Invasions of private property

A big business behind this criminal practice

Guatemala is a country that for many years it lived through a series of historical events that led the nation’s internal and external politicsWithin these political elements was, “access to land.” Since the conquest by the Spanish Crown, in which the State appropriated the Mayan-Quiché indigenous territories, through the constitution of the Captaincy General of Guatemala, where decisions were made on the distribution of the land, going through the agrarian reform, Decree Law 900; of the year 1950, where land was granted to peasants, an action that was suspended with the overthrow of former President Arbenz, reaching the sixties when the Peasant Associative Companies were formed, who distributed among locals the farms owned by German citizens due to the conflict of the Second World War, and then already in the decade of the seventies and eighties with the development of the process of colonization of the North where groups of peasants were benefited with properties that belonged to the State either through cooperatives or individually, it is possible to Observe how the State has tried to meet the demands of a population in need of housing and land to harvest family sustenance. According to INTA data, during the period from 1954 to 1985, a total of 792,540 hectares were distributed among 107,728 peasants and their families, this without including the beneficiaries of El Petén. These brief data are to put the reader in context of what this column is about and not to delve into the territorial history of our country.

Despite the fact that the state has granted a huge amount of land, The need for a piece of self-control continues to increase, the Guatemalan population grows at a dizzying rate and State properties are diminished As if to try to make a new distribution, currently we hear everywhere, of invasions in farms or private property, which, occur constantly and an alarming increase in this phenomenon is observed, some media call this a “Socio-economic phenomenon” trying to minimize the impact of this action, but in reality it has other names within the penal code, among them: robbery, theft or crime to name a few; Developing countries like Guatemala are going through problems that the most prosperous countries saved years ago, why not learn from them? The Nobel laureate for economics, M Friedman, already said it; poor countries must copy what the more prosperous countries did when they were developing… and it is precisely the STRONG defense of private property that allowed those countries to develop better and faster.

Since the formation of the Political Constitution of the Republic of 1985; You can see the indifference of the authorities who have led the country to fiercely defend private property, this simply because they have not had the courage to grab that bull by the horns as is vulgarly said, the State has allowed one of the constitutional rights most important for the development, investment and growth of any country is disrespected, the speeches of attracting foreign investment or the production of thousands of jobs, sound more and more fantasy than reality.

It is difficult to understand why the Heads of State or national leaders do not recognize that the only way to improve the quality of life of all Guatemalans is by strengthening the rule of law, I ask myself, what would you do if your car was stolen? , motorcycle, bank account, furniture, etc.? I am sure that I would report it to the authorities and fight for the author to be legally sentenced and convicted, so why minimize the usurpation of private property and call it a social phenomenon, sometimes victimizing the invader or invaders, using narratives of ancestral rights, human or similar, if on the contrary, it should be pursued and immediately taken action in defense of the perpetrators who, as I mentioned above, are committing a flagrant crime.

Government has every obligation to protect private property, Failure to comply with this encourages impunity, violence and disrespect for the State itself, we are all obliged to comply with the Law and condemn anyone who violates these norms, as has been repeated ad nauseam, if they are not in Agree, you have to look for legal ways to change or reform the Law, but for no reason, you should manage, defend or minimize an illegal act, the phenomenon of invasions of private property has changed because of this, I have no doubt that Years ago, the demands of the residents could have been legitimate, however, the governments, by turning a blind eye and not acting promptly and fully against this criminal act, opened the doors for criminal groups belonging to drug trafficking, to transfer of people or similar, have seen a prosperous business in the invasion of properties, it is not surprising that now these organizations are the ones who promote the invasions and what is worse, they scam farmers inos who deliver advances for lands that already have an owner. If we continue to allow this phenomenon to continue to increase, within a few years, it will be a conflict of overwhelming dimensions that will be impossible to contain, you do not have to be a wise man or a fortune teller to assert the above, it is as simple as reading a little world history and it will be found that the biggest and bloodiest warlike conflicts in the history of each country have been over the possession of the land. (To be continue…)