The document analyzes the social and environmental impacts of agro-fuel expansion and shows a detailed picture of the situation in 11 states. The report outlines how large industrial plantations of soy beans, sugar cane and palm oil for the production of a "greener" fuel are leading to the rapid deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, and Indonesia's rainforest. The Via Campesina, an international movement of more than 150 million peasants and indigenous peoples worldwide, has denounced the replacement of crops for people with agro-fuels that only feed cars, leaving more rural families around the world hungry. Currently a portion of the report is available in English (see article below), with the remainder expected to be available soon.
Rede Social and CPT will present their report Agro-fuels as Barrier to the Building of the Food and Energy Sovereignty during an international event organized by Via Campesina - Brazil and its local partners. The Via Campesina's gathering is a parallel event to the International Conference "Bio-fuels as Vector to the Sustainable Development" sponsored by the Brazilian government to promote its ethanol program.
The Many deaths of Sister Dorothy Mae Stang
From Agro-fuels as Barrier to the Building of the Food and Energy Sovereignty
Symbol of the struggle for human rights, the nun, who was the victim of shooting in Anapu in the state of Pará on February 12th, 2005, died for the first time in the 1970s and continued to die many times again after February 12th.
Sister Dorothy Mae Stang began to be assassinated when the military, which took power in 1964, launched the program for the occupation of the region and sought to protect large land holdings from criticism raised elsewhere and to promote the penetration of capitalism into the Amazon region.
With a haughtiness supported by immense propaganda resources, the military announced that the undertaking would take "men without land to land without men" and would furnish natural resources and energy to the region. In this way, all of the productive factors-capital, labor, energy, and raw materials-would be present in the vast areas granted to entrepreneurs who would promise to invest in the development of the region.
However, what was presented as an eliminator of the sources of conflict over land actually resulted in producing the greatest amount of violence, corruption, favoritism, and impunity. Thus, far from promoting the expansion of technology in the region and taking capitalist production to places where the presence of indigenous groups was not even known, the military managed to inject all of the elements of backwardness, which until today are the characteristics of Pará.
The equation of the military failed in terms of a positivist vision, which considered that the social actors would accept playing the role they were given in the project. Contrary to what was planned, the element that was expected to arrive and constitute the necessary factor of innovation, the capitalist entrepreneur, with his advanced resources and mentality making possible the interaction of all of the others, opted to show his hunger for profit. He did not differentiate between his role in concentrating ownership of land reduced to unproductiveness, on the one hand, and in exploiting slavery, on the other.
Why, reasoned the first entrepreneurs, tie up capital not always really in existence or available, if it were possible to lobby, often successfully, for the State to supply credit, having as guarantee the notes that the government itself issued, and with oversight nearly inexistent or put in the hands of officials that could always be softened with gratuities. Or, why carry out their part, if it were possible simply to maintain the title to the concessions and wait for the resulting pressures of the presence of the displaced human element to oblige the State to supply the necessary infrastructure, which by the terms agreed upon was their counterpart to the to the government's capital?
The refusal by those granted the concessions to realize the promised investments resulted in the continuing of the victory of the hard reality of nature over the human agent and in the continuing lack of labor. If the absence of infrastructure discouraged going to the region as an agricultural laborer by those who let themselves be seduced by the promise of "land without men", there was no reason for them to be subject to salaried labor, when the vastness of the forest promised each one a parcel of land that he judged sufficient for his efforts.
For this reason, what could have been the front line of capitalism saw itself confronting the difficulty of realizing the vaunted development and, repeating the previous solution of plantations, frequently fell back on the use of slave labor. Regarding this, the use of captive labor by the most advanced and familiar capitalist companies, such as Bradesco (the Taina Recan united ranches in Santa do Araguaia and Alto Rio Capim, in Paragominas) and Volkswagen (Vale do Rio Cristalino ranch, in the south of Pará) has been denounced more than once and is recorded.
