$Unique_ID{COW00895} $Pretitle{226} $Title{Colombia Chapter 2C. Land Reform and Colonization} $Subtitle{} $Author{Howard I. Blutstein} $Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army} $Subject{population migrants percent family rate planning land years growth rural} $Date{1977} $Log{Table 3.*0089501.tab Table 4.*0089502.tab } Country: Colombia Book: Colombia, A Country Study Author: Howard I. Blutstein Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army Date: 1977 Chapter 2C. Land Reform and Colonization Land reform in Colombia dates from 1863, when the government expropriated extensive church-owned lands, which were later sold to private owners. At several later dates Indian reservations were closed and their lands subdivided, and in 1936 Congress enacted legislation giving squatters who occupied farmlands legal rights to properties occupied for five years without dispossession by the owners. The measure provided a legal basis for peasant land invasions, which became heavy during the depression years of the 1930s, when urban migrants displaced from city employment returned in large numbers to their rural places of origin. Land invasions also made up an element of la violencia, the rural violence of the late 1940s and 1950s that is believed to have claimed 100,000 to 300,000 lives. The modern era of land reform was inaugurated in 1961 with the enactment of legislation creating the Colombian Institute of Agrarian Reform (Instituto Colombiano de Reforma Agraria-INCORA). The 1961 law and 1968 legislation authorized the government to take land from private owners, pay the assessed valuation, and divide it into parcels for transfer to needy farmers (parceloros) on long-term mortgages at low interest rates. In addition a 1973 law prescribed that land not adequately exploited-according to the law's definition-during a period of three years would be subject to forfeiture to the government. The legislation applied only to developed land, however, and the threat of expropriation may have discouraged large property owners from developing land that might otherwise have been made productive. In 1974 a UN agency described as very modest the accomplishments of INCORA in modifying the country's basic land tenure pattern. INCORA, which is responsible for the colonization of virgin land and land reclamation projects as well as rural resettlement, has a record of praise for its accomplishments coupled with criticisms of its cumbersome administration. Other criticisms were frequent changes in administrators (four directors between 1971 and 1975) and an apparent policy of parceling out relatively poor public lands rather than expropriating better lands in the face of the strenuous opposition of owners. Less than 5 percent of the funds invested by INCORA by early 1974 had been for the acquisition of land for resettlement. By 1972 about 38,000 farmers had been settled on parceled land, and INCORA hoped to add another 400,000 during the next twenty years. Some 38,000 had been settled in colonies on unoccupied public lands, and 40,000 spontaneous settlers had been given titles to public lands they had settled as squatters. The bulk of the colonization and spontaneous settlement had taken place on or near the piedmont of the Cordillera Oriental in eastern Colombia, where the settlers had tended to displace the indigenous population. In one colonization project area the number of Indians declined from 3,500 in 1950 to 2,500 in 1975, dispersed in numerous tribes. Some had been assimilated into the colonial population, but others had moved eastward down the rivers to less accessible areas. In the early 1970s colonization projects had been established in eastern Colombia on the Putumayo River near the Ecuadorian border, in Caqueta near the headquarters of the Caqueta River, in Meta Department near the fast-growing city of Villavicencio, and on the Arauca River close to the Venezuelan frontier. There were also small colony projects in lands of the Cordillera Oriental, in the Magdalena and Cauca river valleys, and in lowlands around the Gulf of Uraba. Reclamation lands to be opened for settlement were located principally along the Caribbean coast and in the Magdalena and Cauca river valleys. In the mid-1970s INCORA had embarked on an extensive land reclamation project aimed at draining a permanently inundated zone in the department of Cordoba. The project, which was to receive US $21 million in assistance from the IBRD, was to include the installation of a social infrastructure, including schools and medical facilities, and was ultimately to provide for the resettlement of 22,000 people. The most extensive of the colonization schemes in progress in early 1976 was the Caqueta project, which had been initiated in 1971 with IBRD assistance to consolidate and expand the spontaneous colonization that was already in progress in the area. The 1971 IBRD loan had been designed to assist 2,800 new colonists and their families and 3,500 partially established settlers, most of whom were engaged in cattle raising. A second IBRD credit was extended in 1975 to provide follow-up assistance in the form of economic and social services, including roads, schools, and health posts to benefit the population of the zone, which had increased to about 12,000 families, or 70,000 people. The number was not great, but