In Bolivia, Bolivia’s Senate has approved a landmark measure to distribute idle or illegally held land to the poor. The agrarian reform bill came under heavy opposition from senators tied to wealthy landowners. But the opposition splintered after weeks of protest from landless Indians who marched on the capitol La Paz. Bolivian President Evo Morales addressed them at a rally on Tuesday.

Bolivian President Evo Morales: “The productive farms will be respected, but there is land that is unproductive, there are people that illegally monopolize thousands of hectares of land. In the dictatorships, sometimes political powers would take advantage of disadvantaged people. These lands, with the help of the state, will be given back to the people that have no land.”

The land reform bill was already approved by Bolivia’s lower house earlier this month but needed Senate approval to come into law.