Left untouched for more than ten years, the areas that had been object of the concessions granted by the military should have been returned to the control of the federal government long ago. But instead of this, they were, and still are, being used as a guarantee for a scheme of financing of projects that exist only on paper, without realizing the works agreed upon and for the predatory exploitation of lumber. This added to the riches coming from the land concessions and to those factors giving rise to the degradation of the environment and the frauds against the Amazon development programs.
The Terra do Meio, between the Xingu and Tapajós Rivers, has long seen the conflict between the squatters who established themselves in the region and the concessionaires in breach of contract, who still want to validate titles already invalidated for that reason.
The federal government has been negligent in declaring the titles nullified, given the noncompliance with the contracts, and in proposing acts to repossess lands in those cases where necessary. Added to this is the inaction and slowness of the Courts and authorities who take the side of the large land holders, which guarantees the cover-up by the police of assassins and gunmen, perpetuating confilct and violence.
To fight this practice of fraud, environmental degradation, and appropriation of larges areas of land, environmental groups and supporters of rural workers drew up a Sustainable Development Project, which guarantees the sustainability of the environment and of small-holder production, in contrast with the pedatory policies against nature, public funds, and human rights.
It was to this sustainable development project that Sister Dorothy dedicated her time and her life. The death of Dorothy Mae Stang is the crowning of a political-economic process that bleeds not just physical bodies but an economy and a future. The military, entrepreneurs, and adventurers were all part of this process in the Amazon. Coronations, being moments of change, represent a transformation in a cycle, but not its end. It is the beginning of a moment that prolongs the monarchy. A monarchy that runs roughshod over human rights in the state of Pará and does not appear at all close to settling accounts with the Brazilian republic.
With Sister Dorothy's death, we had the illusion of the presence of the State in the Terra do Meio, with the deployment of military forces and the Federal Police. But this did not stop the commorations and the fireworks with which the dominant classes of Anapu and Pacajá celebrated the homicide.
]]>According to Cruz, a local Human Rights Center is closely monitoring the safety of the remaining 300 families in the encampment, as fear of a backslash from landowners continues. In recent days, Rafael Alegría – a peasant leader of Honduras and member of the International Coordinating Committee of the Via Campesina – received death threats after a clash between the national police and peasant activists in the community of Silin left 11 dead and more injured. Due to pressure from the international community, the Honduran government sent a military squad to protect the area and avoid new confrontations.
The response from Grassroots International supporters and allies in the U.S. was fantastic. Activists sent more than 1,400 emails in the span of two days. Thanks for your promptness. With your support, we will continue joining peasants and indigenous people around the globe in the struggle for justice.]]>
Under intense threat from the expansion of agro-fuels in South America and Indonesia, militarization in Colombia and South Korea, and increasing food prices, rural families are voicing a predicament that affects all communities.
]]>Under intense threat from the expansion of agro-fuels in South America and Indonesia, militarization in Colombia and South Korea, and increasing food prices, rural families are voicing a predicament that affects all communities.
The Via Campesina's message is a strong warning that rural communities are disappearing because of economic policies that disregard the Livelihood Rights of rural and urban communities. Livelihood rights are the right to the means of existence and reproduction of individuals and their communities - essentially at the core of the Right to Life and to a life with dignity.
The expansion of industrial agriculture and free trade policies are the major threats to the protection of peasants' way of life. They are destroying the cultures and economic bases of entire communities.
The violation of the human rights of peasants and indigenous people shows that this industrial food system is not only making us unhealthy (and changing the global climate), but also is perpetuating oppression and hunger.
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Final declaration of International Conference on Peasants' Rights:
In the 60th anniversary year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we peasants demand our own convention
Jakarta, 24 June 2008
We, the delegates of the small farmers, women and men, of the international movement La Via Campesina, coming from 26 different countries attended from 20 to 24 of June 2008 the International Conference on Peasant Rights in Jakarta, Indonesia. After seven years of intense discussions on the content and strategies, our spirits are high and full of confidence that we will achieve a UN convention on peasant rights. This convention will be one cornerstone to sustainable life for all human beings on our planet.
We peasants, women and men, landless people, agricultural workers, small- and medium-scale farmers, indigenous people and rural youth, represent almost half of the world population and are the backbone of the food system. The food crisis shows us the massive and systematic violations of peasant rights.
