In the north of Honduras, in the community of San Manuel Cortés, three peasants were killed and two others wounded on Friday, when they tried to enter the lands that were expropriated last year by the Instituto Nacional Agrario (National Agrarian Institute). Valentín Caravantes, Celso Ruiz y Celedonio Avelar, who died at the scene, were members of the Farmers’ Movement of San Manuel Cortés (MOCSAM), located about 200kms from the capital.

The men entered the land because they obtained an order from the Court of Criminal Appeals, which stated that the evictions carried out in February 2012 against MOCSAM were illegal, reports the National Popular Resistance Front of Honduras (FNRP). “Security guards from the Honduran Sugar Company (CAHSA) fired at the three farmers,” FNRP added.

Brothers Aníbal and Adolfo Melgar were also seriously injured in the shooting and were immediately taken to a hospital in the municipality of San Pedro Sula.

For three years now MOCSAM has been demanding more than 3,000 acres of land which is currently possessed by the CAHSA company and exceeds 250 acres, the maximum a person or a firm can own in Valle de Sula under the country’s agrarian law.

The incident is the latest in a long series of clashes, which have ended up with many deaths over the past few years. In February, more than 1,000 peasants took back land after being expelled by British/South African beverages multinational SAB Miller in August 2012. And earlier this year, in March, the ongoing conflict between farmers and the Honduran government has resulted in the eviction of over 1,500 people from their land in the south of the country.

Story courtesy of Agencia Púlsar.

Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner announced almost $12 million in subsidies for small and medium-sized producers in Tucumán during a videoconference with Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Fishing Norberto Yauhar and Tucumán Governor José Alperovich. The act took place at the headquarters of the Cooperative of Herrera Campo, located in the Famaillá.

Yauhar emphasised the role of small and medium-sizes producers, stating that they are “fundamental for creating a country which everyone longs for.” At the same time he added: “We are demanding a more inclusive nation, a different Argentina with more room for producers and an equal opportunity for all.” The subsidies will make it easier for farmers who grow sugar canes, as well as support wineries in Amaicha area and improve the access and quality of drinking water.

“This is part of the agricultural policy that the national government has promoted to improve the development of small-scale producers through concrete tools that cause their productivity to grow. And for this, it is essential to work together,” said the agricultural minister.

Tucumán Governor Alperovich was full of praise saying that “thanks to minister Yauhar the people of the countryside will be able to stay at home, because there is no more need to move to bigger cities.”

Under the plan, the government will provide $300,000 to buy a cane harvester and a system to prevent pollution from burning sugar canes plants. Another $1.7million goes to the Indigenous Community of Amaicha del Valle to help 150 small wine producers. The commune of Santa Rosa will receive another $300,000 and León Rouges $1.5 million to build water wells and irrigation systems.

Another $3.5million will be used to launch a ‘Social Agricultural Plan’, while local small horticultural producers affected by hail will receive $2million in subsidies.

Paraguayan farmers have accused police of using unlawful violence after being evicted from their homes in the East of the country.

On Wednesday, over 100 policemen marched into the Paraguayan department of San Pedro and destroyed 32 homes in the town of Tapiracuai Loma.

The land occupied by those evicted belongs to the State Institute of Rural Development (Indert) but farmers insist the land is not privately owned. “The police came without warning,” José Navarro told local media.

Miguel Cuyua spoke on behalf of the families concerned saying: “Many of the policemen belonged to the Department of Caaguazú in the South and acted in a violent manner. They have no jurisdiction on this territory.”

Farmers also pointed out that the new evictions increase tensions between the departments of San Pedro and Caaguazú; both areas are of great agricultural important to the country.

The violence comes as the country prepares for presidential elections on 21st April. In June last year, then president Fernando Lugo was impeached after the eviction of farmers from land located in the town of Curuguaty sparked an infamous massacre which left 17 dead and 20 wounded.

Only last Monday did a group of landless farmers stage a protest outside the Supreme Court in Paraguay’s Asunción, a bid to discover the fate of public land situated in Marina Cué.

An ongoing conflict between farmers and the Honduran government has resulted in the eviction of over 1,500 people from land in the south of the country, according to peasant farmer groups.

The United Farmer’s Movement of Aguán (MUCA), formed in 2001 by 28 groups of peasant farmers aggrieved at not having been beneficiaries of the country’s agrarian reform, have called out to human rights organisations after claiming to have been illegally forced off their own land yesterday morning.

