Paraguay

Fernando Lugo, a bearded, left-leaning bishop is expected to win Paraguay‘s historic presidential election on April 20th, upsetting a 60-year rule by the right wing Colorado Party. While escaping the heat of the Paraguayan sun by sitting in the shade of an orange tree, farmer union leader Tomas Zayas explains, “If Lugo is elected, it will open a door for more changes in the future, but that’s all. We’ll take what we can get.” 

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The criminalization of social movements in Paraguay has worsened with the recent order to detain political and social leader Tomás Zayas, a municipal councilor and three campesinos, charged for “Homicidal intent and criminal association.” These accusations are due to the conflict that has developed over the last three years over intense crop spraying with pesticides. […]

The election climate in Paraguay grows tense with the possible defeat of the Red Party that has been in power for more than half a century. The U.S. ambassador’s interference in the electoral campaign and a yellow fever epidemic are keeping tensions high. […]

(IPS) "The first red stains on Nicanor’s white shirt" reads the inscription on a memorial niche at the side of the road to Ypecuá, 230 kilometres from Asunción, where peasant farmers are fighting for their land and against the diseases caused by agrochemicals used on nearby soybean plantations.

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Now that much of Latin America has shifted to the left, Paraguay remains a key Washington ally. The country’s political landscape continues to be dominated by the Colorado Party, which has been in power for 61 years. Yet as the panorama of candidates for the April presidential election makes clear, a new right-wing faction is emerging within the party, pledging to cut the umbilical cord with the past. […]

On December 3rd, various Paraguayan civil society organizations commemorated the international day against agrochemicals. They paraded through the capital city of Asunción and its suburbs to demand that various authorities fulfill their duties of controlling and regulating agrochemicals.

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The community of Tekojoja in Eastern Paraguay has once again found itself under attack, and the Popular Agrarian Movement (Movimiento Agrario y Popular, MAP), the peasant organization involved in the community, is publicly denouncing those responsible.  […]

When we arrived in Ciudad del Este, we were petrified. After all, we were in the Paraguayan city known in the American press as a “Jungle Hub for World’s Outlaws.”

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