We are being increasingly and violently expelled from our lands and alienated from our sources of livelihoods. Mega development projects such as big plantations for agrofuels, large dams, infrastructure projects, industrial expansion, extractive industries and tourism have forcibly displaced our communities, and destroyed our lives. Many armed conflicts and wars are occurring in rural areas. Land grabbing and destruction of harvests are often being used as weapons against civilian rural populations.
We can not earn an income which allows us to live in dignity. A mix of national policies and international framework conditions are responsible for driving us to extinction. Noteworthy among these policies are the processes of privatization of land, which have led to a reconcentration of land ownership; the dismantling of rural public services and those that supported production and commercialization by small and medium producers; the fostering of highly capitalized and high-inputs agroexports; the push toward the liberalization of agricultural trade and toward policies of food security based on international commerce.
In many countries, we are losing our seeds at great speed, our agricultural knowledge is disappearing and we are being forced to buy seeds from Trans National Corporations (TNCs) in order to increase their profits. These companies are creating Genetically Modified Organisms and monoculture crops with the loss of many species and biodiversity in general.
In addition, we women peasants suffer from double marginalization: as peasants and as women. The responsibility of looking after the family is in our hands and the shortage and uncertainty of health care and education for the children make us work long hours for low wages. Women who work as laborers in the fields are being forced to use chemical fertilizers and are therefore at high risk for their health.
Moreover, violent oppression is a daily experience for us. Thousands of peasant leaders are arbitrarily arrested, detained, terrorized, tortured, killed and being criminalized because they rre fighting for their rights. We women peasants also suffer violence at the hands of our husbands, partners, or employers. Such violence can be physical or mental and even life threatening.
We have inherited a long history of peasant's struggles defending our rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the main human rights treaties are important instruments in our contemporary struggles. Nevertheless, we feel as other oppressed groups such as indigenous peoples, and women, that time has come to fully spell out our distinct individual and collective rights. It is time for food sovereignty. There are major gaps in the interpretation and implementation of the main human rights treaties when applied to peasants. Moreover, we face patterns of violations of our rights, by the crimes committed by TNCs and by Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). In order to address these patterns of violations, we need specific provisions and mechanisms to fully protect our rights.
A future Convention on Peasant Rights will contain the values of the rights of peasants-and should particularly strengthen the rights of women peasants-which will have to be respected, protected and fulfilled by governments and international institutions.
For that purpose, we commit ourselves to developing a multi-level strategy; working simultaneously at the national, regional and international level for raising awareness, mobilizing support and building alliances with not only peasants, but rural workers, migrant workers, pastoralists, indigenous peoples, fisher folks, environmentalists, women, legal experts, human rights, youth, faith-based communities, urban and consumers' organizations as well.
We will also seek the support of governments, parliaments and human rights institutions for developing the convention on peasant rights. We call FAO and IFAD to uphold their mandates by contributing to the protection of peasant rights. We ask FAO's department of legal affairs to compile all FAO instruments protecting peasant rights as a first step towards this purpose. We will bring our declaration on peasant rights to the UN Human Rights Council.
In the light of the threats posed by the current neoliberal-capitalist attack on local food systems and peasants, we call on all the people to join hands for the sake of humankind.
We call all our members and allies to rally for our Convention on Peasant Rights the next 10th of December, on the 60th anniversary of the UDHR.
Globalize the struggle, Globalize the hope!
]]>In two separate statements, Guatemala's National Peasant and Indigenous Coordination (CONIC) and Brazil's Small Producers Movement (MPA) put forth food sovereignty as a solution to the crisis: the right of communities to produce food for local markets and for consumers to have access to local healthy foods. Both organizations denounce the expansion of industrial agriculture and growing control of agribusinesses for contributing to the hunger of urban and rural communities.
]]>In two separate statements, Guatemala's National Peasant and Indigenous Coordination (CONIC) and Brazil's Small Producers Movement (MPA) put forth food sovereignty as a solution to the crisis: the right of communities to produce food for local markets and for consumers to have access to local healthy foods. Both organizations denounce the expansion of industrial agriculture and growing control of agribusinesses for contributing to the hunger of urban and rural communities.
