Bolivia Looks to Land Redistribution When flying over Bolivia’s
highlands, the flat brown plains dotted by small farms seem
endless. Travel east and the land slopes down toward the Amazon
basin, as fields change to an eternity of jungle broken only by
rivers that wend like copper wires through the deep green. The
country seems empty, yet land ownership has been a contentious
issue for more than 50 years in South America’s poorest country,
and the one with the highest percentage of indigenous peoples.
Many South American countries have struggled with agrarian
reform, but Bolivia’s situation is unique. Miguel Urioste, a
researcher and former director with La Paz–based land rights NGO
Fundación TIERRA, said, “It’s an indigenous revolution. That’s
what makes the agrarian revolution in Bolivia different.” A
revolution in 1952 freed Bolivia’s indigenous people, who make
up more than 60 percent of the population, from forced labor on
large farms called haciendas. But it did not free many of them
from poverty. Most o