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Nicaragua The Issue of Land Ownership
The expropriation of lands owned by the Somozas in 1979
left
the new Sandinista administration holding about 20 percent
of the
country's arable lands. At first, these holdings were
turned into
state farms. In 1981 the administration passed the
Agrarian
Reform Law defining the process of nationalization and
stating
what could be done with expropriated land. The law
guaranteed
property rights to those who continued to use their
property, but
land that was underdeveloped or abandoned was subject to
expropriation. Land could also be declared necessary for
agrarian
reform and purchased from its owners at a price set by the
government. The Agrarian Reform Law gave free title to
land,
mostly in eastern Nicaragua, that was occupied by
homesteaders.
Bank foreclosures in the event of default on a bank loan
were
prohibited.
Farmland that had been bought or expropriated could be
turned
over to agricultural cooperatives. The farmers who
constituted a
cooperative were then given title to the land. These
"agrarian
reform" titles could be inherited, but the title or any
part of
the land could not be sold. The process of turning state
farms
into cooperatives with the transfer of title began slowly
at
first. The process picked up steam in 1984 when rumors
began
circulating that the government would use a lack of clear
title
on state farms as an excuse to remove farmers from state
farms.
In 1985 it was estimated that 120,000 families were
farming lands
redistributed by the Agrarian Reform Law, half on state
farms and
half in cooperatives.
In its last months in office, the Ortega government
awarded
additional land to Sandinista supporters as payment for
government service. Nicknamed the Piñata, after a
children's game
in which a hollow papier-mâché animal filled with candy is
broken
open and the candy falls out, the property giveaway
consisted of
more than 5,000 houses and hundreds of thousands of
hectares of
land.
The new administration of President Chamorro promised
to
compensate the large landowners whose land had been taken
over by
the Sandinista government. President Chamorro also issued
two
controversial land decrees: one provided for temporary
rental of
idle state farmland to those willing to work the land for
a year,
and another established a commission to adjudicate more
than
1,600 claims on land confiscated by the former government.
Bank
foreclosures were allowed again, and the government
indicated
that it favored changing the titling provision of the
Agrarian
Reform Law to allow for sale of property.
Combined opposition forces would soon force the
Chamorro
administration to ease some of its new policies. The
critical
issue of land ownership would, in fact, prove to be the
most
contentious issue confronting the new government. The
Sandinistaled opposition derided the rental decree, which primarily
benefited former Contras, as a return of land to
supporters of
the Somoza family. Threatened by a major strike, President
Chamorro agreed to suspend the rental land decree. Former
President Ortega called the revocation of the degree a
major
victory, while critics assailed it as an abrogation of
power.
Because Chamorro's plan did not take back property given
away in
the piñata, the powerful private-sector umbrella
group,
Cosep, refused to participate in her economic plan.
Henceforth,
Nicaragua's private sector would prove to be an
intractable
opponent.
Data as of December 1993
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