CADEP tackles discussion on poverty and land issues on CNN

The issue of Paraguay’s highly unequal distribution of land was approached by one of CADEP’s associate researchers on CNN. In the interview, Gustavo Rojas de Cerqueira expressed that “it is not possible to reduce poverty and the issue of land inequity without a stronger and more sophisticated state”.

In the context of Horacio Cartes’ recent ascension to the presidency, Gabriela Frías and Xavier Serbia, CNN Dinero’s hosts, approached Rojas with a number of questions over Paraguay’s agrarian issue.

The researcher considered that “the roots of the problem lie in the fact that state institutions remain weak, while not satisfying people’s basic needs”. As an example, he commented on what it means that the state still lacks a proper registry of land ownership.

Frías inquired whether the problem of the land is related to lack of access, the absence of an adequate agrarian policy, or the existence of norms that are insufficient. The researcher replied that the problem is a sum of all of those elements. Rojas assured that “agrarian reform in Paraguay during the dictatorship provided only a quarter of the land to peasants. The rest were distributed among politicians and businessmen who obviously did not need the benefits of reform”.

He added that since the peasantry is mostly unable to access capital, “productivity falls, turning the sale of property to big landowners in the only viable option”.

Watch the interview here: