Paraguan resistance to GM soya plantings — evictions & violence

28 Octo­ber 2008
Peas­ant organ­i­sa­tions are resist­ing against the begin­ning of the GM soya sea­son all over the coun­try of Paraguay. They demand access to land, land reform and the stop of the pes­ti­cide spray­ing which impacts on their com­mu­ni­ties. Despite the new gov­ern­ment, many camps have been evict­ed and vio­lence has tak­en place: 2 lead­ers have been mur­dered and hun­dreds of peas­ants have been arrest­ed. Please sign the let­ter below to put pres­sure on the gov­ern­ment and put a stop to vio­lence!

San Mar­co evic­tion & video­clip show­ing what hap­pened when a large group of campesinos halt­ed fumi­ga­tion trac­tors of Brazil­ian soy pro­duc­ers. Paraguay, com­mu­ni­ty of Yvypé all at http://www.lasojamata.org/en/node/230

In Paraguay, GM soya mono­cul­tures are today the main cause of defor­esta­tion, the destruc­tion and pol­lu­tion of oth­er ecosys­tems, of vio­lence and the evic­tion of small farm­ers and indige­nous peo­ples. Paraguay has near­ly 2,6 mil­lion hectares of soy plan­ta­tions for ani­mal feed exports and, more recent­ly, for agro­fu­el. A jour­nal­ist who vis­it­ed the coun­try in 2007 described the impact of soya mono­cul­tures as fol­lows:
“Rur­al east­ern Paraguay used to be full of jun­gle, small farms, schools and wildlife. Now it is a green sea of soy­beans. The fam­i­lies, trees and birds are gone. The schools are emp­ty. The air is filled with the tox­ic stench of the pes­ti­cides like paraquat and 2,4‑D used to pro­tect the soy crops” [http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3093].

The rem­nants of Paraguay’s Atlantic For­est and of the Alto Parana for­est, as well as wet­lands, grass­lands and rivers are being destroyed and pol­lut­ed by the expan­sion of immense RR soya fields. Defor­esta­tion is wors­en­ing glob­al warm­ing and also caus­ing severe region­al warm­ing and droughts. It has con­tributed to the worst fire sea­son ever record­ed in Paraguay last year, and prob­a­bly to the severe drought which is cur­rent­ly affect­ing the south of the coun­try. More than 100,000 small peas­ant fam­i­lies have been evict­ed for soya plan­ta­tions and over 100 peas­ant lead­ers have been mur­dered since the late 1990s in con­flicts over access to land. Agro-chem­i­cal (glyphosate, 2,4D, and oth­ers) spray­ing of soya plan­ta­tions severe­ly affects the health of peo­ple liv­ing in soy region, in some cas­es lead­ing even to deaths, and also destroys people´s food crops. Hunger and mal­nu­tri­tion are increas­ing as less and less land is avail­able to farm­ers for grow­ing food.

In August this year, a new gov­ern­ment took office and the new pres­i­dent, Fer­nan­do Lugo, promised to sup­port small farm­ers against pes­ti­cide poi­son­ing and soya expan­sion. How­ev­er, the gov­ern­ment has giv­en con­flict­ing sig­nals by also sup­port­ing increased soya exports at the same time. Also, the police and juridi­cal forces have been sup­port­ing soya busi­ness­es in sup­press­ing the peas­ant move­ment in their fight against pes­ti­cide spray­ing and the expan­sion of soy mono­cul­tures.

This month, at the start of the new soya plant­i­ng sea­son, small farm­ers’ organ­i­sa­tions have mobilised to stop pes­ti­cide spray­ing and to pro­tect peas­ant agri­cul­ture and the envi­ron­ment against fur­ther destruc­tion. They have set up around 130 law­ful camps at the mar­gins of soya ‘lat­i­fun­dios’ (large estates). In recent weeks, they have been increas­ing­ly sub­ject­ed to vio­lence, with two mur­ders of peas­ant lead­ers, unlaw­ful arrests and deten­tions. Also, var­i­ous camps have been vio­lent­ly evict­ed, with use of increas­ing num­bers of para­mil­i­taries. Many peas­ant lead­ers are receiv­ing death threats. The civ­il secu­ri­ty guards that for­mer gov­ern­ment organ­ised ‘Comi­sion Gar­rote’ are the main actors behind this threats.

