Abstract, Rural Brazil during the Lula Administrations: Agreements with Agribusiness and Disputes in Agrarian Policies

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Rural Brazil during the Lula Administrations: Agreements with Agribusiness and Disputes in Agrarian Policies

by Sérgio Sauer

President Lula’s two terms were maintained—and President Dilma Rousseff was elected—by a broad alliance that included backward sectors of the agrarian ruling class. This elite’s influence extended to the cabinet, and it partially ensured support of the rural caucus and agribusiness but prevented government action on land policies from producing more significant advances. The Workers’ Party administrations were marked by mistrust of the agrarian elite because Lula—and also Dilma—maintained a contradictory but friendly relationship with the agrarian social movements. Coupled with economic concessions and incentives granted to agribusiness, this alliance was critical in neutralizing and derailing structural land policies such as the expansion of land expropriation and settling landless families, resulting in an increase in monocropping and economic dependence on the export of raw materials. Such alliances did not prevent the agrarian elite from supporting the removal of President Dilma and allying themselves with the new government, demanding the elimination of the Ministry of Agrarian Development and openly denying land rights to indigenous people and traditional communities.

Abstract, Titles of Contention: Sociocultural Change and Conflict over Legalization of Indigenous Lands in Southeastern Ecuador

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Titles of Contention: Sociocultural Change and Conflict over Legalization of Indigenous Lands in Southeastern Ecuador
by Raúl Márquez Porras, María Beatriz Eguiguren Riofrío, and Ana Vera Vera



Shuar communities in southeastern Ecuador are receiving collective property titles to their ancestral lands. This is being done as a way to guarantee their material and cultural survival, but the titling triggers sociocultural changes and conflict and its outcomes depend largely on the way it is implemented. The consequences of the titling process in communities in Nangaritza and El Pangui in which Shuar, Saraguro, and mestizos coexist include both tensions and informal arrangements to resolve the historically conflictive issue of access to the land.

Political Report # 1327 Ecuador Grants Open-Pit Mining Permits in One of the World's Most Biodiverse Areas

By Sophie Moon Truthout

Mindo is a small village in the lush, tropical cloud forest that descends from the Andes to the coast just outside of Quito, Ecuador. The cloud forest is home to an abundance of wildlife, such as brightly colored lizards, wild cats, spectacled bear, and over 600 species of birds. Mindo was recently named one of the top 10 places to birdwatch in the world by National Geographic, and those who live there are known for their conservationist stances and fights against oil corporations. The area is so rich in biodiversity that it has won the Audubon Christmas bird count competition seven times with the highest number of species. Last week, Mindo residents were among the thousands who took to the streets all across Ecuador in a march to the presidential palace in Quito, to demand an end to mining. Mining has existed since pre-Incan times in the metal-rich landscapes of these tropical forests, but until the 1980s, the projects were small-scale and much lower impact. Over the past year, however, the government has been distancing itself from its conservationist stance and has opened huge portions of land to corporations interested in running large-scale open-pit mining projects. In the past few months, these corporate land grabs have intensified. In November 2017, local governments across northwestern Ecuador received letters from the mining corporations informing them that thousands of acres of forest had been signed away in more than 40 contracts with the central government. The Ministry of Mining had not consulted with communities and Indigenous nations before signing these contracts. This constitutes a violation of the Ecuadorian constitution passed in 2008 on several counts. Sumak Kawsay, a tenet of the constitution (meaning "life at its fullest" in Quechua), guarantees the right to live in peace and free of contamination. It grants the environment the same rights as a citizen, including the rights to be respected in its entirety through its vital cycles, as well as the right to restoration. This tenet of the constitution also promises to involve and consult all local populations about activities that have an impact on their environment.

Book Review, Changing Dynamics in Bolivia

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Changing Dynamics in Bolivia
by Linda Farthing

Unresolved Tensions: Bolivia, Past and Present

Crabtree John & Whitehead Laurence (eds.). Unresolved Tensions: Bolivia, Past and Present. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008.

The Bolivian Revolution and the United States, 1952 to the Present

Siekmeier James F. The Bolivian Revolution and the United States, 1952 to the Present. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2011.

Along the Bolivian Highway: Social Mobility and Political Culture in a New Middle Class

Shakow Miriam Along the Bolivian Highway: Social Mobility and Political Culture in a New Middle Class. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014.

Mobilizing Bolivia’s Displaced: Indigenous Politics and the Struggle over Land

Fabricant Nicole Mobilizing Bolivia’s Displaced: Indigenous Politics and the Struggle over Land. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2012.

Red October: Left-Indigenous Struggles in Modern Bolivia

Webber Jeffrey Red October: Left-Indigenous Struggles in Modern Bolivia. Chicago: Haymarket, 2011.

