Peasant death forces Paraguay to ban foreign land holders

[Judi Lynn]

Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Peasant death forces Paraguay to ban foreign land holders

The killing of a landless peasant in Paraguay during a police eviction process in a farm belonging to a Brazilian national, decided the government on Tuesday to suspend all sales of land to foreigners.
“The subscription of all administrative procedures for the purchase from beneficiaries of the agrarian facility by non holders of such condition is banned”, read a resolution released in internet by the National Institute for Rural and Land Development, Indert.

Physical foreign persons are no longer beneficiaries of the agrarian facility, added the release. The sale of rights and shares of plots by agrarian facility holders to non holders in no longer legally valid or binding in Paraguay.

Bievenido Mereles, 45, a peasant leader was killed with a shot in the neck last Friday during an armed confrontation between the police in the process of evicting landless peasants from a farm belonging to Oscar Farver, a Brazilian national. The farm was located 500 kilometres to the northeast of the Paraguayan capital Asunción, next to the Brazilian border.

The ban imposed by the administration of President Fernando Lugo could aggravate an ongoing conflict between the big soy bean farmers and organized peasant groups which have the tacit sympathy from government and during the electoral campaign in 2007 were promised plots of land.

Paraguay is the world’s fourth largest exporter of soybeans but peasant groups and the new administration of President Lugo claim big farmers are using agro toxic products which contaminate land and water.

More:
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[Judi Lynn]

1. Paraguay limits sale of farm land to foreigners

Paraguay limits sale of farm land to foreigners
October 7, 2008 10:55 AM ET

ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) - The Paraguayan government says it will enforce a long-standing law against foreigners buying agricultural land from its citizens.

The government's land agency says enforcing the nation's Agrarian Reform may require some foreign owners to forfeit their farmland.

The announcement came Monday after a clash late last week between landless peasants and police that killed one man and injured three officers.

Police with a court order were trying to evict 150 peasants who had invaded a Brazilian-owned soy farm when gunfire broke out on Friday.

Enforcing land reform was a campaign promise of President Fernando Lugo. Just 1 percent of the population controls 77 percent of Paraguay's arable land.

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.aspx?feed=AP&date=20081007&id=9237789