Radio Mundo Real

Real World Radio interviewed Claudia Carcamo of Honduras and Luis Alonso Moran of El Salvador on their expectations about the Guidelines on land tenure and their potential effects on the peasant and indigenous population.

Claudia and Luis Alonso are part of the Central American network of Food Sovereignty (Red CASAN) and they demand that the main concepts agreed on the guidelines are actually enforced to safeguard the peasants rights and food sovereignty.

In Honduras, the 2009 coup d’état worsened land concentration, while it meant going backwards in some land distribution policies achieved under Jose Manuel Zelaya’s administraton, says Claudia.

Meanwhile Luis Alonso claims the Salvadorean government under Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), has not promoted structural changes to revert land concentration.

Claudia says that both the Free Trade Agreement of Dominican Republic, Central America and the United States (CAFTA-DR), such as the Partnership Agreement signed with the European Union favor agribusiness, like agrofuels, by facilitating the cultivation of palm oil or the entering of subsidized food from the US to Honduras.

After the armed conflict and after three decades of liberal and neoliberal governments, El Salvador has become totally dependent on imports to meet its food consumption needs, says Luis Alonso. He explained that this situation should be changed and that the Guidelines currently under discussion in Rome could be a good tool towards that purpose.

Photo: Radio Mundo Real