Agrarian reform director explains new measures

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The following is an interview conducted on May 8 by Socialist Action with Miguel Barrios, director of the Ministry of Agrarian Reform (MIDINRA) in Region VI, which includes the Northern provinces of Matagalpa and Jinotega.

Socialist Action: In January, the government passed a new law that now permits MIDINRA to confiscate the lands of the large efficient producers. Why was this necessary?

Miguel Barrios: We had to amend the agrarian reform law to enable us to resolve a grave social problem-the pressure for land of the landless peasants. In those areas where there is no other alternative, we will expropriate the lands of the large efficient producers.

Obviously, it is a problem for us to have to confiscate the lands of the efficient producers. This creates insecurity among them. Being a good producer is no longer a shelter from the agrarian reform. The large producers strongly opposed this new amendment in the National Assembly.

In fact, the Independent Liberal Party (PLI) and the Conservative Democratic Party (PCD), two of the rightwing parties in the assembly, recently proposed that the agrarian reform be paralyzed for 10 years.

S.A.: What is to prevent the poor peasants who receive the land from selling it to a large owner, thereby creating a new cycle of land concentration?

Barrios: The peasants can only buy or sell the land with the authorization of MIDINRA.

S.A.: Is the government still committed to the mixed economy?

Barrios: Yes. Production in Nicaragua is based mainly on the small and medium producers. But it also includes large owners who have been willing to produce under the new rules established by the revolution.

In Nicaragua we have control over foreign trade. This prevents the large growers from trading independently on the world market.

The capitalists must also turn over a share of their profits to the workers in the form of benefits and wages. And workers have a voice in the private plants and farms, which is not well looked upon by the capitalists.

The fundamental problem for us is not who owns the means of production, but rather how the economy is regulated and how the surplus is distributed.

S.A.: In Nicaragua, the state sector only controls about 20 percent of total economic production. In these conditions, how is it possible to effectively plan and direct the economy?

Barrios: It is obvious that we don't have a planned economy in Nicaragua. But our strategy is to control certain important elements of the productive process.

Currently the state is investing heavily in large, state-owned, agro-industrial plants. Our only road to economic development is to add value to our agricultural products. These large factories will provide technological and economic direction to the economy as a whole.

Even though the state's share of the GNP is relatively small, it still has an important impact on the economy. And if the large private landowners don't produce efficiently in Nicaragua, they can be expropriated. So, as you can see, we do have some levers of planning at our command.

SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 1986