Peasants Seize Land in Bolívar, Colombia
Featured image: Peasant mobilization in Magangué, Bolívar.
Peasants in Magangué have mobilized and seized land owned by the Special Assets Society (SAE), a company affiliated with the Colombian State. According to the democratic and popular newspaper Nueva Democracia, the town of Magangué, in the province of Bolívar, is characterized by a large number of “latifundia that have historically belonged to big landlord families,” which means that less than 1% of landowners control more than 99% of the land in the province of Bolívar. The criminal nature of these big landlords is even recognized by Colombian law, as they “have been prosecuted for murder, financing and links to paramilitarism, money laundering, among other crimes.”
Some of these lands have been gathered into a government land fund, the SAE. Petro’s government promised to carry out agrarian reform and promised to hand over these lands to the peasantry. Nueva Democracia reports that “Peasants continue to live crammed into small villages and townships that they have built, trying to raise animals or grow some food crops, while they continue to watch the big landlords‘ cows grazing on the vast prairies of the lands that are still in the hands of the gamonal power.” And this is only part of it, since “most people do not have a single piece of land to work.” In short, there is a large mass of poor and landless peasants.
For three years, peasants have been waiting to receive land, but Nueva Democracia reports that “after more than three years of paperwork and having obtained nothing, the hope that the legal and institutional path of agrarian reform will give them land is gradually disappearing. After years of broken promises, false hopes, and the growing needs of peasants living in difficult economic conditions, the peasants of Magangué have decided to begin a process of mobilization.”
Dozens of peasant associations in Magangué organized and carried out blockades on November 25, and denounced the failures of the Petro government and the SAE. They also denounced the actions of local authorities and the province of Bolívar. The peasants blockaded roads for hours and demanded land.
On November 26, the peasants decided to seize the land and numerous families moved to the Villa Leida latifundium, where they began to work the land. On November 27, the police arrived to try to force the peasants to leave the occupied latifundium. The peasants stood firmly and refused to identify themselves. Between December 1 and 3, the Colombian government sent trucks full of riot police and evicted the peasant occupation, arresting several of them.
Nueva Democracia concludes that “The experience of these Magangueño peasants, similar to that of other peasants in the Caribbean region and the rest of the country, shows that the true path to conquer the land, taking it from the hands of big landlord thieves and their armed paramilitary wing and placing it in the hands of the peasants who work it, is through peasant organization and confidence in their own strength to take the land, rather than confidence in the laws of the old State and its institutions.”
Nueva Democracia is the source of the video and images used.
