies.

The leader of Bolivia's landless movement, Angel Duran, told the BBC that farm occupations would send a clear message to the government.

He said the peasants would not leave until the authorities had resolved the matter of land distribution.

"The constitution - Bolivia's principal law - states that unproductive land must be expropriated or turned over to those who have none," he said.

Thousands of poor peasants and indigenous people took part in the recent demonstrations in the cities which left at least 60 people dead.

Many groups also found the gas protests a way of channelling their own grievances with the government.

Indigenous groups and trade unions are maintaining their pressure on President Mesa's administration.

Mr Duran, who accused politicians of abusing their power to acquire large estates, said he wanted to open talks with him.

Indigenous leader Felipe Quispe, who also leads the Single Trade Union Confederation of Bolivian Peasant Workers (CSUTCB), announced a 90-day truce to open negotiations with the new president.

He gave Mr Mesa, who served as vice-president under Mr Sanchez de Lozada, 90 days to fulfil demands to abandon the gas project and US-backed coca eradication programme or face new protests.

Congressman Evo Morales, a leader of coca-growers and the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), said he would support reform under Mr Mesa but the state would have to abandon neo-liberal economic policies.

"Within a month, he has to start giving some clear signs," Mr Morales told the Associated Press news agency.

Bolivia is a huge country, and there is plenty of land for homesteading.

And there is actually no shortage of homesteaders, truth be known, as people migrate into the jungle areas and settle. The problem is that they do not have title to their lands and probably cannot get title to their lands.

But this would be a way to give people what they want without violating private property rights. It will enfuriate the enviros, who oppose homesteading in the jungles, and it will not satisfy leftists who just want a political hammer and don't want a solution.

And it won't satisfy mountain people who don't want to homestead the jungle. But there is a real migration of people into the jungle areas, and recognizing it and legalizing it would be a helpful step.

Attaching land that belongs to someone already will contribute to the general lack of legal clarity that is at the root of Latin America's economic problems. Land invasion is already epidemic in Latin America; most of the shanty-towns you see are on someone's land, or occasionally on public land. When a shantytown springs up the rightful owner is almost helpless to do anything about it, the government will often look the other way in the interest of social peace. So his land is forfeit. Property rights of course only have value if society is prepared to defend them. And property rights are fundamental to a prosperous economy. You can't get there without them.

It would be a mistake to seize people's land for the purpose of redistribution unless a fund is established to conpensate the legal owners. Since NGOs keep coming up with money to place jungle lands off-limits to development, maybe they could put up the money to buy these supposedly unproductive properties. If they are really unproductive, they should go cheap. But something tells me the president's family estate isn't unproductive property by normal definition.

But it is apparent that the real target of the protest is Bolivia's gas industry, which is the country's primary hope for a normal prosperity. They are seizing on the land issue as a way of mobilizing the people, but the target is the new pipeline that they want canceled. Its insane, the NGOs have mobilized the people to fight the one thing that could turn things around for their country. The common people can hardly be blamed, they are guilty of believing people they trust. But the people who are advising them, who channel their anger and frustration are not naive, they know what they are doing although they do not admit it. They are evil.

Hugo Chavez makes a big deal of giving out land parcels to his Chavistas but I'd like to know, are they leases?

I don't know the answer to that, but that reminds me of something that happened early on in his administration.

If you remember, there was flooding on the coast near Caracas. Thousands of people were killed by mudslides, and thousands more left homeless. He refused US help during that time, and he was widely criticized for his inability to restore services there and rebuild. He made an effort, in fact, to force the people in that area to become homesteaders in remote areas of the country, and tried to set up a land grant system for these people.

The problem, of course, was that these were urban city dwellers, who had no desire to move to the jungle and homestead. He was pretty miffed that his policy was so roundly rejected, and the people never really forgave him for his fecklessness in the face of this disaster.

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