Introduction

Rural Latin America is the classic two-class situation, and it is this 'dismal dichotomy' which sets the stage for agrarian reform. The Charter dogma clashed immediately with US business, which considered land reform of any kind a subversive threat to American investments in Latin America In most countries, land distribution is so uneven that distributive reforms could have a major impact on income redistribution and on employment creation. Except for the more industrialised nations of Argentina and Uruguay, Latin American countries have 40-70 per cent of their populations living and working in agriculture. Perhaps the most tragic aspect of development in Latin America is the failure to create more jobs and more meaningful employment. Most countries passed land reform laws and established land reform institutes allegedly to expropriate large estates and redistribute the land to the campesinos. The peasants have no voice in the reform programmes, and cannot request expropriations in a legal manner.