Paraguay: Land reform push amid coup threat http://www.greenleft.org.au/2010/834/42896

Five thousand farmers marched in Asuncion on March 25 to call on Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo to deliver on his election promise of land reform.  The National Federation of Campesinos (FNC), an organisation that has fought for farmers’ rights for more than 17 years, led the action. Lugo was elected in 2008 on a pro-poor platform that included land reform. Upon election, Lugo refused his presidential salary, saying it “belonged to the humble people”, an August 2008 AFP article said. 

Paraguay has huge inequality in land distribution. The campesino (peasants) movement is demanding a mass redistribution of land. FNC secretary-general Odilon Espinola told EFE World News Service: “We can’t talk of change if 80% of fertile lands in the country are in the hands of 1% of the population, while 85% of farmers only have access to 6% of all the land.” The FNC also called for an end to the expansion of the multinational soya bean industry, which destroys traditional small-scale Paraguayan farming.