Sammendrag
The connections between land reform, poverty and empowerment of women are many and well documented. In the case of Guatemala, land IS power, and therefore redistribution of land can be expected not only to have poverty reducing and empowering effects, but also to meet strong resistance among the country’s elites. The main findings concerning the land reform implemented after the 1996 Peace Agreements conclude that although access to land is an important variable explaining both poverty and the degree of female empowerment, land alone will not suffice. If the redistributed land is not followed by technical assistance to develop commercial agriculture, to choose marketable products and, in the case of large scale farming, to administer large quantities of land, redistributing land may increase, not decrease levels of poverty and disempowerment. Additionally, the rural infrastructure is essential, because the new landowners cannot begin to make a profit if physical market access proves difficult and costly. In short, what is needed at the base of land reform is political will to see it through, and to really change the structural conditions that maintain people in poverty.