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Land Reform in El Salvador: a Fresh Look

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Land Reform in El Salvador: a Fresh Look c ' July/August 1987 . $2.00 No. CJ7 !~Schwarzbart July-August 1987 Number 97 James Finn Editor Diane Ezer Contents Mark Wolkenfeld Editonal Assistants Gerald Sterbel Senior Research Associate Elias M. Schwarzbart U.N. Correspondent Letters from Readers 3 Publications Committee Richard Gambrno Bruce Brager, Aleksa Djilas, John Lawrence, R. Bruce McColm, Jiri Pehe, Oscar Handlin Vinton Uddell Pickens, Jean-Fram;ois Revel, Arthur M. Shapiro, Milan Sve~. Sidney Hook Burns W . Roper Milovan Svitak Robert A. Scalaprno Paul Seabury Phrlip Van Slyck Articles Comparative Survey of Freedom Sidney Hook-A Book and a Life Raymond D. Gastrl Director Always a Step Ahead . Elias M. Schwarz bart 5 Jeannette Gastil Research Assrstant The Communist Peace Offensive . ... Sidney Hook 13 Coordinator. Exchange Correspondents Barbara Futterman Many-Sided Sidney. Arnold Beichman 18 Afghamstan and South-West As1a The Ralph Nader of Moral Philosophy . Stefan Kanter 19 Rosanne Klass Steve Grnsberg. Assrstant Land Reform 1n El Salvador: A Fresh Look . Richard L. Hough 21 Western Hem1sphere Douglas W Payne Andrei Sakharov Gorbachev's Loyal Opposition. Edward Kline 28 Eastern Europe Jackson-Van1k and Its Cri tics . Allan Kagedan 31 J~r r Pehe Sov1 et Umon Ludmilla Thorne For the Education Record Davrd Smclalf Education for Democracy . American Federation of Teachers, Busmess Manager Educational Excellence Network, and Freedom House 25 Jessre Mrll er Subscnpoons Manager Free Comment Ern est Bryant Lrlli an Tung Thatcher shows it's possible. Nicaragua s 0 Escoto receiv es hi s Lenin Lu z Vega ProduCtiOn ASSIStants Prize 30 Cover photograph of S1dney Hook. Vic ton a Rouse Prev1ous Chalfoersons Co-Ch a~rs Dorothy Thompson BOARD OF TRUSTEES IExecutrve Commmee "). MAX M I<AM PE LMAN C na~rman of me Boara ron Ieave r. J0f'N W RIEHM " Frank Kingdom Pre s,oen r BAYAR D RUSTIN' Cnam..,an of rr> e & ecutJve Commmee •.::0 Cr<ERN E' Honorary Ch aJfTr'an NEJ W SANDLER' BURNS N ROPEH' l •c e Pres,oenrs . WALT ER J SCHLOSS ' Tr easurer GE RALD L ST EIBE L' Secre!arv . ZB IGNI EW Honorary Chalf BRZEZINSK I SOL C CH AIKIN LAWR ENCE S EAGLEB URGER RIC HARD 8 FOSTER . RICHAR D N GARDN ER DAVID L Eleanor Roosevelt GUY ER KA RL G HARR , R EDMUND P HENN ELLY NORMAN HILL' SIDN EY HOOK GER I M JOSEPH WILLI AM q KINTN ER . MO RTON M KONDRACKE MORRIS I LEIBMAN . CHAR LES MORGAN JR DANI EL P MOYN IHAN ALBERT SHANKER 0 >"1 LI P Herbert Agar / AN SL YC K' BEN, NA....,.ENBERG EUGENE P WIGNER BRUC E C: DW AR:C WILLI AMS JACQU ES D WIMPFf'EI'viER 'CHAIR Tromas K. Fml ener EM ERITU S MARGARET ChA SE SMITH AD VISORY COUNC IL tDomest rc r KARL R BENDETSEN A LAWRENC E Harry D. Grdeonse CH ICK Ef'ri'.G JOh N DrEBOLCl Rret-· ARD GAMBINO ROY M GOODMAN ARTr- UR L I"ARCKhAM R l ~ A E rAUSER oAM:O S J Herbert Bayard Swooe r< OERNER GALE W McG EE BESS MYERSON . WHITELAW RE ID RICHARD R SALZMAN ROB ERT A SC ALA PINO PA UL Robert P Patterson SEABUR Y HERB ERT SWOPE C1 0 8 ER T F WAGNER ROB ERT C WEA VER AD VI SORY COL,NC IL i Fore •gn r ROB ER T Whnn ey Nonh Seymour CONQUEST UM ea >0 ' q=·r ClShROW R IRAN I lno•a. JEAN ·FRAN<; OrS RE VEL F·ance HoLE '< SU ZMAN Soul/1 Afro ca. Harry J Carman XA VIER ZA VALA CUADRA : er:•a1 Af"erca James J Waaswonh Freedom at Issue ri SS N 00 16·05 20 ) tS publr sned by Fre eaom House a oatronal orc;an rzat ron : eu rcatec ro Roscoe Drummona strengtnentng ce-nocrar•c r strtut rons <18 East 2 ; st Street New Y or ~ NY tOOIO P•, olr snec :J t rn?rt~ ! v Paul H Douglas Subscrrotron n s t t t~ t ,o rs 520 'or 1 vr tncrvrauals S 12 lor 1 yr S2 1 •or 2 1rs 530 lor 3 yrs 52 cer coov aac ::, 1 0 00 Margaret Chase Smrth arr oo s age oer vear ou:s c e u S or Canaaa Cooyrr c;nt 1987 by Freecom HoLse Inc POSTMASTE'< 0 ease se" c Clrfford P Case Aaaress Cnanges to Freea o ,.... a1 1ssue. 48 East 21 st Street. New YorK . N Y 10010 Secono crass ocstac;e sate ar New Yor~ NY anc ace tonal or ces FR EE DOM HOUSE Srgned anrcles reflect v'ews of :he a ~ tho rs . not necessarrly Freeoom House or rts Boaro Unsolr crtec anrcles must De Executrve D ~r ector accompanrec by a st ampec serl·aaaressec envelope. Leonard R Sussman Artrcles tn tnrs JOurnar are aostractec and rndexec rn H1stoncaJ Abstracts ana or Amenca: H1story and l.Jie. anc rnaexed by Public Affarr s lnlormatron Servrce. Deputy D~ree1or Eacll tSSu e avarlable tn entrrety tllrough Xerox Unrversrty Mrcrolrl ms. R. Bruce McColm 21 Land Reform in El Salvador: A Fresh Look Richard L Hough t is time to take a new and objective look at El estimated at 31.359 heads of household; with their families I Salvador's land reform program. In March and April of they number 189.154 people. 