Jim, I'd be very curious to hear your take on Velasco (he is of course vilified by the right in Peru). My understanding is that he introduced urgently-needed agricultural reform -- he broke up the huge, quasi feudal latifundia -- but the way he did so was less than successful; rather than returning the land to the workers and campesinos themselves, he replaced the former management with state-run bureaucracies, and the latter didn't didn't perform well at all. The issue is all the more germane given that Evo is planning agricultural reform in Bolivia Real Soon Now. I hope does a better job of it than Velasco. Colin Brace <<<<<>>>>>
not jim, but i'll intevene in the *lbo struggle*...
my recollection is that velasco expropriated all land-holdings in excess of several hundred acres, about 75% of the country's arable land was *seized* during the time that he led the left-populist military government from late 60s through mid-70s, large estates (about 65% of sugar plantations were u.s. corporate-owned)were not broken up but were run as worker coops, the government also invested in rural infrastructure during this period, among other things, initiating numerous irrigation projects, significantly, land reform was carried out with a moderate increase in production...
other economic policies included regulation of foreign investments, nationalization of oil and copper - most of which was owned by u.s. companies - and arrangements in which firms with more than a certain number of employees had to share profits and issue stock until workers owned 50% of a company...
cultural policies included making tupac amaru's image the national symbol and making quechua an official language with spanish...
above changes were popular among the masses but the left-populist *junior* officers of which velasco was a part never *vanquished* powerful conservative elements - and some moderate opposition as well to their policies as well - in the military, internal dissension in the military proved to be the radical-reformers undoing...this dissension was exacerbated by economic problems associated with the failure of massive investments - driven by overly ambitious plans - in the country's newly nationalized oil industry to 'bear fruit'...
changing the subject a bit, but in a direction that seems relevant given several recent lbo-threads, too much attention is to paid to *great men* leaders whose decisions seemingly determine success (potentially anyway until u.s. intervenes) or failure... mh
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