If they feel land reform is the way to go, then that's good enough for me. They're still Communists and I still love 'em.
I was recently in Paraguay, where most people are still rural, and nearly all the land belongs to a very few people. I stayed on a 30 hectare (74.1 acre) farm owned by an East German guy named Peter and his Paraguayan wife, their three kids. He went to a technical school in the GDP and came to Paraguay in the mid-1990's. He calls his farm Granja Modelo El Roble (Oak tree model farm) and he raises cattle, pigs, docks, geese, and chickens and most of what he feeds them, and he has three cabins for backpacker visitors, where $100,000 guaranies (actually $25) will cover your room and board, with a little exgtra if you drink beer. Not all of the land is useful even for pasture, so Peter dug a couple of ponds and raises fish: dorado, carp, and a very tasty, very large South American catfish called a surimí.
When I spoke with him about land reform, he said that for the Paraguayan government to give a local campesino the 40 acres that is being demanded, that this would be a death sentence, because the average campesino has no equipment that is needed to farm with, such as a tiller or a tractor, and lacks the knowledge to do this. He based what he said on his many attempts to find someone to perform chores around the farm (all Peter's children and under 8, and go to school). After hiring a dozen men and a number of women to help, and paying them above average wages (I think this was $3.00 a day, plus room and board), he finally found a guy and his mither in law who have learned how to at least follow directions and keep things going. Peter speaks Spanish and Guarani, and of course, German, and has taught himself to speak English, though he has trouble writing it. He also has a small store in town, where he sells his milk, cheese, and products from neighboring farms. He is a very smart guy and a good farmer, I would say. He is also an excellent guide.
To date, no Latin American country has been very successful at land reform. Even though the land is parceled out and is fertile, as in Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Mexico, most of the farmers are not successful at much more than subsistence agriculture. I suppose Chinese are better at farming, because they have generations of tradition.
What has happened in Paraguay lately is that the few farms that have been redistributed have resulted in the new farmer selling out after a year or less. Peter's farm has electricity, running water, and refrigeration, but many of his neighbors have none of these, and spend a lot of their time doing much work by hand, including pumping water from the well, plowing with a horse, ox or mule, and spending half a day traveling the 15 miles to Concepcion by oxcart.
I make no pretensions to being an expert on land reform, but it seems to me that Peter is right. Education, at least 40 acres of decent cropland, and electricity and machinery are absolute prerequisites
You can see pictures of Peter's farm at
http://www.paraguay.ch. (He has a Swiss friend).
