Question

i)describe how and why land reform was undertaken in latin america and explain how and why it failed or succeeded to improve the lot of peasants in the region. how has reform been put into reverse since the 1990s ? use examples to illustrate your answer

ii) what does impunity means and how have latin america activists and government tried to end impunity ? to what degree have they been successful ? use examples to illustrate your answer.

Answer 1

i)Land reform was undertaken in Latin America after world war II because of high concentration of land ownership and income and power in the hands of elites in contrast to increasing population and povertyin Latin America.. The intention of land reform was to redistribute land to the peasant families by taking land which were owned by traditional rural elites.Land reforms in Latin America were based on the 1958 land reforms and much of the state land was rented out. Such benefits would mean alleviating rural poverty and removing food insecurity.

Land redistribution program had very less success for many reasons..They have deprived the farm of the former landlord's  contributions without providing substitute.Mobility of labour have been stopped by providing the peasant a stake in the land in the form of minifarm.Land distribution have threatened large efficiently run farms.The land distribution was conditional ie peasant's participation in social and political activity and cooperative organisation , for which the peasants were not prepared.Moreover land redistribution had no protective measures to stop the recurring of crisis for the peasants.

In the 1990's, Latin American was open to market forces due to neoliberal reforms ,and this affected agriculture. In order to encourage private investment in agriculture , government put past reform processes in reverse for modernization and this had affected peasants.

ii) Impunity means"exemption from punishment or loss or escape from fines."

In intergovernmental anti corruption treaties,Latin America was the front runner.The UN human rights office have investigated gender related crimes in Lation America and had sent guidelines to the operators of justice in Latin America highlighting zero tolerance for such crimes and this was a step to stop impunity.G20 had tried to promote market integrity from the time of the adoption of Anti corruption action plan.The G20 agenda can strenghten the judicial system and civil society organization which will monitor corruption and also enforce laws.

Corruption is still wide spread in Latin America.Corruption in Latin America has not increased in recent years but social dislike of corruption has increased .Democratization has failed to deal with organised crime and social marginalization.Both of these lead to corruption and violence.For eg even in recent years increasing violence force millions of people in Latin America to live in uncertainty.