Morales' land reform targets vast holdings of Bolivian opposition leader

The Bolivian government on Thursday began legal proceedings to seize the vast landholdings of a prominent opposition leader, saying the property was fraudulently obtained and should be given to a local Indian tribe.

Soybean oil magnate Branko Marinkovic, an outspoken critic of President Evo Morales, says the 64,250 acres (26,000 hectares) targeted by the government were obtained legally and are being used productively for ranching and agriculture — and that the fraud allegations are merely a political attack.

Morales pushed through a sweeping land reform bill last November granting his government power to seize idle or ill-gotten land. He has pledged to redistribute a staggering 77,000 square miles (200,000 square kilometers) among the country's long-oppressed Indian majority over the next five years.

The bill updated a 1996 initiative that had largely failed to sort out a centuries-old tangle of land titles in Bolivia's eastern lowlands, particularly in Santa Cruz state, where the Marinkovic family is among the largest land owners.

Vice Minister of Land Alejandro Almaraz on Thursday cited "abundant evidence" that Marinkovic amassed his family's empire at the expense of Santa Cruz's Guarayo Indians.

"It would be unacceptable for the authorities to persecute certain people for their political position," Almaraz said. "But it would be equally condemnable for a political role to allow certain people to act with impunity."

Almaraz said both local officials and Guarayo leaders were complicit in illegally selling their land to the Marinkovic family over the years.

Marinkovic, the son of Yugoslav immigrants, was elected this year as president of the Santa Cruz Civic Committee, an influential opposition-aligned group that opposes Morales' land reform and backs greater autonomy for Bolivia's eastern states.

On Thursday, Marinkovic dismissed the government accusations as a political vendetta, saying he only owns "16 or 17" hectares (about 40 acres) in his own name. Most of the rest of the family land belongs to his sisters, he said.

"I consider it a totally political attack, because I am in no way the owner of these lands. They can't accuse me personally" of land fraud, Marinkovic told reporters.