The ten­den­cy seems to be that the vio­lence and repres­sion against the peas­ant move­ment will inten­si­fy. For many in the move­ment, this year is their last chance to stop soya expan­sion and to pro­tect what remains of Paraguays’ forests and wet­lands, sus­tain­able peas­ant agri­cul­ture, and small farm­ers and indige­nous people?s future.

Please write to the author­i­ties in Paraguay and urge them to ful­ly sup­port small farm­ers and their demands for pro­tec­tion from pes­ti­cide spray­ing, from evic­tions, envi­ron­men­tal destruc­tion and pol­lu­tion, for food sov­er­eign­ty and land reform.

See last action report — farms occu­pied — at http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/21753/

See also:
Video about the 2 evic­tions in Alto Parana:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYEBsk0jtG4
Video about the camp against the pes­ti­cide spray­ing in Caaguazú
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4xnXaZGjS8
Peas­ant com­mu­ni­ty in San Pedro against the pes­ti­cide spray­ing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfLEXvipkJw

Arti­cles about the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion in Paraguay:
http://www.lasojamata.org/

LETTER (send the Span­ish ver­sion that is below)

Dear Sir/Madam,

Re: Please pro­tect Paraguay’s com­mu­ni­ties and envi­ron­ment against soya
mono­cul­tures

I was very pleased to hear about Pres­i­den­t’s Lugo’s stat­ed com­mit­ment to
pro­tect small farm­ers against soya plan­ta­tions, includ­ing against
pes­ti­cide spray­ing and to stop defor­esta­tion. How­ev­er, I am deeply
con­cerned to hear about the increas­ing vio­lence against peas­ant
organ­i­sa­tions that are mobil­is­ing against pes­ti­cide spray­ing in the soya
mono­cul­tures, while argu­ing for a new agri­cul­tur­al pol­i­cy that pro­tects
small farm­ers and food sov­er­eign­ty as well as the envi­ron­ment.

Two peas­ant lead­ers ? Sin­dul­fo­Martínez mem­ber of the organ­i­sa­tion MCP and
Bien­venido Mel­gar­e­jo of the organ­i­sa­tion ASAGRAPA have recent­ly been
mur­dered. There are reports of a ‘hit list’ with the names of fifty
peas­ant lead­ers who fear that they could be mur­dered next. In the past
weeks, the courts and the police have been involved in the evic­tion of
peas­ant camps which have been law­ful­ly set up on the mar­gins of, not on,
soya plan­ta­tions, resort­ing to laws which exist to pre­vent crim­i­nal
offences. Peo­ple have been unlaw­ful­ly evict­ed, detained, crim­i­nalised and
tor­tured.

With this let­ter, I want to show my strong sup­port to the main demands of
peas­ant move­ments and civ­il soci­ety organ­i­sa­tions in Paraguay: that
pes­ti­cide spray­ing of soy mono­cul­tures must be banned and effec­tive­ly
stopped. The lands ille­gal­ly sold to agribusi­ness com­pa­nies must be
returned to the land­less Paraguayan peas­ants.

I urge you to stop the evic­tion orders and repres­sion against peas­ant
mobil­i­sa­tion. The two recent mur­ders and all reports of police vio­lence
and tor­ture must be ful­ly inves­ti­gat­ed and those respon­si­ble must be held
to account. The fam­i­lies of those who have been mur­dered must receive
finan­cial com­pen­sa­tion.

The gov­ern­ment must take imme­di­ate action and inves­ti­gate the death
threats against peas­ant lead­ers. The first step for this is to dis­solve
the so called ?Cit­i­zen Secu­ri­ty Com­mis­sions?, com­mon­ly called ?Gar­rote
Com­mis­sions?. These groups are the main actors of the para-police vio­lence
against social organ­i­sa­tions in the rur­al areas.

