Bolivia's largest agribusiness group said Wednesday it would form "self-defense" groups to defend land its fears the government will confiscate in a proposed reform. The government plans to redistribute land roughly twice the size of Portugal.The National Farming Confederation said in a published statement that it rejected the President Evo Morales' agrarian policy and said he "was trying to destroy the country's productive apparatus." The group did not detail what they meant by "self-defense" groups. In other parts of Latin America the term has been used to describe groups of armed citizens.
The Morales administration rejected the idea. "The government cannot accept their announcement because these groups are illegal and border on being criminal," said Alfredo Rada, a deputy minister in charge of coordinating among the government and the country's civil organizations.