Bolivia enacts broad agrarian reform law

LA PAZ, BOLIVIA —  Allies of President Evo Morales on Wednesday celebrated the surprising passage of an ambitious agrarian reform bill, a cornerstone of Morales’ provocative leftist agenda.

“The time of the humble ones has arrived,” declared Sen. Felix Rojas of Morales’ Movement Toward Socialism party, known as MAS. “They will inherit the land.” But passage of the bill, signed into law by an exuberant Morales near midnight Tuesday, also bared anew the deep divides in South America’s poorest nation.

Morales, a former leader of coca leaf cultivators, has presented himself during his first year in office as a champion of the country’s impoverished indigenous masses, long beholden to an elite of European and mixed-race ancestry.

Conservative forces fiercely opposed to Morales’ socialist vision vowed to continue efforts to block what they view as Morales’ proclivity toward authoritarian rule styled after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Morales’ political mentor.

“If the government continues in this manner, it is the beginning of a dictatorship,” said Fernando Messmer, opposition leader in the Chamber of Deputies.

Incendiary political battles swirl around other Morales initiatives, notably his efforts to exert control over autonomy-minded provinces and his plan to dominate an assembly rewriting Bolivia’s Constitution. A general strike is planned for several regions Friday to protest Morales’ alleged power grab.

The sweeping reform bill could result in the redistribution of 10,000 square miles of land. It was approved by the Senate after thousands of Indians marched on the capital, demanding 100 acres per family.

“We are suffering from hunger and misery, and many of us must leave our homes for other countries,” said Sofia Martinez, 30, a mother of three from the southeast who said she marched for several weeks to arrive at the capital. “We are joining this fight, with our blood if necessary, to recover our lands.”

The march on La Paz appeared to turn the tide in the contentious battle over the bill, which had been kept from passage by a walkout of conservative lawmakers in the Senate.

The Morales-dominated lower house had approved the measure.

With the Senate stalled, Morales threatened to put the law into effect via decree. But his party managed to convince several opposition senators to vote for the bill, ensuring its narrow passage.

“This is the struggle of our ancestors, the struggle for power and land,” Morales told a cheering midnight crowd at the presidential palace as he signed the bill into law. “The change is in our hands.”

The land decree comes more than six months after Morales nationalized Bolivia’s fossil fuels sector, including the lucrative natural gas industry.

The energy nationalization had overwhelming popular support in Bolivia but was strongly opposed by foreign investors.

Land reform has been a pillar of Morales’ “socialist revolution,” though the government has sought to allay landowners’ fears by saying only nonproductive properties would be seized. Determining whether lands are productive is likely to be a process fraught with controversy.

Much of the land taken over is likely to come from the relatively wealthy eastern portion of Bolivia, including Santa Cruz province, where a potent autonomy movement is underway.

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patrick.mcdonnell@latimes.com

Special correspondent Oscar Ordonez in La Paz and Andres D’Alessandro of The Times’ Buenos Aires Bureau contributed to this report.