CONIC's press release "Denying Production of Staple Foods for Local Consumption is Also an Act of Terrorism" and the MPA's open letter "We Want to Produce Food: Campaign Against Multinational Agribusinesses and In Defense of Peasant Agriculture" (both attached to this post) denounce the failures of economic policies that favor industrial agriculture and neglects rural families.
This week, policy makers tried to ignore those claims during an emergency meeting in Rome organized by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Governments and multilateral agencies continue to defend free trade policies and expansion of agro-fuels and industrialization of agriculture.
In an interesting article, the geographer Ariovaldo Umbelino questions if there is a food crisis or a crisis of empty neo-liberal promises. Indeed, this week's meeting in Rome was full of the same empty promises: Genetically modified seeds, agro-fuels and industrial agriculture. This formula will not guarantee a dignified future to peasants and indigenous people. Neither does industrial agriculture offer a healthy solution for consumers in urban areas. The experiences of working families in Ohio and Oaxaca bear similarities. Free trade policies and industrial agriculture represent empty dinner plates and lack of jobs.
As the food crisis creeps into our own neighborhoods, we hope that you'll join Grassroots in demanding a real solution – food sovereignty.
]]>Free translation from the Landless Workers Movement (MST’s) website
]]>Free translation from the Landless Workers Movement (MST’s) website
According to the annual report on violence in the Brazilian countryside launched by the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), over 40% of the conflicts over water have taken place in the São Francisco watershed. In the last year, 40 water conflicts were documented in Brazil and 17 of them happened in the areas where channels and aqueducts will be built through the São Francisco Watershed Transposition Project.
According to a member of the national coordination body of CPT, José Batista, “the watershed transposition project has influence [in those conflicts], as the new water infrastructures will cut through several states in the Brazilian Northeastern region generating inevitable conflicts with communities that are being displaced from their lands and see themselves being pushed away from a natural common good. In this case, water.”
Some cases in 2007 highlight the problem. In June of last year, approximately 1,500 peasants, small scale farmers, indigenous people, and members of non-governmental organizations occupied the construction site on the Mãe Rosa farm, in Cabrobó to protest the project. The demonstration led by the Trukás (an indigenous ethnic group) demanded the demarcation of the land as indigenous territory out of concern that the transposition project has not taken into consideration the land rights of the tribe. The Brazilian Army was called to suppress the protest.
José Batista emphasized that the facts stated in the CPT report do not include the conflicts in the Amazon region. The CPT member said that the organization does not have the resources to collect the data in that region, which also has its share of land and water-related conflicts.
]]>The Landless Workers Movement has been working for more than twenty years to redress extreme inequality in Brazil, where fewer than two percent of landowners control nearly half of all arable land. The MST's strategy involves using a constitutional clause that idle land be used for the social good. Turning this right into reality, the MST has grown to become the largest social movement in Latin America, with more than 1.5 million landless members settled in thriving communities in 23 out 27 Brazilian states.
Luis Antonio or Tonico, as he is known, will be speaking at events organized by scholars and local activists at Brandeis University in Waltham, Northeastern University in Boston, Clark University in Worcester and a home in Jamaica Plain. These events are all open to the public and we encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity to discuss pressing global issues with Tonico. He will also participate in meetings with local activists in the Boston area.
Grassroots International and other U.S. based organizations are concerned about the negative impacts of agrofuels, and the industrial production of sugar cane and soybeans for ethanol and bio-diesel production. The MST and others point out that term "bio-fuels" is being misused, as bio, in Latin, means life. According to Dawn Plummer, a member of the New York chapter of the FMST, "the rising demand for agrofuels in the U.S. will result in the destruction of rainforest areas of Brazil, Indonesia and West Africa."
As the costs of extraction and protection of oil reserves overseas are mounting, U.S. legislators are considering an increase in the renewable fuels target that includes the expansion of ethanol production to 36 billion gallons by 2022.
