GUATEMALAN LAND REFORM FLOUNDERING

UNCLAS GUATEMALA 001000

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM ELAB EAGR ECON GT
SUBJECT: GUATEMALAN LAND REFORM FLOUNDERING



1. (SBU) Summary: Lack of a clear land policy has sparked
trouble for the Government of Guatemala. Historical problems
over land ownership, disputes between peasants and landowners,
land takeover and forced evictions, plus friction among the
Ministry of Agriculture, Secretary of Agrarian Affairs and the
Land Fund have caused peasant organizations to become restive
once again. The 2007 elections will make land distribution a
hot issue, and genuine resolution of land issues remains a
distant goal. End summary.

A Question of Property
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2. (SBU) A recent study by Guatemala's liberal think tank CIEN
found that only 28% of Guatemala's 1,097,000 rural properties
had legal title. The lack of clear property title has been a
major problem. The Law for the Property Information Center
(Registro de Informacion Catastral) was recently enacted to
address the issue. However, the only consequence to date has
been the beginning of discussions to establish the Agrarian
Courts which will be charged with sorting out land disputes.


3. (SBU) The Supreme Court is consulting with key sectors on
the establishment of the Agrarian Courts. The Supreme Court
plans to open 17 Agrarian Courts throughout the country, for
which it needs an estimated $3 million per year.


4. (SBU) Property disputes, however, are only part of the land
problem. There are also labor problems, land seizures,
violent evictions, widespread poverty and illiteracy in rural
areas, and damage caused by Tropical Storm Stan for small land
owners and land tenants. Any debate over land property
invariably becomes a debate over rural development.

Debate over Rural Development
--------------

5. (SBU) In January 2006, civil society organizations that had
been in dialogue with the government for over three years on
agrarian issues decided to abandon the discussions. They
claimed that the GOG does not listen to their concerns and
that, after three years, the GOG has no clear land or rural
development policy and has not produced any results.


6. (SBU) As a result, the GOG Secretariat of Agrarian Affairs
announced in early April that it would present the
government's agrarian policy by the end of the month,
something that had not happened as of mid-May. This
announcement highlighted the absence of a clear policy to deal
with agrarian problems and rural development.


7. (SBU) Currently there are five different "rural
development" bills in Congress. When Congress approved CAFTA
in March 2005 it committed to approving a rural development
law among other "compensatory measures." Several bills
propose different institutions and solutions. Some propose
the creation of a new ministry, a new secretariat, or a new
program of rural development; others focus on investment
programs. All are indicative of the failure of Q current
institutional framework, especially the Ministry of
Agriculture and the social funds, to address poverty and the
lack of economic and educational opportunities in rural areas.

Institutional Problems
--------------

8. (SBU) The Ministry of Agriculture is nominally in charge of
land management policies and programs. Fontierra, the Land
Fund, was established to facilitate land access for peasants.
The Secretariat of Agrarian Affairs was created as a buffer to
confront and solve the most pressing problems raised by
peasant organizations. These institutions are caught between
the most belligerent protagonists of Guatemala's internal
armed conflict: the conservative Agrarian Chamber versus the
radical peasant organizations such as Conic and CUC, both of
which began as guerrilla support groups.


9. (SBU) In April, Minister of Agriculture Alvaro Aguilar
decided to no longer support CONIC's purchase requests even
though CONIC has a place on the Fund's Board of Directors.
Minister Aguilar claimed that CONIC's typical behavior was to
demand the purchase of land at inflated prices and then later
demand that the Fund forgive the outstanding loan.

Comment
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10. (SBU) The GOG has taken little substantive action on this
issue during its three years in power, a fact which has
greatly frustrated civil society. The Land Fund has never had
the budget or the capacity to address the volume of land
purchase requests. Furthermore, the continued lack of a clear
policy and institutional action regarding rural development
will stimulate still more migrants to head for the United
States.
DERHAM