More than a hundred properties are overwhelmed, according to producers

More than 100 properties have been illegally occupied, according to the Eastern Agricultural Chamber (CAO), which coincides with the figure reported by civic leaders in the Guarayos province.

“I don’t know of an overwhelming with a sentence, just look at what happened in Las Londras. There is total abandonment of the State, already with a taste of complicity,” said Salvador Vaca, civic president of Guarayos, a province that for years has been the most affected by the land conflict, a problem that has been escalating since September 2021, when groups armed men shot police officers, and in October they kidnapped and beat uniformed officers and journalists.

Vaca is coordinating the Cabildo in defense of land and territory, scheduled for Wednesday, December 14 in the municipality of Ascensión, and which will include owners of affected properties, but also citizens from other parts of the department.

According to Vaca, the subjugated properties are increasing, he said that there are too many. “I can calmly say that there are about 100, only in Guarayos,” he estimated, and clarified that, although there are some very “high-profile”, there are cases of people who do not even have enough to harvest, much less to evict.

Data from the productive sector ensure that there are more than 50 subjugated properties, verified by INRA, but that in reality this number skyrockets. “Seven are ready to evict, according to the national authorities, but they told us that several months ago,” said one of the leaders, who asked not to be named because it is in the process of being cleared.

According to him, there are data that cannot be officially stated, one of them, he said, is that many producers are negotiating, ceding hectares of land to the subjugators, in exchange for processing their titles in peace.

“They prefer to lose 500 hectares. This week, in the Eastern Agricultural Chamber (CAO) there were people denouncing that they are not allowed to plant in Guarayos, near Las Londras, they threaten them that if they don’t give in, they won’t plant either, ”he described.

Likewise, he said that there are about seven properties with an eviction order ready for several months, and that they are not executed. “On top of that, the owner must bear the expenses of the dispossession, which can cost between 20 and 100 thousand dollars, and all that so that they can later re-enter,” he questioned.

On the subject, Magdalena Panduro, regional director of INRA, affirmed that they do not execute eviction orders, they do all the administrative paperwork and send the notes to the Police Command as a result of all the operations that they have to do.

“We pass to the Command, which is in charge of coordinating with the Vice Ministry of Lands and other instances. They execute them, according to what Law 477 says,” he said.

The Police did not want to give details of how many eviction orders there are, but they recognized that there are quite a few.

The producers consulted by EL DEBER indicate that after the 36-day strike the encroachments intensified. “Impunity is the prize for the siege of Santa Cruz,” he assured.

But from the INRA, Panduro, denied that the subjugation was intensifying after the strike, as the civics of Guarayos also denounced. “I don’t believe it because through the press it became known that the subjugated property is El Trébol, and the other Kin Tourist Complex, also in Pando, in a chestnut concession2.
Grecia Yucra owns El Encanto, a titled rural property, subjugated since 2017, and with an eviction order that is already one year old. She explained that the Police Intelligence personnel have already carried out three inspections, that she is due for the fourth, and that, additionally, the personnel of the Agro-environmental Tribunal went on vacation, so she will continue to wait until January.

He did not answer about the economic cost of this Via Crucis, but he spoke of the wear and tear of time, comings and goings to La Paz, touring various ministries, including the Government. “In the Police they even told us that there were no personnel, that already exceeded us, and the departmental commander of the Police, since last week, did not attend to us,” he shared.

It was in El Encanto where in September of last year, a month before the Las Londras incident, armed groups shot police officers. “The ringleader of our subjugation is René Flores Alvarado, from the Regional Guarayos de la ‘Única’ (Csutcb). He already has home detention, without protection. They laugh at the Police, at everyone, they know that they are protected by the Government, ”he questioned.
Yucra also denounced that in the back of his property there are thousands of hectares of public land that were reverted, and that today they are being occupied by many communities, “it is not known who they are,” he said.

For the Eastern Agricultural Chamber (CAO), in quantity, the encroachments of 2021 and 2022 are related, but they recognized that violence and the frequency with which the enslavers act have increased.
“The current scenario accompanies the crime of encroachment with serious injuries, assassination attempts, kidnapping, destruction of machinery and private property, etc.”, they told EL DEBER.