it had a substantial effect on the pattern of settlement in Caqueta Intendency, which had a total population of no more than 200,000. The Migrant Population Colombian migrants are for the most part young, unencumbered, and able-bodied. They are also better educated than the national average and, at the time of leaving the countryside, consider themselves participants in the mainstream of national life. As in other Latin American states, the migrants are in search of better living conditions and job opportunities. Job opportunities are of particular importance to women, who find few employment opportunities in rural localities and for whom urban job openings have increased sharply during the 1960s. The classic Latin American pattern is one in which motivation is provided by a combination of "push and pull" elements, in which limited employment opportunities and other push factors away from the original place of residence work with the real or expected job opportunities and other pull factors at the intended destination. In Colombia the rapid population growth, the large number of submarginal farm plots, and the extreme shortage of social infrastructure services-such as schooling and medical care-are of primary significance as push factors. Family ties and friendship rank high in importance among the pull factors. In one Bogota residential district occupied largely by migrant, a survey in the late 1960s found three-fourths of the migrants family heads to have at least one relative in the city at their time of arrival and one-third to have received some economic assistance from previously arriving family or friends. In many Latin American countries the number of young women leaving the farm substantially exceeds the number of young men because of the former's relative lack of job opportunities in agriculture. In Colombia there has been little difference in the number of male and female migrants in terms of point of origin. There has been, however, a sharp difference by sex in the direction taken. Rural-to-rural migrants have been predominantly male, and rural-to-urban migrants have been predominantly female. The 1964 census showed that the coefficient of masculinity (number of males per 100 females) stood at 141 among recent migrants (migrated within five years) to rural localities. In Bogota it stood at seventy-nine, and in other urban localities it was eighty-five. The explanation for the sex difference between rural-to-urban and rural-to-rural migration was readily apparent. Job opportunities in the countryside were available primarily to men, but in cities and towns a relatively large number of jobs were open to women, particularly in domestic service and other unskilled occupations in the services sector where a large proportion of female migrants found work (see Labor Force, this ch.). The heaviest flow of migration occurs between the ages of five and twenty-five years, but most of the youngest migrants are children relocating with their parents. Data for 1965 to 1970 show that migration for men peaked between the ages of fifteen and nineteen and declined progressively thereafter. For women the peak came at a somewhat earlier age, declined progressively thereafter until the ages of thirty to thirty-four, and rose once more in older age-groups (see table 3). Rural-to-rural migrants were somewhat older than their rural-to-urban counterparts. The sharp decline in rate of migration among women over the age of twenty probably reflected their assumption of family responsibilities. It has been conjectured that the higher migration rate of women in older age-groups was accounted for by women whose children were grown or who had been widowed and thus were free to travel, perhaps to join family members who had migrated earlier. [See Table 3.: Colombia, Urban Migration Rates by Age and Sex, 1965-70] The considerable volume of data available concerning the educational qualifications of migrants reveals a surprisingly high level of schooling compared not only with that of the population in the place of origin but also with that of the resident population in the new place of residence. The data are surprising because migrants have usually left a place in which relatively little education was available to them. The 1964 census found that among recent male migrants to Bogota some 40.5 percent had no formal education or three or fewer years of school, compared with 43.0 percent of the resident population. In other urban localities about 41 percent of the recent migrants and the resident population alike were in this educational category. In rural localities about 81.4 percent of the recent migrants and 85.5 percent of the resident population had no education or had attended three or fewer years of school. Among those with between four and ten years of school there was no significant difference between the educational qualifications of recent migrants and residents, but among the few with additional years of school the migrants emerged with a clearly superior record. In Bogota the proportion of the population with ten or more years of education was 12 percent for both recent migrants and residents. In other urban localities, however, 6 percent of the recent migrants, compared with 0.3 percent of the residents, had ten or more years of school. The educational attainments of recent female