1980, the Revolutionary Junta in El Salvador decreed a The Phase Ill. or Land-to-the-Tiller program. is quite major land reform program in two Phases. I and Ill. (Phase different in character. being predicated on the principle tha t II as originally authorized was not implemented.) From its small primary producers on agricultural lands should be able inception, the program was marked by bitter controversy and to claim ownership of the parcels they directly cultivate. violence. Deaths attributed to land contlicts. particularl v in Phase Ill permitted small farmers to apply for title for up to the first few years of the program. numbered in the hundreds. 7 hectares ( 17 acres) of the land they had been pre viously and illegal evictions of small farmer beneticiaries from the farming a<> renters or sharecroppers. As of April of this lands they cultivated numbered 1n the thousands. yea r. there were 56,188 direct beneficiaries of Phase Ill who Opposition to land re fo rm came ess entiall v fr om the had applied for title to 79.142 parcels of land. The estimated political extremes, the hard core conservative \l, ing of th e total land tran sferred is 240.054 acres. The aver ag e size ARENA Party and si milar fringe group s on the r 1~h t. and Phase Ill holdi ng is 4 to 4.5 acres and the estim Jted total the FMLN-FDR. the Front of guerrilla groups and npatrJate number of beneficiaries including family members is politicians on the left. Perhaps this \l.a s ~ o be e'pected. 33/.128. given the polarized character of the body politic in El ,-\ gg regating Ph a.' e l and Ill. about 782.000 acres of Salvador. with its organized min orities that ha ve not agricultural land ha\e been tran sferred to an eqi mated hesitated to use viole nce as a political weapon. conunuou, lv .:\25.000 beneficiary Ta nners and fam ily members v,h o buffeting a tenuous democratic center. Given the polemical conte nt of [\·cntnday, it'itfl the survt\·al of land reform no longer in the attacks on land reform---their sheer virulence and e., cess---a question , auacksfrom the right and left continue as part of rea so ned dialogue on the t\\ 0 phases the unrelenting it mfare against the Duane gm·cmmcnt. has been largely ab sent. Even todav. w1th the su rvival of land reform no lo nger in question. anacks fr om the right and left conunue repre :;ent 25 percent of the Salvadoran rural plXlr. as part of the unrelenting warfare again st the Duarte Arproqmately 22 percent of El SJh acto r ' ·Jrable land- --the government. cou ntrv 's sc arce st factor of agr1cultural producuon--·ha:, hec:n However. with the perspective time allows and the redi -. tributed . growi ng evidence on the performance of the programs. These figure s indicate th at J \erv ..;ubstJnti,il SJh ad <l rJn disc ussion at so me remove from narrow advocacv has la nd reform effort has indeed been 1n progre" ,lnL·e !')SO. become more feasible. The time is now ripe for -;o me fre~h not\l.ithstand1ng recurrent charges fr nm criti cs on rhe left in analysis of Salvadoran land reform. in this inq::Jn ce bv a El Salvador and in the U S. that the government rurpt"el' supporter. though not an uncritical one . marginalized the impact of land refn rm bv re duc1ng 1ts reJch The pr1n c1pal ch arge is that 1t d1d nnt 1mp lemen t Pha ~e 11 . Phase I and Phase III w h1 ch originall y gave the go1em me nt th e authnrlt\ tn In the Pha<; e I program. the government of El Sal\ Jdm c\ rropri ate holdings bet\\een \ I'I:J heuares 1:r Jere' 1 ,1nd expropriated the properties of Iandow ners \\ it h h nld1 n ~' nT :' (X) hectares { 1235 acre <;) mo re than 500 hectares { 1235 acresl In all. -1 69 rn•ren1e:,. The e-;c;entuljustificauon of SJhJdc>ran IJnd re(,,rm \\J' amounting to 21 9.000 hel·tare..; 15-12. 000 Jere, !. " ere r,1ken thJt bnrh rhe 1nte resLs of ' 'K IJI JU'liL· e JnJ rile nc.1r-r.:rm Jnd redi'!ributed in the form ll f )17nll>rerJU\e'.
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