tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30408888.post4974776506815236322..comments2023-09-04T08:51:16.091-06:00Comments on Hermano Juancito: Land issues - the 1980s all over again?John (Juancito) Donaghyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12711543214465586727noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30408888.post-36398445146707615742010-03-08T17:03:43.804-06:002010-03-08T17:03:43.804-06:00Good summary, Brother John.
This cycle of land ...Good summary, Brother John. <br /><br />This cycle of land re-distribution, re-acquisition by means often nefarious and never genuinely voluntary, followed by social explosion and re-distribution has been going on for at least 80 years throughout Latin America (80 years ago is roughly when Lazaro Cardenas became president of Mexico) and parts of the United States. <br /><br />Expropriation often occurs by means that may look legal, but involve great duress. In indigenous communities and in some mestizo communities, it often involves getting one person to sign on the sale of communal lands, then kicking out the whole community. Obviously, one person cannot have authority for the community, but courts are cheaply bought. <br /><br />But even when the process is completely legal, it's wrong. Rural farmers normally do not have other marketable skills. Without their land, they are unable to support themselves. They sell only because they are so desperate for food or medical care-- or alcohol-- that they are clearly being coerced. And this is the consequence of a deliberate American policy of subsidizing food production at home, and denying countries the ability to impose tariff on that food as it is exported into their markets. This drives down the price of food to the point that farming does not even provide subsistence. <br /><br />Sometimes the land grabs are over water rights or mineral rights, or simply to have the land. As RAJ, I think it was, pointed out, many times the seized lands are not even used. That's the worst of it, starving people simply to <i>have</i> something one isn't even using.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com