Political Quotes

“Mr. President, a common reality that permeates the complex and colorful history of Latin America is large numbers of landless, impoverished people and small elites who control the majority of the land and the country's wealth, often exploiting its natural resources for personal gain. While the significant growth of the middle class in some South American countries over the past decade is encouraging, nowhere is the disparity of land ownership more pronounced than in Paraguay, a landlocked country of 6.5 million people that rarely receives the attention of the U.S. Congress. A few statistics tell the story. Some 80 percent of agricultural land in Paraguay is owned by just 1.6 percent of the landowners, and the 600 largest properties comprise 40 percent of the total productive land. Meanwhile, a third of a million small farmers have no land at all. It should surprise no one that 40 percent of the country's population lives in poverty and that land, wealth, and political power are concentrated in the hands of a few. The conflict over land in Paraguay, which dates back hundreds of years, has grown even worse due to the expansion of mechanized soy production, primarily for export. Government policies, including tax breaks, access to credit, and weak environmental and labor regulations, have favored large corporate farms which are often foreign owned, over local family farms that receive little if any government support.…”