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Transnational Thursdays 22

This is a weekly thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or IR history. I usually start off with coverage of some current events from a mix of countries I follow personally and countries I think the forum might be interested in. Feel free to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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Colombia

Gustavo Petro is now embarking on how most ambitiously left wing project thus far, Colombia’s first-ever large scale land redistribution.

Colombia's leftist government will spend $4.25 billion to buy some 1.5 million hectares (3.7 million acres) of land for poor farmers or displaced people, as part of a bid to increase agricultural output and boost peace efforts, an official said.

This is half the original amount but the left is in the minority so it’s still pretty impressive. The project will take up the remainder of his term basically and may come to define it. Colombia is unique in Latin America for never really having a populist period so it’ll be interesting to see how it goes.

Petro has also agreed to attend AMLO’s summit in Mexico about reducing migration to the US, another sign in America’s shifting position towards tightening up immigration.