The CAO agreed that the Guarayos province is the most affected, but pointed out that areas that tend to be subjugated are also those that are close to urban areas, since there are municipalities that do not have their urban areas approved by the Ministry of Planning.

“This causes people who are engaged in the subjugation and trafficking of land to enter productive land illegally,” they argued.
Currently, the CAO is monitoring and supporting 16 cases of subjugation, of which eight correspond to requests for support made in the 2021 term and eight from the 2022 term.
Vaca opined that this crime is dramatically affecting the economic apparatus, since the properties must paralyze their productive activities due to the encroachments, a situation that also impacts employment for the natives.

According to Yucra, the workers of the different subjugated properties feel so harmed that they have openly stated that if necessary, they will be part of the defense groups.

Referring to the council, he assured that Guarayos is already being organized, every day there is a new encroachment in the area and the Police do not act. “We already organize ourselves with our neighbors, if we see people entering the properties, we will come out in defense of the land and everything we have, even the workers are willing to defend their sources of employment. We have asked for help until we can’t, We have gone to the Police, to the ministries,” Vaca explained.

The situation also complicates field work in the sugarcane sector. The producers declared an emergency and demanded that the national authorities restore “legal security to the affected areas and take severe reprisals against the perpetrators of these events.”

The previous week, an irregular group seized productive land located in the municipality of Ascensión de Guarayos owned by producer Rudiger Trepp. According to the report of the EL DEBER correspondent in that area, Desther Ágreda, the invaders burned the camp with three sheds, a tractor and a caterpillar rented from a Mennonite. In addition, they beat the workers.

Faced with this situation, the sugarcane growers, through a public statement, lamented that the food-producing regions have become zones of constant conflict due to the presence of unscrupulous groups that carry out acts of terrorism, “with the sole purpose of appropriating lands worked and with the right to owner, seeking to traffic with them, thus creating total legal uncertainty in the area”.

INRA does not execute evictions

“We are not going to allow, from our Government, that lands, properties, be they private or fiscal, be subjugated,” said the Vice Minister of Lands, Ramiro Guerrero, yesterday at a press conference.
The authority confirmed that in Santa Cruz proceedings were initiated against oppressors at the complaint of institutions and private individuals, which they will follow up to, in this way, guarantee legal ownership and social function.

“There was no commitment for some people to stay (properties), absolutely. We want to make it clear that the Government complies with the rules and if the sanction has to be applied with all the rigor to these people, it will do so, ”he sentenced.

In his turn, Eulogio Núñez, national director of INRA, said that regarding the encroachment that was registered by an armed group on the El Trébol property, in the municipality of Guarayos, it is a titled property where the division he directs does not have direct competition. He indicated that the owners who have titled properties have to go to an agri-environmental court or the Public Ministry if they register an irregular settlement.

“The Ministry of Government sent police officers to Guarayos and they did not find the alleged harassers. There are still troops left for any contingency, ”he said.

Regarding the settlement in the San Miguel barracks, in the department of Pando, which left one dead and several injured, Núñez said that the encroachment and death did not occur within the 500 hectares that an owner has, but within the 15,000 hectares that were declared by the INRA as unavailable because they are used or worked for the chestnut.
“It is in the process of investigation, INRA finished the sanitation process in Pando,” he pointed out.

Núñez pointed out that President Luis Arce formed the land cabinet to conclude the land clearance, in which to date there are 208 cases that are in the INRA.

In addition to the department of Santa Cruz, the departments of Cochabamba, Oruro, Beni and Pando present cases of settlement. The Vice Minister of Lands responded that the sanction for this crime ranges from 3 to 8 years.

The national director of INRA, Eulogio Núñez, stated that the subjugation that persists in the Kim Tourist Center, where the aquifer recharge zone is located in the Lomas de Arena Park Conservation Unit, is located in an urban sprawl, where the institution that presides has no powers.

Showing images of the private property, Núñez said that those who have jurisdiction are the municipal governments, mentioning the Mayor’s Office of La Guardia and Santa Cruz de la Sierra. The Santa Cruz Governor’s Office determined an environmental pause in the area so as not to put the aforementioned aquifers at risk.