Overview
- The Conferencia Episcopal and allied church bodies published a public letter on June 16–17 asking deputies and senators to vote down the proposed Law of Inviolability of Private Property.
- The letter names specific worries in the bill, including the removal of limits on land purchases by foreigners, clauses allowing immediate use of fire‑damaged land, and measures that could expose water reserves and other natural resources to outside control.
- The government, led by Minister Federico Sturzenegger, says the proposal restores the core right to property by speeding eviction processes, tightening expropriation rules and changing rural‑land and fire‑management laws to increase legal certainty.
- Church leaders say the changes would reduce the State’s ability to plan territory, carry out public works and regularize informal settlements, which could worsen housing problems for low‑income families who already lack secure tenure.
- The bill remains under parliamentary debate and the dispute sets up a political and moral test in Congress that could reshape land policy in a country with long‑standing issues of land concentration and vulnerable urban and rural communities.