migrants to urban localities were inferior to those of males and generally somewhat inferior to those of resident females, although the 1964 census showed the proportions of recent female migrants and urban residents with ten or more years of schooling to be about the same. In rural localities, however, an entirely different situation obtained. In addition to being better educated than the resident female population, female rural migrants had better educations than their male counterparts. Migrants show a high degree of occupational adaptability; in 1964 the proportion of recent urban migrants holding professional, managerial, and high-level technical jobs did not differ significantly from the proportion of residents, and in rural places the proportion of migrants in these positions was greater than that of residents. The profile of the Colombian migrant that emerges is far from being one of a reject of society. The migrant has left the place of origin primarily because of economic necessity, but he or she is characteristically young, energetic, ambitious, relatively well educated, and capable of competing effectively in the job market in the new place of residence. In a sense the migrants make up a kind of elite in which the most capable and best prepared among them migrate to the largest cities, particularly to Bogota. Population Structure and Dynamics The population of the country in July 1975 was estimated by UN statisticians at 24,717,000. The 1973 Colombian census, appearing late and in provisional form, had listed the population at a much lower 21,070,115, but the enumerations in the two previous censuses had been substantially undercounted. The UN estimate may be somewhat high, but it is consistent with other informed estimates that appeared at various times during the early 1970s. The adjusted tabulation for the 1964 census had been 18,090,000 (17,484,000 enumerated), and the adjusted figure for 1951 had been 11,548,377 (11,356,489 enumerated). The population as counted in the census of 1905 had been 4,335,377. Population growth rates from 1905 through 1939 averaged a little more than 2 percent annually during a period in which the influences of heavy immigration and a high birthrate were offset by a high rate of mortality. During more recent years immigration has ceased to exert upward pressure on population growth, and the birthrate appears to have leveled off or declined. In addition the heavy illegal emigration to Venezuela has exerted a downward influence on the growth rate (see Land and People, this ch.). Under the influence of an apparently sharp decline in the death rate, however, the rate of growth had exceeded 3 percent by 1951 and was shown by the adjusted 1951 and 1964 census figures to have averaged 3.4 percent annually during the intercensal period. The apparent rate of increase, among the highest in the world, was beginning to cause some concern, and during the late 1960s an increasingly effective family planning program appeared to be having some results in slowing the rate of growth (see Population Problems, this ch.). Data available for determination of the rate were incomplete and sometimes inconsistent, however, and during the late 1960s and early 1970s estimating the current growth rate became a kind of numbers game. The most frequently suggested rates were between 3.2 and 3.4 percent, but in 1971 a New York Times report highlighted the variation by pointing out that, although the current president of the country estimated the growth rate at 3.6 percent annually, his immediate predecessor had given an estimate of 3.1 percent. A few experts contended that the rate was lower than 3 percent. A study prepared at the University of Los Andes contended that the 1951 census count had been substantially too low even after adjustment, that as a consequence the rate for 1951 to 1964 should have been 2.8 percent rather than 3.4 percent, and that estimates since then should be scaled down accordingly. In early 1976 it appeared that the analysis proposing the lower rates of population growth may have been correct. In an analysis of rates of birth and death derived from the preliminary 1973 census count and from other statistical samples, it was determined that the birthrate had declined form 3.2 percent in 1964 to 2.4 percent in 1975, considerably below the average for Latin America. These figures were reported to have been accepted as accurate by an authoritative and responsible internal family planning organization and by the United States Agency for International Development. Contributing to the confusion over the rate of growth has been the nature of the vital statistics on which estimates were based. Births and deaths had been reported in terms not of certificates but of baptismal and burial records. In a careful study prepared by the University of Los Andes it was calculated that both births and deaths had been substantially underreported. The underreporting of deaths had been more extreme and had risen slightly between 1938 and 1964, although the degree of underreporting of births had also declined. On the basis of these calculations it was estimated that between the 1938-51 and the 195 -64 periods the annual birthrate had risen slightly from 46.5 to 47.2 per 1,000, and the death rate had declined from 22.4 to 17.4 per 1,000. It is generally