"Luis Antonio's visit comes at an important time, as we in the U.S. are debating the expansion of agrofuels production and its impacts on the survival of indigenous peoples and campesino communities in the Global South", stated Nikhil Aziz, Executive Director of Grassroots International.
Grassroots and the FMST believe that the best alternatives to global warming are small-scale, environmentally-friendly agriculture here and in the Global South and sound measures to curb energy consumption and waste. Organizations like the Via Campesina have shown how small-scale agriculture is not only sustainable but actually helps against global warming.
]]>Here is a case that has re-energized us at Grassroots International this end of year.
Last spring, Grassroots made a brief presentation to students of Boston's Philbrick School about our work to support rural communities throughout the globe to reclaim their rights to land, water and food.
]]>Here is a case that has re-energized us at Grassroots International this end of year.
Last spring, Grassroots made a brief presentation to students of Boston's Philbrick School about our work to support rural communities throughout the globe to reclaim their rights to land, water and food.
The students wanted to organize a school-wide activity to bring water to thirsty families and crops. After learning about the plight of other children in Brazil, they decided to organize a fundraising campaign to build a cistern that will collect rainwater for domestic use in a rural community.
Fourth and fifth graders of the Philbrick School constructed a small model of a paper maché rural home and a cistern sitting under a roof eave. They placed the model in the school's front hall. Students dropped coins on the paper maché house, the coins rolled into a gutter and dropped into the cistern. Coin by coin, the group was able to raise $268 to support the construction of a cistern in Sítio do Lúcio in Brazil. Read here the article in the Bulletin News.
The students asked Grassroots to come into their classrooms to talk about the right to water and to channel the money to its partner organization Polo Sindical.
The students from Philbrick knew that their initiative will help more than one family and one community, as water in Sítio do Lúcio is always shared in moments of scarcity. They also learned during the campaign about unequal distribution of water around the world and Brazil's dry Northeastern region.
Northeast Brazil has a beautiful coast and the world's largest and most populated semi-arid area in the countryside with 25 million people. Cyclical droughts in this region cause as much damage here as Hurricane Katrina wrought in New Orleans.
With the cistern, the family and the community of Sítio do Lúcio will have a better chance to cope with the droughts. The model of new cistern in Sítio do Lúcio was developed by local rural communities and can supply a family of 5 people for 8 months.
The news about the initiative of Roslindale's youth was received by Polo Sindical with great joy.
"I am forwarding your message to the board of directors. Personally, I am thrilled with this beautiful initiative of the children from Roslindale, who live in a different reality, but are very concerned with the challenges of other children from Sítio do Lúcio".
Later in the same day, the general coordinator of Polo Sindical, Rita de Cássia sent a message to others in the Semi-Arid Network, a grassroots initiative of farmers associations, indigenous people and women's organizations. The contribution of students from the elementary school of Philbrick is a good example that solidarity is what moves our passion for social justice.
]]>Far in the mountains, the votes of Mayan peasants will have almost no impact on the final outcome of the election. This lack of impact is evident in both political platforms, which fail to address the main issues and concerns of the Mayan population, including landlessness and the dire agrarian situation in the country.
]]>Far in the mountains, the votes of Mayan peasants will have almost no impact on the final outcome of the election. This lack of impact is evident in both political platforms, which fail to address the main issues and concerns of the Mayan population, including landlessness and the dire agrarian situation in the country.
Guatemala has one of the world's highest rates of land concentration with a mere 1.86% of the population owning 54% of the land. Mayan peasants (the majority) are the group most affected by landlessness and its consequences.
The candidates' emphasis in this election is on proposed solutions to curb the high rate of violence in the country. Both candidates have promised to control the widespread violence through tougher laws and increased law enforcement forces.
For a country that is still healing the wounds of 36 years of conflict, the election,regardless of who wins, could jeopardize the already fragile process of national reconciliation in Guatemala. With Mr. Colom and General Molina's proposals, it seems inevitable that there will be increased criminalization of the poor and deepening social injustice.
