Open Veins of Latin America Cuatro

1. What do you make of decree 2,795? Explain the rationale Ubico must have had to implement such a decree. Decree 2,795 declared it leagal for land owners to beable to commit crimes against workers without any legal repercussions. Essentially this meant that a landowner could kill an innocent worker for something as simple as gathering fire wood or just out of spite, with no imminent consequence. I think this is wrong; a prime example of injustice and inequality.The rational behind the whole thing was that the landowners should have the right to do what they want on their own land and it was simply meant to keep out tresspasers and maintain order. If you look at it that way it alsmost sounds like an okay thing but if you look at the deeper meaning, it was nothing but permission to kill. It just gave them away to justify the way the cruel ways they would treat their workers and left the workers with nothing to condem the landowners because thie actions were technically legal.This decree It was just a greater part of Ubicos scheme to control everything and oppress. It makes me wonder what his other 2,794 decrees were.
2.Who was Jose Artigas and what did he do? Jose Artigas was the leader of the Agraian Revolution in Uruguay. He helped to bring about the first Agraian Reform in Latin America. It's main goal was to settle the rural poor on the land and give them the means neccesary to sustain themselves. It was set up so that the land wouldn't end up in the hands of only a few, as it was previously. I found it really interesting that he supposedly always carried a US constitution and wanted to make a government based off the same ideals that our government was founded on. In the end, the same forces of injustice and inequality he was trying so hard to defeat, crushed his efforts and the country went back to the way it was before. This seems to be a common theme in the history in Latin America. Even in Guatemala it doesn't seem like much has changed after the war and all the people who fought to try and change things. Jose Artigas seems like a very good man.

3.Galeano ends chapter 2 discussing the backwardness of how many things have operated in Latin America. Give two examples of this backwardness and explain their importance for Latin American society. On page 126 Galeano writes about how in Latin America it is only 1.5 percent of al the agricultural landlords that own half of the cultivatible land. He also states that only 5 percent of the total land area is under cultivation. The numbers might be different now because this book was written in the 70's but I still think it is ridiculous. I think this is a reality around the whole of Latin America and it is the greatest cause of all it's problems. Because so few people own the land everybody else ends up at thier mercy. The few become rich off the many. When we were in Guatemala it seemed like there was only the richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor, there is almost no middle ground. This is a sad truth that describes not only Guatemala but the entirty of Latin America.