In front of the urgent sit­u­a­tion of pover­ty and envi­ron­men­tal dev­as­ta­tion
in Paraguay, the gov­ern­ment must ini­ti­ate a pro­gramme to sup­port peas­ant
farm­ing and food sov­er­eign­ty, rather than fur­ther sac­ri­fic­ing Paraguay’s
com­mu­ni­ties and envi­ron­ment to pro­duce ani­mal feed and agro­fu­els for
export.

Please let me know what your plans are for address­ing this urgent
sit­u­a­tion, in order to avoid more vio­lence and human rights vio­la­tions,
includ­ing more killings of peas­ants, and to pro­tect com­mu­ni­ties and the
envi­ron­ment from soya mono­cul­tures.

Thank you,

Yours faith­ful­ly,
Asun­to: Por favor, pro­te­ja a las comu­nidades paraguayas y al medio
ambi­ente de los monocul­tivos de soja

Esti­ma­da Sra., Esti­ma­do Sr.,

Ha sido muy sat­is­fac­to­rio para mí, saber acer­ca del com­pro­miso del
Pres­i­dente Lugo para pro­te­ger a los pequeños campesinos en con­tra de las
planta­ciones de soja, así como de las fumi­ga­ciones con pes­ti­ci­das y la
defor­estación. Sin embar­go, me pre­ocu­pa seri­amente cuan­do escu­cho acer­ca
de la escal­a­da de vio­len­cia dirigi­da hacia las orga­ni­za­ciones campesinas
que se mov­i­lizan en con­tra de las fumi­ga­ciones de pes­ti­ci­das sobre las
pobla­ciones y a favor de una nue­va políti­ca agraria que pro­te­ja a los
pequeños campesinos, la sober­anía ali­men­ta­ria y el medio ambi­ente.

Dos líderes campesinos ‑Sin­dul­fo­Martínez de la orga­ni­zación, Movimien­to
Campesino Paraguayo- MCP (Vía Campesina-PY) y Bien­venido Mel­gar­e­jo de la
orga­ni­zación Aso­ciación de Agricul­tores de Alto Paraná- ASAGRAPA han
sido recien­te­mente asesina­dos. Hemos tenido noti­cias acer­ca de una ?lista
negra? con nom­bres de unos cin­cuen­ta líderes campesinos que temen ser los
próx­i­mos asesina­dos. Jue­ces y la policía han esta­do en estas últi­mas
sem­anas impli­ca­dos en el des­man­te­lamien­to de cam­pa­men­tos campesinos
estable­ci­dos legal­mente en las már­genes, y no den­tro, de las planta­ciones
de soja, amparán­dose en leyes de pre­ven­ción del crimen. Los campesinos han
sido ile­gal­mente expul­sa­dos, detenidos, crim­i­nal­iza­dos y tor­tu­ra­dos.

Con esta car­ta quiero demostrar mi enér­gi­co apoyo a las dos prin­ci­pales
deman­das de los campesinos y las orga­ni­za­ciones de la sociedad civ­il de
Paraguay: Las fumi­ga­ciones con agrotóx­i­cos de los monocul­tivos de soja
deben ser pro­hibidas y detenidas de man­era efec­ti­va. Las tier­ras ven­di­das
irreg­u­lar­mente a los agroem­pre­sar­ios deben ser devueltas a los campesinos
sin­tier­ras paraguayos.

Exi­jo fre­nar la actu­al ola de desa­lo­jos y repre­sión a las mov­i­liza­ciones
campesinas. El desa­lo­jo por recur­sos de amparo pre­ven­ti­vo es una medi­da
jurídi­ca irreg­u­lar. Los dos recientes asesinatos y todos los reportes de
vio­len­cia poli­cial y tor­tu­ra deben ser inves­ti­ga­dos a fon­do, y sus
respon­s­ables deben ser penal­iza­dos. Las famil­ias de los asesina­dos deben
ser com­pen­sadas económi­ca­mente.

Así tam­bién el gob­ier­no debe actu­ar de for­ma inmedi­a­ta y fre­nar las
ame­nazas de muerte que pen­den sobre los diri­gentes campesinos. El primer
paso para ello es aten­der a las deman­das de las orga­ni­za­ciones de
desar­tic­u­lación de las ?Comi­siones de Seguri­dad Ciu­dadana?, común­mente
denom­i­nadas ?Comisión gar­rote?. Estos gru­pos son los prin­ci­pales
pro­tag­o­nistas de vio­len­cia para­poli­cial con­tra las orga­ni­za­ciones sociales
en el cam­po.