From what I learned from the people I met this weekend, peace in Guatemala is already threatened because of the failure of the government to implement the terms of the 1996 Peace Treaty. The increase in security forces, for instance, will not solve the increased poverty among peasants. In fact, the already high levels of militarization have yet to provide a sense of security among either the poor or the rich.
In Guatemala City, army personnel and the private security forces of stores, hotels and other commercial buildings maintain an image of constant vigilance and militarization. Displaying heavy guns, mostly rifles, in downtown Guatemala City, these security forces do not contribute to increasing the sense of security among the general population. On the contrary, urban residents remain in constant fear of being robbed.
For rural families, the growing militarization also has not controlled the activities of existing paramilitary forces and drug gangs that have spread fear among indigenous and Garifuna (Afro-descendent) communities on the Atlantic coast.
The same kinds of militarization and violence forced 200,000 Mayans into exile in the not so distant past, and even today are among the main causes of forced migration. More and more indigenous peasants are living in the mountains, without legal title to land or access to any infrastructure or social services.
"First they were expelled from their lands because of the cotton and coffee plantations. Today they are being pushed away by the expansion of the sugar cane and palm oil plantations [for agrofuels production] in the country", said Carlos Paz, executive secretary of CNOC (National Confederation of Peasant Organizations).
Cultivating small plots of land, Mayan peasants are responsible for the production of animal protein, plantains, corn and vegetables such as beans and cabbage that constitute the basic meal in Guatemala. Without the labor and knowledge of the Mayans, more Guatemalans will be facing hunger.
According to members of the peasant movement here, recently cases of famine were found in 49 municipalities in the country. Infant mortality, for instance, is a social and economic problem that the Guatemalan government has yet to address with any vigor.
"The structural problems that have caused the war in the first place still persist" noted Carlos Barrientos, executive secretary of the Committee of Peasant Unity (CUC). From this perspective, the implementation of the terms of the Peace Treaty especially as they relate to the return and resettlement of refugees and ex-combatants is a need that is being ignored in the political debate.
In the Tablon community, located two hours from Guatemala City, I learned from a Mayan Quiché community that their livelihoods are being threatened by the opening of four mines in the area. In Guatemala, mining companies are exploiting the last resources of Mayan peasants, destroying their livelihoods and lands, and depleting water reserves. Even a small mining operation can use 250,000 liters of water per hour.
The Mayan peasant communities are taking their issues against CAFTA (Central America Free Trade Agreement), mining licenses and local property taxes to the city and federal governments. "But they don't want to hear us. We need a democracy that can speak our language ", a member of the community declared in his mothertongue Quiché Maya.
It is also from their mountains that Mayan peasants resist CAFTA and the invasion of genetically modified seeds. Through the support of national groups and the solidarity of international friends, Mayan groups have organized plebiscites against the implementation of mining operations on their land. However, the government has not accepted these democratic expressions of the people. For many government officials, local communities have no stake in decisions on how natrual resources are to be used. Their logic is that this is because it is a "national" resource, not a community good.
The Mayan peasants want to be able to voice their opinions in their first language, and also to be heard. In Guatemala, there are 22 different Mayan languages, plus two other indigenous non-Mayan languages, the Garifuna dialect and Spanish. However, the exclusion of indigenous peasant communities in the democratic process is a reflection of social segregation and discrimination, not just a language barrier.
The CUC, a member of the Via Campesina and the Confederation of Latin American Peasant Organizations (CLOC) in Guatemala, is working to make the different ethnic groups' voices heard. Besides producing newsletters in different languages, CUC is planning to train regional communicators who will educate and disseminate information through community radios and other media outlets in the local language.
Through this initiative, Mayan peasants hope to express in their own language their hopes for developing democracy and securing justice in Guatemala.
]]>Located in the outskirts of Nicaragua's capital Managua, the school is recognized by members of the Via Campesina as an important education center for rural families. Its location in Central America has facilitated the participation of peasants and indigenous people from different countries across the region in trainings organized by the Via Campesina and the CLOC (Latin American Confederation of Peasant Organizations).
Grassroots has been a major supporter of the Via Campesina Central America and the Francisco Morazan Peasant School.
