Expropriation in Chile under the Frei Agrarian Reform

Abstract

According to a lengthy and detailed message presented to the Chilean Congress by President Eduardo Frei in 1965 in support of a new agrarian bill, it had become urgent and imperative to enact and implement an authentic and effective agrarian reform in order to terminate a system of tenure over land and water resources which was retarding the general conomic, social and political development of the country.' This land tenure structure was characterized by the concentration of land and water resources in a few hands, with the bulk of the rural population having little if any land at its disposal; the monopolization of credit and other services by the large landowners; an inadequate and insufficient use of land resources; and a paternalistic labor system which abused the peasant and prevented the development of a vigorous rural middle class. It was directly responsible for the stagnation of agriculture and cattle production, as well as other social and economic problems which had long been present in the rural areas of Chile.