Reflections on injustice, inequality and land conflict in Colombia

Arguably the most defining characteristic of Colombia's agrarian history has been the lack of justice in rural society. That lack has had a major negative impact on lower-income rural families (mainly small farmers and wage earners) by helping to make their land a vulnerable asset, subject to s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inCanadian journal of Latin American and Caribbean studies Vol. 42; no. 3; pp. 277 - 297
Main Author Berry, R. Albert
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Kingston Routledge 01.11.2017
Taylor & Francis
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
FARC
Farmers
Food security
Inequality
Injustice
Insecurity
Land
policy bias
Rural areas
Small farms
theft
violence
Vulnerability
Colombia
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Summary:Arguably the most defining characteristic of Colombia's agrarian history has been the lack of justice in rural society. That lack has had a major negative impact on lower-income rural families (mainly small farmers and wage earners) by helping to make their land a vulnerable asset, subject to systematic misappropriation of one sort or another. Small farmers have also been victimized by a pervasive policy bias against them. The societal cost of these two historic injustices has taken many forms, most obviously death and displacement, loss of land, food insecurity and loss of income. Absent these injustices, the average income of the agricultural population of small farmers and wage earners would be an estimated two to three times higher than it now is. Under a healthy agrarian structure Colombia would almost certainly have been spared the bulk of the violence and suffering of the last half-century.
ISSN:0826-3663
2333-1461
DOI:10.1080/08263663.2017.1378400