Chile-Small farmers protest.

CHILE.

SMALL FARMERS.

Small farmers in the northern province of Santiago del Estreo, Chile, are publishing their own newspaper, in an attempt to raise awareness of constant abuses they are suffering, at the hands of wealthy landowners, who are encroaching their small plots of land.

The 4,000 copies of the first edition of El Ashpulita, which means "Full of Earth", in their indigenous language, were distributed to local communities last week.

The paper chronicles local news, water shortages and abuses such as violent evictions and arrests, by local police and private security guards, who are in the pay of local large landowners.

The main focus of the newspaper, is to highlight the plight of the small peasant farmers who live under the threat of large soybean planters.

Between 2002 and 2007 over 500,000 hectares of forest, were deforested to make way for the planting of soy.

Over 50 peasant farmers were beaten and sent to prison in September, there are arrest warrants out for another 150, who have fled to Argentina.

In Argentina, peasant farmers can claim ownership of land, if they can prove that they have lived at the farm and farmed it for over 20 years.

Adolfo Fatias, an activist for the peasant farmers, said "anything that helps to reveal what is going on is good news. For years there has been censorship in the media, more so in recent months, with off duty police officers who burst into the humble dwellings, taking people off in the middle of the night, who then spend months in prison".

According to Fatias, the armed police are in the pay of landowners, who take the land for their soy production.