In five pages land reform in Latin America since the Colonial Period is examined in a discussion of people, controversies, and effects. Five sources are cited in the bibliography.
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these controversies, how they began and why they are still happening. The effect on the people of the different countries in Latin America regarding their land situation is enormous.
THE COLONIAL PERIOD: BACK TO THE BEGINNING Back in the 1500s when the Portuguese came to Brazil, they came armed with hundreds of land grants issued by the King
of Portugal. These grants served to break into segments the millions of rich acres of land into estates for the wealthy. As is to be expected, those who
were given these lands soon grew more wealthy and powerful, and the land remained in their control. Even today the results of this land grant remain as "two percent
of the population own forty-nine percent of the land" (Human Rights in Brazil, PG, 2001). This land equates to more square miles than in all of England, France, Germany and
Spain combined. And it is all owned by a mere handful of wealthy, politically powerful families and economic parties. To make things even more dismaying, in Para, the
government takes over any land that is found to have large deposits of iron ore. After this land was taken over, it was then "sold to a Japanese investor
for mining purposes" (Human Rights in Brazil, PG, 2001). LAND REFORM MOVEMENTS In Latin America although there have been many land reform movements, they have still not gotten anywhere.
Over one fourth of the population of Brazil - that is forty million people - are considered destitute. Without land they dont have any way to feed their
families and have no place to live. People, mostly children, simply grow up in the streets. Most of them have no family name because they have no legal