LA PAZ, Bolivia (Reuters) – Bolivia outlined on Tuesday its plan to redistribute idle land to the country’s poor peasants, ruling out mass expropriations and proposing instead the swift distribution of state-owned property.

The announcement came two weeks after leftist President Evo Morales nationalized the energy industry, surprising neighboring countries and foreign oil companies that had expected to be consulted before Bolivia took action.

Tuesday’s announcement was another step by Morales’ government to increase state control of the country’s resources, but officials tried to soothe landowners’ fears of arbitrary expropriations by vowing that no productive farmland would be seized.
news.yahoo.com

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