State land policy under the Uruguayan dictatorship (1973-1984): technicians, civilians and the military

Abstract

The Southern Cone dictatorships of the 1970s definitively closed the debate on land reform. This article analyses public land policy during the Uruguayan civil-military dictatorship (1973-1985). Although this is a preliminary analysis, it does allow us to draw some conclusions. The first is that public land policies were conducted by technicians, both civilian and military. The second is the evidence of a retraction in land purchases, especially when compared to the periods 1948-1958 and 1967-1972. The third is that the Uruguayan case shows the survival of public land policies during the dictatorship, something different from what happened during the same period in Argentina or Chile.