The Paraguayan Army and police are not the only agents of repression that rural workers must confront. In 2004, the Ministry of the Interior of Paraguay created Citizen Security Councils, security forces composed of civilians financed and armed officially by the government with the justification of aiding in the fight against criminality. However, extra-officially, they are supplied by large ranching interests. In practice, these councils function as paramilitary groups acting in defense of cattle-ranching and soy-producing interests. These new security forces are the chief authors of evictions, the burning of homes, and even incidents of rape and assassination of members of peasant organizations. It is estimated that in the entire country there are approximately 22 thousand men in the Citizen Security Councils. The Paraguayan Army, for example, has about 12 thousand members.

With the help of the United States, the Paraguayan government represses social movements

Igor Ojeda¹

In recent years Paraguayan society has been suffering from a process of growing militarization. And those that suffer the most are organized social movements and their leaders, principally those acting in the countryside. Between July 16^th and 20^th, 2006, representatives of various human rights organizations from Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Mexico, and Uruguay were in Paraguay as members of an International Observation Visit, convened by the Campaign for Demilitarization of the Americas (CADA), a hemisphere-wide network of organizations against militarization of the continent. The mission, organized by the Paraguayan Peace and Justice Service (SERPAJ-PY), whose purpose was to verify accusations of human rights violations, the stepping-up of militarization in the country, and investigating the possible relationship between these actions and the signature of a military agreement between Paraguay and the United States, enacted into Law 2,594 in May of 2005. In a preliminary report composed by the mission (the definitive report is still to be published), its members presented their conclusions: “in interviews, the various social organizations repeatedly expressed themselves as alarmed by the increase in military, police, and paramilitary activities of various types in the rural zones, with the result of a cumulative total of two thousand peasants prosecuted to date, according to the words of Congressional President Enrique Gonzalez Quintana, in addition to evictions, house burnings, rape, torture, and assassinations.”

Strong repression in the countryside

The repression against social movements, combined with social inequality and poverty, began to get even tighter after the election of president Nicanor Duarte Frutos, of the Colorado Party, which has been in control of the country for six decades. Barely 12 days after taking office, in August 2003, Frutos issued Decree 167, which authorized the Paraguayan Armed Forces to act jointly with the National Police in internal security actions. In some parts of the capital, principally in poor neighborhoods, a large military and police presence is seen, with the military being heavily armed.

However, it is in the countryside that militarization and repression of social organizations are most noticeable, especially in areas where there are conflicts over land between small farmers and large landowners. The various peasant leaders interviewed by the international delegation that visited Paraguay were unanimous in denouncing the cruelty exhibited by these joint forces against rural communities. There are reports of 49 assassinations in the countryside in the last two years, as well as the disappearance of several individuals.

But the Paraguayan Army and police are not the only agents of repression that rural workers must confront. In 2004, the Ministry of the Interior of Paraguay created Citizen Security Councils, security forces composed of civilians financed and armed officially by the government with the justification of aiding in the fight against criminality. However, extra-officially, they are supplied by large ranching interests. In practice, these councils function as paramilitary groups acting in defense of cattle-ranching and soy producing interests. These new security forces are the chief authors of evictions, the burning of homes, and even incidents of rape and assassination of members of peasant organizations. It is estimated that in the entire country there are approximately 22 thousand men in the Citizen Security Councils. The Paraguayan Army, for example, has about 12 thousand members.

Although lesser in intensity, repression of urban communities is also serious. Both the joint (military and police) forces and the civil security corps, called Citizen Security Commissions in the city, carried out actions especially against organized movements of bañados, areas of the Paraguayan capital where shanties are built on the banks of the Paraguay River.

Paraguay-Unites States Military Agreement

Peasant leaders interviewed by the international mission associated the increase in repression practiced by the Paraguayan Army (qualified as “State terrorism”) with the military agreement signed between the Unites States and Paraguay, enacted by Law 2594 in May of 2005.

The agreement, which will be in force between July 2005 and December 2006, is extremely generous to US interests. It provides, among other things, for the carrying out of military exercises in any part of Paraguayan territory, with no obligation to inform Paraguayan authorities of the locale; customs exemptions for equipment or material brought by US troops; qualification and training of Paraguayan Armed Forces conducted by the US Army; and, the most serious point of all, judicial immunity for US soldiers. In other words, even if they commit crimes on Paraguayan soil, they cannot be tried in the country or charged in international courts.

The justification for the agreement is training in combating terrorism and guerrilla warfare that would be present in Paraguay. But, in the opinion of those interviewed by the mission, the real objective is the breakdown and annihilation of social movements, principally those in the countryside (the most active), making space for soy monoculture. It is most likely that, in December, the agreement will be renewed. The nation’s Vice President, Luis Alberto Castiglioni, has not only openly defended its renewal, but also proposed its broadening.

“Humanitarian aid” furnished by US troops

One of the exercises provided for in the agreement is that called MEDRETE (acronym for Medical Readiness Training Exercise, as freely translated from the English[sic]), that is, “humanitarian aid” in the area of health promoted by the US army in rural communities.

Groups of military personnel call together local residents for medical attention, including in the areas of ophthalmology and dentistry. However, medical exams are not performed, and there is some suspicion that the same medicine is distributed for various types of disease. There are even reports of miscarriages and deaths suffered by women after ingesting these pills.

However, US soldiers are not limited only to performing medical assistance. They also fill out questionnaires with the “benefited” population, which ask, among other things, if the person belongs to any peasant movement. Aside from this, other soldiers photograph and film the environment surrounding the community: truly a reconnaissance of the territory.

It all fits together

On making an analysis based on the statements of Paraguayan social movements, the obvious conclusion in that the Nicanor Duarte Frutos government’s objective is repression and expulsion of the peasants from their lands, in order to make way for large corporations, principally soy producers. Today, 77% of Paraguayan lands are in the hands of 1% of the population. It is estimated that there are 200 thousand to 300 thousand landless families in the country. The migratory flux generated by the crisis in the countryside contributed decisively to the formation of poverty belts around the cities.

Certainly not by chance, military and paramilitary actions, as well as US troop exercises, are concentrated in the areas of Paraguayan territory where the peasants are more organized and where there are a greater number of agrarian conflicts, such as in the Department of Concepción, in the north of the country. It should likewise be remembered that Colorado Party politicians, in power now for decades, are either tied to the area’s large agricultural companies, or are themselves such landholders.

¹ Igor Ojeda, PUC-SP journalism graduate, is a Brasil de Fato reporter and accompanied the International Observation Visit to Paraguay between July 16^th and 20^th.