LatinNews Daily - 08 June 2023

* Honduras’s President Xiomara Castro has announced the creation of a new committee on agrarian security and access to land. She said that the agricultural sector contributes 12.9% of GDP and 35% of Honduran exports while pointing out high poverty rates in the rural sector, where she said that 63% of the population are poor and 50% live in extreme poverty. Castro said that historically, most of the agrarian policies had failed to address the issue of agrarian reform which she said had yet to be resolved over 30 years since the 1992 promulgation of the law to modernise and develop the agricultural sector (legislative decree 31-92). She said that a decree (18) promulgated in 2008 had reduced the number of land-related demands but that from 2010 onwards, these have increased again. She said that to date there are approximately 129 cases and 40 resolutions pending that affect 4,000 manzanas of land (one manzana = 1.68 acres) and respective titles. She said that the new committee had been ordered to carry out five actions which include: drafting an executive decree to be discussed in the council of ministers and legislative bills to respond to land related issues; ensuring that the national agrarian institute (INA) carries out an exhaustive investigation into property subject to legal dispute; and ordering the attorney general’s office to begin the necessary judicial actions as a result of this investigation, among other things.