Bolivia’s recent trajectory toward greater inclusion of its indigenous majority has brought more scholarly attention to the Andean country than in any previous era. The five books reviewed here, published between 2008 and 2014, reflect this international interest in what Evo Morales’s government calls the “process of change.” Three of the books address political economy broadly speaking, and the other two are anthropological studies of two groups—the emerging middle class in the provincial town of Sacaba, outside Cochabamba, and the landless workers in the eastern lowlands in Santa Cruz. Taken together they consider Bolivia from the national political and economic scale to the specificity of daily life.

Political Report # 1269 Deforestation and Climate Disruption Are Degrading the Amazon, Endangering Our Survival

By Dahr Jamail, Truthout

Sao Paolo and Brasilia, Brazil -- Warwick Manfrinato, the director of Brazil's Department of Protected Areas, has a deep understanding of biological interdependence, as well as its importance. "If we are of utter service to nature, then we provide the benefits to all other living things on the planet," Manfrinato told Truthout in his office at Brazil's capital city recently. "I have the same value as a human as a jaguar has in nature, and both should be protected, otherwise we all go extinct, no matter what." Manfrinato, whose department falls within the Secretariat of Biodiversity in Brazil's Ministry of Environment, is working on a variety of projects, including the establishment of a whale sanctuary that will cover the better part of the entire South Atlantic Ocean between Brazil's vast coastal area all the way across to the west coast of Africa. And on June 23, he and his colleagues launched a national "Corridors Program," with the goal of fostering "connectivity and genetic flux." "We know the flow of genetics in biomes [biological systems] in life is critical," Manfrinato said. "We have to re-establish this, so a jaguar that exists in Mexico should be able to come all the way here without being killed. Physical connectivity allows for genetic connectivity. A monkey should be able to travel from one part of Brazil to another, without having to pass through land that has been cleared, where there is no forest." Manfrinato's colleague, Everton Lucero, who is Brazil's secretary for Climate Change and Environmental Quality, was blunt with Truthout about what could happen if dramatic action is not taken to address the impacts of anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD).

Abstract, Q’eqchi’ Mayas and the Myth of “Postconflict” Guatemala

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Q’eqchi’ Mayas and the Myth of “Postconflict” Guatemala
by Autumn Knowlton      

While Guatemala has commonly been referred to as a “postconflict” setting since the end of the armed conflict of 1960–1996, Guatemalans today experience a new violence that has been described as a symptom of the changes brought about by neoliberal reforms. Q’eqchi’ Mayas’ reports of violent evictions, murders, rapes, and threats of violence point to fissures in the government’s “postconflict” discourse. The state’s counterinsurgency violence has been transformed into a kind of state-supported violence in which government institutions act at the behest of agribusinesses and mining companies to evict Q’eqchi’ from their traditional territories. The resolution of land ownership disputes between communities, the state, and corporations is central to Q’eqchi’ political imaginaries.

Political Report # 1254 Competition for the Guaraní Aquifer Threatens Indigenous Land Rights

By Luke Nguyen,   IC Magazine

Just three years ago, the Swiss transnational food and drink company Nestlé established a zero-tolerance policy on land grabs. The company's Commitment on Land & Land Rights was as clear as day. As of July 2014, Nestlé would "engage with and seek the support of those who could be affected by investment decisions," they would "seek free, prior, and informed consent with regard to the rights of Indigenous Peoples," and they would ensure respect for land rights in relation to land acquisitions. "Nestlé is against all forms of land acquisitions that are illegal and/or have an adverse impact on local communities' livelihoods (land grabs)," the company states. "It is committed to develop its business in a way that complies with national laws and respects human rights, and particularly the customary rights to land and natural resources of Indigenous Peoples, traditional peoples, and communities that are impacted or potentially impacted by the company's business activities." On paper, Nestlé's commitment stands as a rare recognition of indigenous rights and a welcomed departure from countless other transnational corporations that continue to thrive on the theft of indigenous lands and rivers, and the commodification of nature. But if the company practices what it preaches, it needs to get out of Guaraní lands and waters.

Book, Demanding the Land Urban Popular Movements in Peru and Ecuador, 1990–2005

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Demanding the Land
Urban Popular Movements in Peru and Ecuador, 1990–2005
by Paul Dosh, and Photographs by James Lerager

In the latter half of the twentieth century, millions of impoverished people all over Latin America participated in illegal seizures of urban land. As many cities became saturated with squatter settlements by the 1980s, it was expected that such invasions would wane. But the increased economic vulnerability and expansion of informal labor activity brought about by neoliberal government policies spurred yet more invasions. Their goals remained the same: reliable electricity, potable water, sewer drainage, and legal title to illegally acquired land. But changes in the economic and political context required different means for achieving these goals. Social safety nets were weakened, organized labor lost power, and some urban service monopolies were privatized—and the introduction of democratic municipal elections offered new avenues to secure these much-needed services. In this careful study of ten neighborhoods in Quito, Ecuador, and Lima, Peru, Paul Dosh examines these new patterns to cast light on the reasons why some neighborhood groups succeed and survive while others do not.

