GM SOYBEANS AND CAMPESINOS EVICTION
THE RACE FOR THE SOYBEAN EXPELS
PARAGUAYAN CAMPESINOS FROM THEIR LAND. (Bioagricultura
Notizie [newsletter@aiab.it]; Sep. 6, 2013)
The
land is red and fertile in Curuguaty, 250 km East of Asunción, close to the Brazilian
boundary. It is one of the main regions for intensive cultivation of transgenic
soybean, of which Paraguay is the fourth World exporter. And it is one of the
hot beds for the landless campesinos revolt. Just here in the boundaries of the
Morombi plantation it was that where 14 campesinos and 7 policemen died on June
15 in a face to face confrontation under circumstances not yet clarified. The so called “Curuguaty massacre” led the
following week to the destitution, after a quick Parliamentary process of
Fernando Lugo, the country’s center-left president.
Since
then, tensions continuwed to grow. On Monday Aug.5, some 60 km from Curuguaty,
the pólice expelled some 300 campesinos from the lands that they claimed although
they were reinstated the following Friday.
In
Paraguay the race for the soybean whose price in the international market skyrocketed,
accelerated in these last years the expulsion, frequently violent, of the small
campesinos that lived according their traditions cultivating manioca and corn,
rasing some cattle, pushing up food prices.
The
roots of the problem are ancient. Clyde Soto, member of the Coordination for Human Rights in Paraguay,
that estimates in 300,000 the landless campesino families, points out that
between 1989, the year of the return of democracy, and 2005, 120 campesinos
were assasinated. During the last 20 years other 100,000 were forced to
emígrate to the cities where they live in a situation of extreme poverty.
“In Curuguaty 700,000 hectares are in the hands of just one family, the Riquelmes”, says Perla Álvarez, representative of Paraguay’s National Coordination of Campesino and Indigenous Organizations, Blas Riquelme, the recently deceased patriarch, whas known as the “Paraguayan Carlos Sim”, due to his immense fortune accumulated during the General Stroessner dictatorship (presidednt between 1954 and 1989). During that time characters close to the government were irregularly granted 8 million hectares of land. Today campesinos uselessly lay claim of those lands.
“”The main problem is derived
from the fact that 80% of ther land is in the hands of 2% of the population”,
underscores Domingo Laino, president of the Campesino Conflicts Study Platform.
“ The soybean country is a fiscal paradise. And the sector that enjoys it the
most are also those that less taxes pay.
Laino denounces the “invation” since the 70’s of between 300,000 and 500,000 Brazilians – “brasiguayos” – that reign as feudal landlords on the lands close to the Brazilian borders, and became rich thanks to soybeans”. Besides, today soybeans that are cultivated are the toxic herbicide Glyphosate resistant OGM soybean. “The transgenic crop is cultivated using mortal pesticides without any type of control, endangering health of the population”, denounces Laino.
Domingo Laino mentions the department of Alto Paraná as an example, where Tranquilo Favero, a Brazilian naturalized Paraguayan, has been baptized “soybean King”. He is the country’s largest soybean producer and one of South America’s largest landlords with a kingdom that extends itself up to Uruguay and Bolivia..
The surface area concentration of cultivated land and the increase in number of landless campesinos turn more and more complex the access to foods in a country in which agriculture still represents 22% of its product, Latin America’s highest percentage. Soybean cultivation surface areas almost duplicated in ten years, reaching over 3 million hectares. And the “green gold” represents 80% of the country’s harvest.
The new president, Horacio Cartes (of the Colorado Party) elected August 15 did not show intentions of modifying the present agricultural model, or to promote an agricultural reform that may favor a fairer distribution of land. One of the richest men in Paraguay, M.Cartes built his fortune upon tabacco, beer, aeronautics and, today, upon vast soybean plantations.
According to Oxfam, almost 60% of Paraguayan soybean is exported to Europe for livestock feeding and for a growing production of biodiesel. “The European thirst for agrifuels condemn millions of people to starve” denounces the international OGN. An alarming shout expected to be heard by the European Parliament that on September 10, will be called to vote a communitary policy reform on agrifuels.
Source: Le Monde, Christine Legran, Agra press
Note of the Editor: several news about the campesino
expulsion problem by industrial agriculture were published in this blog. In
South America, including Argentina, cultivation of transgenic soybean is one of
the main reasons for expeling campesinos:
July 2013:
-
FOREST PEOPLES. http://bit.ly/15Rp4zv
June 2013:
April 2013:
July 2012:
July 2012:
December 2011:
November 2011:
-
PARAGUAY
REQUESTED TO DEFEND NON CONTACTED INDIGENOUS PEOPLES. http://bit.ly/180fuV1
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