Frente la urgente situación de pobreza y dev­astación ambi­en­tal del cam­po
paraguayo, el gob­ier­no debe ini­ciar inmedi­ata­mente un pro­gra­ma de apoyo a
la agri­cul­tura campesina y la sober­anía ali­men­ta­ria. Bas­ta ya del
sac­ri­fi­cio de las comu­nidades campesinas e indí­ge­nas del Paraguay y del
medio ambi­ente para man­ten­er un mod­e­lo agroex­por­ta­dor sojero que sólo
pro­duce ali­men­to para ani­males y agro­com­bustibles.

Por favor, deme a cono­cer sus planes para con­tener esta urgente situación
y para evi­tar más vio­len­cia y vio­la­ciones de dere­chos humanos, incluyen­do
más asesinatos de campesinos en su país, y para pro­te­ger a las comu­nidades
y al medio ambi­ente de los monocul­tivos de la soja.

Muchas gra­cias por ade­lan­ta­do y un aten­to salu­do.

ADDRESSES / DIRECCIONES

1. Pres­i­den­cia de la Repúbli­ca del Paraguay
Exce­len­tísi­mo Don Fer­nan­do Lugo Mén­dez, Pres­i­dente de la Repúbli­ca del
Paraguay
Pala­cio de Gob­ier­no
El Paraguayo Inde­pen­di­ente e/Ayolas y O´leary
Cen­tral tele­fóni­ca 4140000 (RA)
web­site: www.presidencia.gov.py
e‑mail: presidente@presidencia.gov.py
webmaster@presidencia.gov.py

Sec­re­taria Gen­er­al
S. E. Miguel Angel López Per­i­to
Min­istro, Sec­re­tario Gen­er­al y Jefe del Gabi­nete Civ­il de la Pres­i­den­cia
de la Repúbli­ca
Tel 4140288, fax 4140310

2. Sec­re­taria del Ambi­ente (SEAM)
S. E. José Luís Casac­cia , Min­istro, Sec­re­tario Ejec­u­ti­vo
Avda. Madan Lynch 3500 y Reservista de la Guer­ra del Cha­co.
Tel + 595 21 615803/4, fax + 595 21 615807
casac­cia jcasaccia@hotmail.com

3. SENAVE, Ser­vi­cio Nacional de Cal­i­dad y Sanidad Veg­e­tal y de Semi­l­las
Ing. Agr. Luis Llano Imas , pres­i­dente
Ofic­i­na cen­tral del SENAVE: Edif. PLANETA I. Humaitá Nº 145 c/ Ntra. Sra.
de la Asun­ción. Tele­fax: + 595 21 445 769 /+ 595 21 441 549, Asun­ción -
Paraguay
presidencia@senave.gov.py
secretaria_general@senave.gov.py

S. E. Rafael Fil­iz­zo­la, Min­istro
Chile y Man­du­virá
Tel + 595 21 493 661, fax: + 595 21 450.027
ministro@mdi.gov.py
vmseguridad@mdi.gov.py
sgeneral@mdi.gov.py
5. Min­is­te­rio de Jus­ti­cia y Tra­ba­jo
S. E. Blas Llano, Min­istro
Gas­par Rodríguez de Fran­cia y Esta­dos Unidos
Tel + 595 21 447010, + 595 21 493209, fax + 595 21 208469
mjt@mjt.gov.py

6. Min­is­te­rio de Agri­cul­tura y Ganade­ria
S. E. Can­di­do Vera Bejara­no, Min­istro
Pres­i­dente Fran­co 479
Tel + 595 21 441036, cen­tral + 595 21 451316/ 447304
Vicem­i­nis­te­rio de Agri­cul­tura: vagricultura@mag.gov.py
Sec­re­taría Gen­er­al: secretariagral@mag.gov.py

7. Fis­calía Gral. del Esta­do
Dr. Rubén Can­dia Amar­il­la
fiscaliageneral@ministeriopublico.gov.py