The encounter is another in a long series of clashes, which have resulted in many deaths over the past few years. Honduran palm oil plant owner and former chief economic advisor to President Roberto Suazo Córdova, Miguel Facussé, is accused of land invasion by the MUCA and has been described as having “a private militia that can count on support from the police and army to impose his will” by Reporters Without Borders, a non-governmental organisation defending the freedom of press.

The MUCA have also stated that the police and military are aware of the existence of armed groups belonging to the landlords and do nothing to combat them. “They equip their vehicles, uniforms and weapons to aid their massacres,” said a spokesperson for the organisation.

In February, over 1000 farmers took back land after being expelled by British/South African beverages multinational SAB Miller last August.

Following a meeting of the ‘Mesa de Enlace‘, the agricultural leaders’ roundtable, Argentine farmer groups discussed an indefinite strike on the sale of soy this harvest season.

At the Pehuajó conference, farmers decided they would refuse to sell their crops beginning in April as protest against the national government. The group says the strike will continue until the government recognises their demands for a meeting to discuss a number of issues, including the elimination of registration forms for grain operations.

Alfredo de Angeli, a leader for the cause, said, “I wanted to avoid the halt to production, but the president needs to help us solve our problems.”

They claim the government has refused to meet with them for the last 13 months. In light of the threat of strike, the government is discussing reviving the defunct National Grain Board to control prices.

Luis Miguel Etchevehere, president of the Rural Society of Argentina, a group that represents landowners, said restarting that program would be “another disaster.”

Although Etchevehere declared the possibility of this strike, he said the group will go to Chaco, Santa Fe, Entre Rios, and Córdoba to gauge farmers’ opinions before acting.

Oxfam-affiliated association “Vamos al Grano” launched an international campaign Tuesday urging Guatemalan president Otto Pérez Molina to return land taken from rural families in Alta Verapaz nearly two years ago.

In March of 2011, 760 rural families were violently evacuated from their land in the north of Guatemala at the request of the land’s owner, sugar factory Chabil Utzaj, resulting in two deaths. Supporters of the farmers say they had settled on that property due to a shortage of land for production.

“Land continues to be the main cause of misery, hunger and injustice in Guatemala,” said Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú, expressing support for the Vamos al Grano campaign.

The initiative includes 25 Guatemalan associations and groups, including the International NGO Forum in Guatemala (FONGI), Campaign for a Hunger-Free Guatemala, and the Latin American Coordination of Rural Organisations (CLOC).

This support comes as part of Oxfam’s campaign CRECE, which according to their website fights against the fact “that thousands of people go to bed hungry at night, not because there isn’t enough food, but because of deep-rooted and systematic injustice.”

Oxfam is also encouraging the World Bank to halt large land transactions and establish legal mechanisms that are fairer to small farmers.

The General Workers’ Union in Costa Rica has called to end the repression against farmer communities, which suffer from constant threats and aggression from the police and people who invade their lands.

The union, which represents various of these farmers’ groups, has denounced that large companies such as pineapple and banana growers and hotel chains strip these communities off their land by force.

The secretary general of the General Workers’ Union, Carlos Cabezas, indicated that these people have been abandoned by the Costa Rican government, which generates more violence.

“They have allowed businessmen and large landowners to carry out practices which we find very similar to those used in Colombia, paramilitary actions. We have had people wounded and a number of rallies due to this conflict. Families suffer the most,” he said.

Within the affected groups are the families that work for the company Matas de Costa Rica in Siquirres, close to the Caribbean area.

In Liberia, Guanacaste province, close to 300 families who were occupying lands suffered from harassment and aggressions from security guards hired by a landowner. Even the Judicial Investigation Office, a Costa Rican state office, entered the land violently at the beginning of the year and a number of people were beaten and arrested. Unions claim that this is clear proof of the authorities’ complicity.

In the Palma Sur area, farmers who have been occupying land for the last 11 years are being evicted to build an international airport over a wetland, which would also cause environmental damage.

Cabezas explained that an agrarian reform would guarantee that farmers have enough resources to support their livelihood without the risk of being evicted.

“That involves first the land distribution, to determine what is not being produced, what is going to be produced, the compensation to the state from unproductive lands, land divisions, the legalisation of land holding -it implies a deep process. We believe it is a search for justice in terms of land distribution,” he said.

For these reasons, they have asked congresspeople and state-owned universities, among others, to speak up against repression and support these communities’ fight for autonomy.

Story courtesy of Agencia Púlsar.

