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i Patrick W. Staib Anthropology This dissertation is approved, and it ...

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confirmed for me that the dependency scenario of development programs permeates all<br />

levels of cooperative organization.<br />

Pedro Altamirano L<strong>and</strong> Claim: Campesinos’ Fight against Corruption<br />

One of the founding base-level co-ops in the UCA <strong>and</strong> a former CAS <strong>is</strong> the Gaspár<br />

Garcia cooperative in Santo Domingo, Telpaneca. They experienced serious problems<br />

w<strong>it</strong>h their collective l<strong>and</strong> around the time that I began to v<strong>is</strong><strong>it</strong> San Juan del Río Coco in<br />

2001. They had contracted a lawyer to defend them in a case against Volcafe Specialty<br />

S.A., an international exporter. Volcafe had embargoed an entire season’s harvest from<br />

the Gaspár Garcia cooperative because of past debts <strong>and</strong> poor qual<strong>it</strong>y. The leaders of<br />

Gaspár Garcia had to sue Volcafe to get payment for their coffee. In a murky turn of<br />

events, Gaspár’s leadership offered their l<strong>and</strong> t<strong>it</strong>le from the Agrarian Reform as collateral<br />

for their lawyer’s fees. They won the case, but the lawyer then maneuvered to make<br />

himself the owner of Gaspár’s l<strong>and</strong>.<br />

Gaspár’s president, Napoleon Polanco, needed the UCA’s support to recuperate<br />

<strong>it</strong>s l<strong>and</strong>. Gr<strong>is</strong>elda relied on the S<strong>and</strong>in<strong>is</strong>ta party to help Gaspár out of th<strong>is</strong> bind. The<br />

negotiations required many trips to Somoto <strong>and</strong> to Managua. In the end, the UCA<br />

received the support of Daniel Ortega, then secretary general of the S<strong>and</strong>in<strong>is</strong>ta party, to<br />

defend the l<strong>and</strong> claim case. He accompanied Gr<strong>is</strong>elda, Napoleon, <strong>and</strong> other UCA <strong>and</strong><br />

Gaspár representatives to Somoto to attend the l<strong>and</strong> claim trial. Gaspár Garcia got their<br />

l<strong>and</strong> back.<br />

A similar case took place w<strong>it</strong>h another UCA founding cooperative, Pedro<br />

Altamirano. <strong>Th<strong>is</strong></strong> case did not receive as much national or pol<strong>it</strong>ical attention as the<br />

Gaspár Garcia case. <strong>Th<strong>is</strong></strong> time, the UCA admin<strong>is</strong>tration did not offer support. I became<br />

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