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Bolivia court upholds seizure of US man's ranch
Houston Chronicle/AP ^ | August 2, 2010 | CARLOS VALDEZ

Posted on 08/03/2010 10:39:04 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch

LA PAZ, Bolivia — A Bolivian court has upheld a government decision to seize a ranch from a U.S. cattleman and his family on the grounds they treated workers as virtual slaves, an official announced Monday

The National Agrarian Tribunal rejected a challenge by Ronald Larsen, a 65-year-old from Montana who has owned the 58-square-mile (15,000-hectare) ranch nearly four decades, deputy land minister Juan Manuel Pinto said at a news conference.

Pinto said the Caraparicito ranch would revert to Guarani Indians, traditional inhabitants of Bolivia's southeastern region, known as the Chaco.

He said the ranch and an adjacent 15-square-mile (3,790-hectare) spread owned by an unrelated family, the Chavezes, would be cleared by authorities and divided among 2,000 Guarani families.

Pinto did not say when the court issued its decision, which is not subject to appeal.

The Larsens could not immediately be reached for comment. They have vehemently denied treating their ranch hands — all of them Guarani natives — as indentured servants.

Larsen moved to the region in 1969, began acquiring land and married a Bolivian. He told The Associated Press last year that he deeded Caraparicito in 2005 to his three sons, all Bolivian citizens.

(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; US: Montana
KEYWORDS: bolivia; caraparicitoranch; corruption; evomorales; guaraniindians; socialists; theft
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The government said the seized land had been fraudulently obtained and met another main criterion for confiscation — that it served no "social or economic purpose."
1 posted on 08/03/2010 10:39:06 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
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To: SwinneySwitch

Typical third-world looting. Why people expect lawless governments to respect ownership is beyond the capacity.

Of course...there’s another government getting more lawless by the day...but that’s a topic for another thread.


2 posted on 08/03/2010 10:41:47 AM PDT by neutrino (Globalization is the economic treason that dare not speak its name.(173))
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To: SwinneySwitch

No sympathy.When you set up shop in a Fourth World hellhole you deserve whatever you get.


3 posted on 08/03/2010 10:44:00 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (''I don't regret setting bombs,I feel we didn't do enough.'' ->Bill Ayers,Hussein's mentor,9/11/01)
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To: SwinneySwitch

I would make some comment about the foolishness of owning a business or property south of our border, but the way things are going it won’t be any better here. It takes a principled government to respect private property.


4 posted on 08/03/2010 10:47:40 AM PDT by pallis
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To: SwinneySwitch

Certain authors I’m familiar with often tout the joys of moving to certain Central and South American countries due to cost of living, climate, privacy etc. No doubt certain countries are safer than others but this sounds like a classic land grab on trumped up charges. Many of these countries appear somewhat friendly now, but they’re often given to instability.


5 posted on 08/03/2010 10:48:20 AM PDT by bereanway
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To: SwinneySwitch

Light it on fire and split....


6 posted on 08/03/2010 10:48:35 AM PDT by rightwingextremist1776
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To: SwinneySwitch

" There might be legal precedent! Of course, Landsnatching . . . land, land, Land, see Snatch. Ah, Hailie vs. United Sates. Hailie: 7, United States: nothing. You see, it can be done!"

7 posted on 08/03/2010 10:51:09 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: dfwgator

LMAO!


8 posted on 08/03/2010 10:52:33 AM PDT by Constitution Day
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To: neutrino

You mean like emminent domain in the US? It is getting almost as widespread as 3rd World—How many millions of acres has the government confiscated in just that last 10 years.


9 posted on 08/03/2010 10:54:26 AM PDT by richardtavor
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To: Gay State Conservative

An investment in a place without the rule of law is just foolhardy.


10 posted on 08/03/2010 10:55:30 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Impeachment !)
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To: neutrino

shade of Robert Mugabe and Rhodesia, er Zimbabwe......Once Evil Evo has his way, the land will be ruined, the farms lay fallow, and the indigenous indians will be living in squalor again.


11 posted on 08/03/2010 10:55:59 AM PDT by milwguy
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To: SwinneySwitch
Bolivia's government has also confiscated ranches totaling more than 60 square miles (15,500 hectares) from two powerful white opposition leaders in Bolivia's eastern lowlands, the stronghold of Morales' most bitter foes.

How feudal of them.

12 posted on 08/03/2010 11:00:55 AM PDT by FourPeas (God Save America)
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To: SwinneySwitch
There really are slaves in Bolivia, that is people who work as tenant farmers, and receive no pay, as the cost of their necessities are deducted from their pay at “comany store” wages. They are so poor they literally own more than the rags they wear on their backs. Those people are slaves by any definition, and I have no problem with what the government did here, if they do the same to all other Bolivian absentee owners.
13 posted on 08/03/2010 11:01:32 AM PDT by PUGACHEV
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

It was not an ‘investment’. The man moved there and started a family, built a ranching empire and wants nothing more than to live out his remaining days in a land he considers home.

The back story not reported is that the ranches are in an area rich in natural gas, and Evil Evo really just wants to get his hands on the gas under the land, not the land itself. Using the Indians is a clever ploy to confiscate the land for the mineral and energy wealth.


14 posted on 08/03/2010 11:02:13 AM PDT by milwguy
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To: PUGACHEV

Drop the Commie propaganda and follow the money!


15 posted on 08/03/2010 11:03:23 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: SwinneySwitch
A Bolivian court has upheld a government decision to seize a ranch from a U.S. cattleman and his family on the grounds treated workers as virtual slaves they failed to pay off the correct officials, an official announced Monday

 

Fixed it

16 posted on 08/03/2010 11:07:58 AM PDT by grjr21
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To: milwguy

Still, in a land without property rights, expropriation can happen anytime.


17 posted on 08/03/2010 11:08:11 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Impeachment !)
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To: SwinneySwitch
Dear Mr. Larson,

A little advice:

Burn everything to the ground, salt the earth, and throw dead animals down every well.


Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

18 posted on 08/03/2010 11:14:51 AM PDT by The Comedian (Evil can only succeed if good men don't point at it and laugh.)
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To: SwinneySwitch

Evo you sawed off midget.

Wait until the people of Santa Cruz secede from the people of La Paz and find safe haven with Brazil, whose military will gladly point their weapons in your direction, in support of their new found friends.


19 posted on 08/03/2010 11:15:57 AM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously... You'll never live through it.)
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

This thread is about Bolivia, not Obama’s America.


20 posted on 08/03/2010 11:23:03 AM PDT by dockkiller (COME AND TAKE IT.)
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