72
REVOLUTIONARY SOCIAL CHANGE IN COLOMBIA
there were more large landholdings equaling 2,500 hectares (or more) than in the years preceding Law 135. Ironically, INCORA (1964: 7–22) argued that no monopoly over land existed in Colombia following the land reform (see also Berry, 1991: 94; Adams, 1964: 78).27 The country’s most fertile land, which could have supported the impoverished peasantry, remained completely unused (see Tolima – Table 4.1). Worse still was that the vast majority of these unused plots were located in the southwestern departments of Colombia (Nariño, Tolima, Cauca, and so on). Paradoxically, these regions held the largest region of land available for expropriation yet saw the least percentage of land expropriated (Feder, 1971: 246). Today one can travel for hours in these departments and never leave the same property, for entire regions, equaling tens of thousands of hectares, are regularly owned by one large landowner who lives in Medellín, Bogotá, or another major city (Brittain, 2006c: 7). The data presented supports the claim that the state’s agrarian reform was nothing more than “a piece of paper, and Colombians are no better off than before” (Gerassi, 1965: 154; see also Lindqvist, 1979: 102). Ironically, the “subsequent progress” of Colombia’s land reform became “disheartening” to those it was stated to benefit (Bonilla, 1964: 203). Harrison (1993: 118–19) has asserted that Law 135 divided organized struggles while creating a thriving reserve army of labor for domestic and foreign capitalists to easily exploit by way of displacing peasants and privatizing lands. Colombia’s land reform … was instituted to defuse guerrilla actions and spontaneous peasant rebellions, which in the 1950s and 1960s succeeded in Table 4.1 Utilized and stagnant land in selected departments of southern Colombia in 1960 Department Cauca Cundinamarca Huila Nariño Tolima
Percentage of minifundios* (under 5 ha.) Total hectares utilized 63 60,120 69 113,037 47 20,359 67 77,139 52 49,887
Department Cauca Cundinamarca Huila Nariño Tolima
Percentage of latifundios (over 500 ha.) 0.3 0.2 0.7 0.1 0.6
Total hectares not utilized 7,981 11,197 5,928 5,472 29,313
* Minifundios are defined as “small subsistence farms that produce barely enough to enable the cultivator to sustain the family”; hence, “most minifundistas (one who farms a minifundium) must augment their earnings elsewhere” even though “their principal occupation is that of a farmer” (Saunders et al., 1978: 16). Source: Adapted from Shaw, 1976: 115–16.
