Protesting farmers besiege Bolivia's richest city

The land reform would let the government expropriate idle or illegally owned private land in Santa Cruz, an opposition stronghold and a leading voice in a movement for greater regional autonomy from central government.

Studies have shown a small group of landowners hold 90 percent of the country’s farmland, while the rest is shared among three million indigenous peasant farmers.

SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia, Sept 20 (Reuters) – Peasants demanding the implementation of a land redistribution plan blockaded Bolivia’s richest city of Santa Cruz on Wednesday ahead of the country’s biggest annual business gathering.

Protesters blocking one of the main highways into the eastern city said the protest was peaceful, and that their main demand was the immediate passing of an agrarian reform bill stalled in Congress for more than two months.

A spokesman for leftist President Evo Morales said government officials would travel to the region to negotiate with protesters blocking at least three main roads into Santa Cruz, the South American country’s most populous city and its economic hub.

Posted by Agustina