accepted that the birthrate began to decline during the late 1960s, and the trend indicated in the University of Los Andes study is consistent with a rate of 44.6 per 1,000 reported by the UN for the 1965-70 period. The UN data, however, show the death rate declining from between twelve and fourteen per 1,000 during the 1960-65 period to 10.2 during the 1965-70 period-rates much lower than those indicated in the University of Los Andes study. Under the influence of improved conditions of health and sanitation, the incidence of mortality has been progressively declining since World War II. Underestimating the death rate, however (and perhaps overlooking the clandestine migration into Venezuela), may have contributed to the tendency to overestimate the rate of population growth during the late 1960s and early 1970s. During the years since World War II women have outnumbered men by small but increasing proportions. The trend results at least in part from improving conditions of health and sanitation that have reduced the incidence of maternal mortality and permitted the naturally greater longevity of the female sex to come into play. The trend may also have been influenced by what is believed to have been a preponderance of males among the numerous clandestine migrants into Venezuela (see Land and People, this ch.) The coefficient of masculinity declined from 98.9 in 1951 to 97.1 in 1964; population data from the 1970 National Housing Survey showed a further decline to under ninety-five. The 1964 figures showed males in a minority in age- groups over the age of ten except for the ages fifty to fifty-nine, when they were in a small majority. In 1970 females were in a majority in all age-groups over the age of ten. It is a young population, in which the extreme of youthfulness appears to have been reached at some point in the late 1960s. Between 1964 and 1970 the proportion of the population under the age of twenty increased from slightly under to slightly over 57 percent; the proportion under the age of ten registered a sharp decline, however, and there was an increase between 1964 and 1970 in the proportions of all age-groups over the age of forty (see table 4). Urban and rural areas have greatly differing age and sex compositions. The population is younger in the countryside, and males are in a majority in most rural localities. The difference results almost entirely from a population shift brought about by the heavy rural-to-urban migration since World War II, in which females have substantially outnumbered males (see Land and People, this ch.). About 5 percent of the people are included in the elite, primarily property owners. Some 20 percent make up the middle class, loosely defined as a group that sees itself as socially ranked below the elite and above the working class. Included in this sector are most of the professionals and technicians, white-collar workers, and the proprietors of medium-sized commercial enterprises. Both the elite and the middle class are primarily urban, although about 300,000 coffee growers and other small commercial farmers may be considered to be in this category. It was this elite and middle class-25 percent of the population plus a few hundred thousand members of labor unions-who had access to government activities, belonged to political parties and professional societies, were beneficiaries of industrial development, and could look forward to greater attainment for their children. It was also the sector that participated fully in the market economy in the sense that its members purchased-rather than produced, bartered, or were given-essential goods and services. Population Problems On the basis of the population growth data available during the 1950s and early 1960s, the evident crowding of the cities, a worsening housing shortage, diet deficiency in much of the population, and a rising rate of unemployment, foreign technicians coming to the country at that time called attention to the need toslo the rate of the population growth. The first warnings were ignored, but in the early 1960s several private groups became interested. In 1959 the schools of medicine of the country's universities formed the Colombian Association of Medical Schools (Associacion Colombiana de Facultades de Medicina-ASCOFAME), and in 1964 the Division of Population Studies was added to its structure. ASCOFAME, which received assistance from foreign and international agencies, became a pioneer in modern demographic awareness and engaged in a wide range of family planning and related activities. [See Table 4.: Colombia, Population by Age-Group and Sex, 1964 and 1970 (in percent)] As a presidential candidate in 1965, Carlos Lleras Restrepo made known his concern over the country's growing demographic problem, and on election he appointed as his minister of public health a physician who was an active supporter of family planning. In addition he was the only Latin American president among the eleven chiefs of state who signed the original Declaration on Population presented to the UN on Human Rights Day of 1966. The same year was marked by formation of the Colombian Family Welfare Association (Asociacion Pro-Bienestar de la Familia Colombiana-PROFAMILIA), a private organization, which at once set about establishing family planning clinics in various urban localities. An agreement