These trainings and events, such as the conference I am attending, are contributing to strengthening leadership among rural people whose rights to education and political participation have been long neglected. People from seven Central American countries regularly come to trainings at the school. The participants then pass on the knowledge gained to their communities.
Julia Margarita Trujillo, the director of the school, pointed out that there are already visible positive impacts, including changes in the way visiting peasants participate in the activities at the school. She observed, too, that there has been a constant rotation of country representatives in the trainings and conferences, thus enabling the development of a larger number of leaders and the increasing participation of women.
This conference, for instance, had more women participants than men. Considering that just a few days back I attended the Via Campesina Latin American women's conference in El Salvador, it would be reasonable to say that women's presence in Via Campesina activities is growing.
The organizers called for women's leadership several times in the meeting. The popular education facilitators, known as "animators," often repeated the saying, "If the women stay at home, the revolution is delayed." The revolution, in this case, is much needed agrarian reform.
For the Via Campesina, agrarian reform is much more than the mere redistribution of land. Rafael Alegria, coordinator of the Via's Global Campaign for Agrarian Reform and a member of the Via's International Coordinating Committee, emphasized that land distribution in and of itself is not agrarian reform.
"What we want is an agrarian reform that guarantees the land rights of families, dignity and a sustainable livelihood." That genuine agrarian reform not only ensures land rights but also the means to make a sustainable and dignified living off the land and protects the peasant way of life.
During the two day conference, representatives from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras discussed the pressing issue of land rights of indigenous, Afro-descendent and peasant communities. They concluded that landlessness is a growing problem all across Central America. The following notes on landlessness in Central America summarize the accounts of Via Campesina members at the conference about this growing problem.
Landlessness in Central America
Nicaragua
In the early 1980's, Nicaragua began a full-scale process of land distribution. However, new landowners didn't receive proper land titles and the previous owners eventually sued to reclaim their land through the courts, which favored traditional large landowners over the peasant beneficiaries of agrarian reform. This so called "contra-reform," along with other land conflicts, has complicated the incomplete agrarian reform process adding to the number of approximately 100,000 landless families.
Honduras
According to the Honduran Coordinating Council of Peasant Organizations (COCOCH), the problem of landlessness has grown rapidly in the last few years as a result of the effects of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Today, there are approximately 350,000 landless families in Honduras.
El Salvador
Ironically, since the implementation of CAFTA, more small-scale producers are abandoning their land due to falling crop prices and unfair competition from subsidized international agribusiness. Like other nations in Central America that have signed onto this trade agreement, El Salvador is also dependent on food imports. No data is readily available on the number of landless families in El Salvador. One fact that is often highlighted by peasant organizations is government repression. Street demonstrations in El Salvador are being controlled by government through tougher laws. According to organizers, one can be arrested for "disturbing the peace" and sentenced to up to 10 years in jail.
Guatemala
Mining operations and agribusiness have generated as many landless families as the civil war that displaced 200,000 people. The Guatemalan organizations estimated that more than 60% of rural families are affected by landlessness. Forced to move to cities to find jobs, these families are bearing the brunt of violence that has affected the country.
Costa Rica
Landlessness is also a major problem in Costa Rica, mainly because of the recent expansion of agribusinesses. According to the Small-Scale Farmers Association of Costa Rica (ADACORI), multinational corporations are buying land and dismantling rural communities. In Managua, members of ADACORI and the National Confederation of Farmers (UNAC) vowed to work together and to organize a national agrarian reform conference in Costa Rica.
The final declaration of the First Regional Conference states , "Without agrarian reform there will be no food sovereignty."
By the same token, it seems that with CAFTA there will be no sovereignty in Central America and without sovereignty, there will be neither peace nor justice in the Americas.
]]>As I waited for my flight to El Salvador on Tuesday, I decided to browse the newspapers for news about the election in Guatemala and saw a small blurb about the defeat of Rigoberta Menchu. The newspaper article reads that Rigoberta Menchu, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, received only 3% of the valid ballots in last Sunday's presidential election in Guatemala.
