Open letter to the Counsil of Hemispheric Affairs:
Latin American leaders must learn to taxate the lands
24 november 2004
Your recent extremely important press release about Paraguay arises
many important questions about land conflicts in Latin America.
Conflicts over land and the repression carried out by the state have
in many countries caused civil war. It was the land reform of Arbenz
that caused the CIA to organise an invasion of Guatemala. And it was
this invasion and the following repression of Indians and popular
organisations that later brought about a civil war that cost 200.000
people their lives. Repression of campesino movements in Colombia gave
birth to the FARC guerillas.
Paraguay is today on the brink of chaos. President Duarte may use the
military to suppress the campesino movement. Over 200 campesinos are
presently being imprisoned.
This kind of conflicts will never stop until Latin American leaders learn
to take a new approach to land reform. Liberal land reforms have failed
all over the world. The reasons are many:
-when the state starts buying land at full market prices demand for land
goes up and so do the prices. To speculate in fallow lands becomes more
profitable than it was before.
-when the state buys the land at full prices it will have to ask the
campesinos to at least partly pay for the lands by taking loans. As
soon as there is a failing harvest the campesinos cannot pay the rent
on the loan and the land that has been used as a security goes back to
the bank, which sells it on the market (often to the big landowner who
owned it before). In Venezuela the liberal land reform of the early 60s
was eveluated in 1998. Of the lands handed out to the campesinos about 90%
had gone back to the previous owners.
-this kind of land reform give the big landowners, often absentees, no
incitament to start to farm more of their lands. In Latin America
having big lands is a status symbol just like having an expensive car
in the U.S.. No big land owner will start selling off land that he does
not use without having an incitament. But an efficient land reform does
not work only with the state handing out land to campesinos it also needs
a gradual land-feform based on willing seller - willing buyer.
So what to do?
What is needed is a land reform based on taxation (for etensive information
see links below to articles by U.S. economist Mason Gaffney). This is
the kind of land reform that is currently going on in Namibia. The
Namibian government has had a special Evaluation Authority evaluate all
Namibian lands. Then the land owners are given time to protest faults with
a special court (a little more than 200 complaints have been raised). After
that the Government starts to gather taxes. With the help of Great Britain,
a country that supports this land reform, the government also buys land
that is handed out to campesinos. What are the results of this land reform
through taxation:
- Big landowner will start to sell lands that they do not use for farming
to other farmers who have the ability to do so.
- The government raises money that can be used for improving infrastructure
and for education and health care. This benefits all landowners, the big
ones also.
- Poor people are given hope and many more people are integrated into the
market economy. This raises demand and causes economi growth.
BJÖRN BLOMBERG
Sweden
The author has studied the horros of unequeal land destribution during three visits
to Honduras.
Related links:
Great Britain supports Namibia land reform:
http://www.economist.com.na/2004/1oct/10-01-02.htm
U.S. economist Mason Gaffney on land reform throuth taxation:
http://www.economics.ucr.edu/people/gaffney/Econ132s04LandReformThroughTaxRef.pdf
Loads of other articles by Gaffney on this subject are available on the web.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43457&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa&SelectCountry=NAMIBIA
Key step taken in Namibia land reform. A detailed description of land reform
through taxation in Namibia. This link did not work last time a tried but
the article can be found on google using Irinnews plus Namibia plus land
reform as search words (I hope)
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