Gaceta Oficial de la Republica de Cuba. Edicion Extraordinaria Especial

Habana: June 3, 1959. Good plus.. 11pp. Small folio. Previously folded; stapled along gutter margin. Some edge and corner wear; closed tear to initial leaf from fore-edge along old fold. Toned, cheap newsprint. A special edition of the Gaceta Oficial of Communist Cuba, devoted to the printing of the First Agrarian Reform Law, passed and signed on May 17, 1959. The law effected the first major land redistribution under Fidel Castro and the Communist Party. Under its authority, all properties were over 420 hectares were confiscated and redistributed to the people and native businesses. Prior to the law, over 80% of Cuban land was owned by foreign, mostly American, companies. The preamble and sixty-seven articles lay out the motivations for the law, the parameters for confiscation by the Department of Agriculture, the mechanisms for seizure and redistribution, and the creation of a new government organization to facilitate the land transfers, the Instituto Nacional de Reforma Agraria. Signed in print by Fidel as Prime Minister, Manuel Urrutia Lleo as President, and a slew of other officials.