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Article: Guatemala: land distribution history.(AGROENERGY AND ALTERNATIVES)
- Article from:
- Pacific Ecologist
- Article date:
- June 22, 2009
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Pacific Institute of Resource Management. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Land ownership in Guatemala has been highly inequitable since the Spanish conquest and efforts at reform in the 1950s were opposed by the US with a coup d'etat reversing reform. Inequity results in unbalanced direction of public resources to the agro-export sector. US support has given incentives for export agriculture, helping large sugarcane producers and strengthened repression of workers as a 'warning' against future land redistribution. Peasant organisations demand food sovereignty and crop diversification.
Guatemala's landownership system has its roots in the Spanish conquest, when land was taken from indigenous populations and given to the new colonizers. ...