]]>As I waited for my flight to El Salvador on Tuesday, I decided to browse the newspapers for news about the election in Guatemala and saw a small blurb about the defeat of Rigoberta Menchu. The newspaper article reads that Rigoberta Menchu, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, received only 3% of the valid ballots in last Sunday's presidential election in Guatemala.
As a Mayan woman, Rigoberta has faced just about every type of major loss one could. First, there was the loss of her family that was brutally murdered during the scorched-earth campaign. .. After being forced into exile in Mexico, she lost her homeland for a period of years. During that time many of her Mayan brothers and sisters came to see her as an outsider. Most recently she has seen her Mayan nation in Guatemala divided on several issues including on the elections.
Some of the acid criticism of Menchu within Guatemala is a reflection of the violence and oppression against women in Central America. Guatemala's recent election was one of the most violent general elections in the entire continent, with 48 candidates murdered. Even though the majority of the murdered candidates were men, the wide-spread violence has impacted women as they are already financially and psychologically affected by the decisions of their husbands, sons and brothers who chose to participate in the election.
Guatemala has witnessed spiraling rates of violence against women and huge increases in the numbers of women murdered over the past couple of years - so much so that the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission pressed for a U.S. Senate Resolution to pressure Guatemalan authorities to do a better job of investigating and prosecuting these crimes. Also in nearby El Salvador murders of women have increased with 118 registered cases only in2007. (Guatemala has the highest overall murder rate of any country in the Americas.)
On my way to the regional strategic planning session of the Women of the Via Campesina in El Salvador, I wondered about the reactions of the participants to the election in Guatemala and the violence in the region.
"In my country, the lack of safety is a major concern. Women and men are being killed almost every day," said Eva Maria, an El Salvadorian peasant leader from the Via Campesina and the Latin American Confederation of Peasant Organizations (CLOC).
Living with such a harsh reality, the women of the Via show great resistance and leadership. There were 27 women from 4 countries and different ethnic groups, including Mayans from Guatemala and Afro-descendent Garifuna women from Honduras. Over the course of two days they discussed common strategies to defend their cultural, social and economic rights and to address the continued oppression and violence.
Via Campesina women are leading several major initiatives, including the campaign for food sovereignty. Across South America, they led street demonstrations of the Via Campesina and CLOC to highlight the impacts of agribusiness concentration and industrial ethanol production on rural livelihoods. In Mesoamerica, the Via Campesina women are targeting other major issues such as Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and the production of genetically modified crops.
"Unfortunately, our comrades from Costa Rica are not present," lamented Wendy Cruz, an organizer from Honduras, "because they are mobilizing to block the approval of the Free Trade Agreement. As we know, CAFTA [Central America Free Trade Agreement] is not good for women, for peasants, for indigenous women." Everyone in the room applauded in agreement.
In fact, the infamous FTAs throughout the region brought more agricultural corporations than credit lines to small-scale farmers. In Guatemala, for instance, more food has been imported than produced after two years of CAFTA. Unable to compete with agribusinesses and large mining companies, small-scale farmers are being forced to abandon their fields and many have become migrant workers in the U.S. and Canada.
In San Salvador, American fast food stores are on almost every block of the main avenues. Women peasants fear that this heavy presence of foreign capital will exacerbate the social and economic gap between rich and poor and destroy local economies. They also point out the destruction of communities, local culture and the peasant economy, and, as the women called it, "the peasant way of life."
Given that the threats of FTAs and Genetically Modified seeds are growing in their region, food sovereignty [the right to grow food and to eat food that was grown in a way that meets communities' needs] was presented as a central issue at the regional conference. The participants applauded after Maria, another speaker who was a peasant from Guatemala and member of the National Confederation of Peasant Organizations (CNOP), when she said, "Food sovereignty is the protection of our lifestyle and our seeds. Food Security only guarantees food to eat [today]. Food sovereignty is the guarantee of our existence."The electoral defeat of Rigoberta Menchu perhaps represents a missed opportunity to end the oppression against women and Mayan people in Guatemala. But, from what I saw from the women of Via Campesina, they are not too concerned with the outcome of a national presidential election.
Their fight is much larger than that.
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