Global Courant
Crimes against property, such as invasions of farms, constitute a recurring attack on productivity, which is prolonged by the lack of firm actions and specific legal precedents. This scourge violates the constitutional right to private property and compromises legal certainty.
Some of these events have occurred in agricultural territories, with total impunity and sometimes with little intervention by the security forces. A recent case affects a sugar cane farm of the Magdalena Sugar Mill, in La Gomera, Escuintla, one of the largest and most productive in the country, which generates hundreds of jobs and important foreign exchange for exports.
An armed group seized said territory for unknown purposes, but apparently linked to drug trafficking. The sheaf prevents access to company workers and has even blocked access to other growing areas. Likewise, they incur in illegal retention of people for questioning, as if it were not a private property. Support was requested from the Army to evict the invaders, because they are supposed to be a professional and efficient force, but the intruders exhibited such firepower that the operation failed.
It is necessary to question where the State is in these situations, especially since when repressing the defenseless civilian population, a luxury of force is exhibited. The lack of government support for the eviction attempt also arouses suspicion. The question arises as to whether there are conflicts of interest in the Interior or Defense portfolios to allow such a level of challenge to authority. What are they waiting for? To reach the gruesome situations that exist in Mexico?
The invasion in question is not the only one. In 2022, 4,389 complaints of crimes against immovable property were reported, which include usurpations and invasions, according to analysis by the Property Rights Observatory. The Chambers of Industry and Agriculture and the Association of Sugar Producers of Guatemala have expressed their concern about the recidivism. From 2017 to 2021, 20,596 complaints for crimes against property were filed with the Public Ministry. On average, more than 4 thousand a year. However, there are others that have not been resolved for more than seven years, and only 2 percent go to trial.
In some cases there are disputes, some quite old, over the legal ownership of land, but most invasions are perpetrated by groups linked to mafias, smuggling and human trafficking, who try to sabotage economic growth and productive activity in order to promote more poverty, spur the vulnerability of the inhabitants and exacerbate the absence of the State in those territories. Certain areas of the South Coast are coveted by drug trafficking structures that use the plains for clandestine landing strips. But it is not enough for them, as they need to isolate territories and escape routes to commit their misdeeds. In the past, active and retired military personnel have been identified as accomplices, in addition to some municipal and even presidential officials.
For this reason, firm action by the State is urgently needed to combat the infiltration of dirty money in electoral campaigns, because there are candidates who make suspicious expenditures without clarifying the origin of the funds. The intention to use a charge for perverse purposes is clear. Despite this, the TSE consents to late, inaccurate, and incomplete reports on campaign spending.
Impunity and defenselessness hit productivity
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