TUGINAH had not been awake for long one early morning in 2017. Intending to harvest some chilies from her front yard, she saw scores of heavy equipment lined up on the road of Glagah village in Temon subdistrict, Kulon Progo Regency, Yogyakarta. She then watched as an excavator flattened out her little chili nursery. “My neighbors and I could do nothing,” said Tuginah, sobbing, on Wednesday, December 16.

This mother of four had refus