Political Report # 1167 Defeating Fear: Lessons From Mexico's Housing Movement

By Liam Barrington-Bush, ROAR Magazine

"The biggest challenge was to defeat our fears," proclaimed Mexican housing activist, Enrique Reynoso on a recent visit to London. As one of the epicenters of the European and North American housing crisis, London was an important stop on his recent European tour of grassroots movement spaces. Enrique has been active in the Francisco Villa Popular Independent Leftist Organization (FPFVI in Spanish) since the 1980s. With even a glimpse into what Los Panchos (a shorthand for the FPFVI, based on the nickname of the Mexican revolutionary for whom the organization is named) have achieved since the mid-80s, this quote can sound like an oversimplification of some magnitude. Can the creation of an alternative society of many thousands, built over decades on the principles of solidarity, cooperation and mutual aid, within what has been called "the perfect dictatorship," really be chalked-up to "defeating fear"? But as simple as it sounds, the statement holds a profound and fundamental truth -- that for most of us, collective power is daunting, even if we intellectually desire it and want to work towards it. Wherever we find ourselves in the world, fear is a barrier to change. But as Los Panchos have demonstrated, it is not an insurmountable one.

Political Report # 1159 International Financial Capital Targets Farmland in Brazil

Indigenous from various parts of Brazil watch the hoisting of a flag with an image of Indian leader Arnaldo Kaba of the village Mundurukoe, during a demonstration to defend the territorial rights of the Indigenous population against the government, agribusiness and large mining and energy companies. | Photo: Reuters by Maria Luisa Mendonça, TeleSur

Historically, Indigenous and peasant communities in Brazil have resisted against violence and displacement. Land concentration is a root cause of social and economic inequality, in a country where 1 percent of large landowners control over 90 percent of agricultural land. In the past 12 years, 390 Guarani Kaiowa Indigenous people were assassinated in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, where agribusiness corporations and local large landowners have expanded monocropping of commodities. The BAMAPITO region, which combines the states of Bahia, Maranhão, Piauí and Tocantins, has also become a target for land speculation and the expansion of agribusiness. This savanna area, rich in biodiversity, has been the home of traditional peasant communities for hundreds of years. Recently, this so called "last agricultural frontier" is at risk of destruction by a wave of land speculation, deforestation and pollution of water sources. Land market speculation consists of the same logic as the stock market, by the "secret" purchase of "cheap" land and its negotiation at higher prices.

Abstract, "State-Society Dynamics in Contemporary Brazilian Land Reform" by Wendy Wolford

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State-Society Dynamics in Contemporary Brazilian Land Reform 
by Wendy Wolford

Over the past 15 years, land reform has returned from the “dustbin of history” to serve again as a viable policy option. Much has been written about its resurgence, with the research tending to focus narrowly on the role of prices, policies, and politics in shaping the design and outcome of distribution. While these are necessary elements to understand, their reification neglects the critical element of process. Land reform programs are implemented by an array of government actors and negotiated on the ground by beneficiaries, social movement activists, large farmers, and the general public. A messy assemblage of actors and interests shapes both the design and the outcome of distribution. Qualitative analysis of the federal agency in charge of land reform in Brazil, the Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária (National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform—INCRA), reveals that, in the context of increased citizen participation and reduced funding, the agency must work together with social movement activists to perform its task. The analysis suggests that the study of state-society relations today requires a new vocabulary that highlights substance and process rather than form.

Political Report #1098, Structural Problems Perpetuate Widespread Corruption in Paraguay By Miguel Salazar and Edwin Nieves, COHA

Featured Photo: “Paraguayan marines at Ancon Marine Base” (Brien Aho)

Since the end of the Stroessner dictatorship in 1989, Paraguay has struggled in its efforts to reform its weak institutional structures. Systemic corruption, growing poverty, and media censorship have all contributed to the perpetuation of the country’s stagnation over the years. Paraguay’s consistent failure to institute comprehensive land reform has even contributed to the rise of a local guerrilla movement that has not been neutralized by a corrupt military. While President Horacio Cartes has acknowledged the existence of corruption within the national police and military, many of Paraguay’s structural problems remain mercilessly neglected.