for certain family planning research was concluded between the government and ASCOFAME in 1966; in 1968 Congress enacted legislation concerning responsible parenthood and established the Institute of Family Welfare as a government agency. Official commitment to the support of family planning was specifically enunciated when its principles were written into the Plan of Economic Development (1970-73) as matters of national policy. Shortly thereafter the Colombian Social Security Institute commenced offering family planning services in its facilities, with the assurance that religious values and freedom of choice would be respected. It was estimated that less than 7 percent of the women of reproductive age were attending family planning clinics, but Colombia was the only Latin American country to attempt integrating population policy into development planning or to have a stated policy. Colombia is perhaps the most traditional and Roman Catholic of the Latin American countries, and the first proposals by physicians that family size be limited met strong opposition from the church. In 1966, when the government entered into an agreement with ASCOFAME for research and training personnel in family planning, the project was announced in a church newspaper under headlines condemning birth control. A few months later, however, the church position was modified when the Colombian episcopate acknowledged that "sometimes married couples find themselves in such circumstances that they must limit the resulting fertility." The statement continued to cite qualifying factors, but in 1969 the Plenary Assembly of the Colombian Episcopate approved a final document entitled "The Church in Presence of Change." It noted the imperatives of current socioeconomic conditions and the need for wise family planning. Late in 1970 the church joined the agencies of the public and private sector as the new president, Misael Pastrana Borrero, created the National Population Council with tripartite representation to advise the government on population matters. Perhaps because of the size of the family planning problem facing Colombia and the energy with which both the government and the private sector have faced it, Colombia has probably received technical and financial assistance from a larger number of external sources than any other Latin American country. The United States Agency for International Development has furnished financial and technical assistance. PROFAMILIA is a member of the International Planned Parenthood Foundation (IPPF) and has received supporting grants from it. The New York-based Population Council has provided assistance of various kinds to ASCOFAME since 1964, and its publications are issued in Spanish in Bogota by the affiliated Colombian Association for the Study of Population. These issuances-plus the numerous and detailed population studies sponsored by ASCOFAME and the periodic issuances of the regional office of the Population Reference Bureau, a United States organization-result in an outflow from Bogota of a volume of population studies unmatched elsewhere in Latin America. In 1969 the Pan American Health Organization signed an agreement with the government to provide family planning services through government health centers. The Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Pathfinder Fund, World Neighbors, the Church World Services, and the Swedish International Development Association are among the other public and private agencies that have furnished assistance. In addition Cornell University and the University of Chicago are among the schools that have aided ASCOFAME and individual Colombian universities in planning-related research. In 1970 the urban-based PROFAMILIA asked the assistance of the well organized and influential National Federation of Coffee Growers (Federacion Nacional de Cafeteros-FEDECAFE) to aid in the establishment of family planning clinics in the countryside (see ch. 13). Services that had been set up on an experimental basis in the department of Risaralda in the early 1970s had spread by 1974 to six departments, where 370 rural distribution posts were dispensing contraceptive devices and information. During the early 1970s both women and their spouses proved increasingly receptive to the idea of limiting their families, although the significance of the increasing number of women joining the family planning program was limited by a high dropout incidence and the fact that a large proportion of the families practicing birth limitation relied on the traditional methods of rhythm and withdrawal. In early-1976, however, family planning services were available throughout the public health system, and PROFAMILIA maintained its leadership in the program. Operating with a budget the equivalent of US $3 million obtained from foreign grants and domestic contributions, PROFAMILIA maintained a reported 1,200 urban and rural clinics and continued to receive assistance from FEDECAFE. More than 500,000 women were said to have accepted the organization's planning services since its foundation ten years earlier. The gynecologist who had founded PROFAMILIA and was in 1976 serving as president of IPPF asserted that nearly half of the Colombian women of childbearing age had access to family planning methods. These previously had been available only to the elite.