 

 

Special Police have given an ultimatum today to the group of landless peasants occupying part of a farm in Saltos de Guairá. Over 1,000 peasants are occupying this area in order to make demands for land to live and work on despite state demands to give up the territory.

The land lies near the Corumbi Mountains, also the scene of a fatal land dispute in 2011 that  resulted in the deaths of 11 farmers and six policemen.

On Saturday over 1000 farmers arrived at the farm, setting up 500 tents in one part of the estate. The group clashed with police and security firms and eight men and women were injured in the fighting as shots were fired.

Yesterday prosecutor Diosnel Giménez arrived at the camp accompanied by 150 police officers. He met with representatives of the group and gave the group 24 hours to evacuate the area. Joao Carlos Bernardes, the lawyer working for the farm’s owner has also issued an eviction notice.

Three hundred police armed with guns and bullet proof vests are ready to be deployed if the farmers refuse to leave.

Thousands of families in eastern Paraguay have found themselves without land as a consequence of the long term land disputes in the area. This recent dispute is just one of the sites of conflict which have raged in the region in recent years around this issue.

At a speech opening the 126^th La Rural Expo in Palermo (Buenos Aires’ annual agricultural and livestock show), head of the Argentine Rural Society, Hugo Biolcati, politicised the event by launching into a series of criticisms of the current government.

Bioclati asserted that the government was “deteriorating“ and that ”the Constitution” is no longer in use.

He also called for “the end of intolerance and corruption” and to get over the “perverse role of the State which sustains its electoral power and subjects governors and mayors.”

“It is essential to carry out the moral renovation which the country demands. We need politicians with new values” he added at the stage box of Argentina’s main agro-business show.

Grievances between farmers and the government have been on the rise as of late; this following a new land revaluation decree.  In May Buenos Aires governor Daniel Scioli signed a decree that aims at a revaluation of rural land in the province, paving the way for the provincial legislature to pass a bill increasing taxes paid for land, cars, stamp duty, and others.

The decree and the tax reform bill seek to collect some $2 billion this year, around half of which would be sent to the national government.

This new decree was immediately rejected by farmers.  Following the announcement, Argentine farmers’ organisations under the umbrella Liaison Board, announced a national strike in June cancelling trade in certain products to protest against national government policies.

Eduardo Buzzi, head of Agrarian Federation of Argentina, explained that “costs, particularly taxes, have increased non-stop for farmers and thus our incomes have been diminished.”  He added, “something is going very wrong in Argentina’s farms, which is why we are sending this wake-up call … We are in bad shape and getting worse.”

Biolcati went on to list a series complaints: 12 million head of cattle less; wheat and corn planting discouragement; thousands of dairy farms eliminated, over a hundred abattoirs closed and thousands of workers from the meat industry collecting unemployment pay and living off subsidies.

“The time has come to participate, of making and not only of talking, of collaborating from wherever it is possible in the construction of a great new destiny for our great nation”, concluded Biolcati.

He also insinuated that he may enter into politics in the near future.

According to the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange, Argentina will plant 22% less wheat this season than it did in the previous crop year. The US Department of Agriculture forecasts Argentine wheat production at 12 million tonnes in 2012/13.  This is down from 14.5 million tonnes in the previous crop year- an overall reduction of 2.5 million tonnes.

Wheat growers in the country are expected to plant around 3.6 million hectares with wheat for the 2012/13 harvest- 100,000 hectares less than the Grains Exchange’s previous estimate.

Currently ranked the world’s sixth largest wheat exporter and the top exporter to Brazil, the tides are changing in Argentina’s agricultural climate due to state policies favouring other crops.

Many farmers are shifting toward growing barley and soy to avoid government-imposed wheat export limits.

Wheat futures jumped to the highest in almost four years as the worst drought since 1956 is eroding crop prospects in the US (usually the world’s top wheat producer) and dry weather hurts production in Australia and Russia.

Australia will face dry conditions for the next three months according to its Bureau of Meteorology. Russian farmers will collect 46.5 million tonnes of the grain in the season that began on 1st July, down 4.1% from 2011, researcher SovEcon said.

The United Nations expects global food demand to double by 2050 as the world population hits 9 billion. Argentina’s Pampas, an area greater than France, will be key to feeding an increasingly hungry world. However, these shifts paint a foreboding picture in meeting these demands.

Argentina is also the world’s third soybean exporter and second supplier of corn after the United States. Crops which many former wheat farmers are turning to in the face of restrictions and more lucrative prices.