The School of the
Americas Watch has already documented how enormous
tracts of land in Paraguay were actually stolen
from farmers and "donated" to military and
upper-class cronies during those decades under the
Stroessner dictatorship.
The result in Curuguaty was 17 dead -- six policemen and 11 farmers -- and at least 50 wounded. It simply doesn't make sense; the elite members of the eviction force, a hardcore unit named Special Operations Group, were trained in counterinsurgency tactics in Colombia -- under the right-wing Uribe government -- as part of the US-concocted Plan Colombia.
Plan Paraguay, for its part, was very simple; absolute criminalization of every peasant organization, forcing them to leave the countryside for transnational agribusiness.
So this was, essentially, a trap. Paraguay's rabid right-wingers -- joined to the hip with Washington, for example trying to prevent, by all means, Venezuela's entrance into the Mercosur common market -- were just waiting to pounce on a regime that had not, yet, affected its interests, but had opened up plenty of spaces for social protest and popular organization.
Lugo, a former
bishop elected in 2008 with large rural support,
might have seen it coming, but he did nothing to
stop it. Compared with his power to mobilize
people in the streets, he had minimum support in
Congress: only two senators. Over 40% of
Paraguayans live in the countryside, but they are
hardly mobilized. And 30% live under the poverty
line.
The "winners" in Paraguay had to be the usual suspects: the landowning oligarchy -- and its concerted campaign to demonize farmers; multinational agribusiness interests such as Monsanto; and the Monsanto-linked media (as in the ABC Color daily, which accused ministers not acting as Monsanto stooges of being "corrupt").
Agribusiness giants such as Monsanto and Cargill pay virtually no taxes in Paraguay because of the right-wing controlled Congress. Landowners don't pay taxes. Needless to add, Paraguay is one of the most unequal countries in the world; 85% of land -- like 30 million hectares -- is controlled by the 2% composing the rural aristocracy, a great deal of them involved in land speculation.
Thus their Miami Vice-style mansions in Uruguay's hip Punta del Este resort or, for that matter, Miami Beach; the money, of course, is in the Cayman islands. Paraguay is de facto ruled by this cream of the 2% mixing agribusiness with the neoliberal financial casino.
And by the way, as Martin Almada, a top Paraguayan human-rights activist and alternative Nobel Peace Prize winner, has noted, this concerns Brazilian landowners as well. The wealthiest soya bean producer in Paraguay is a "Braziguayan," double nationality holder Tranquilo Favero, who made his fortune under Stroessner.
A coup on the rocks, please
The Union of South American Nations (Unasur) treated what happened in Paraguay for what it is; a coup. Same with Mercosur. The contrast with Washington's position couldn't be more glaring. Coup plotter Federico Franco is a darling of the US Embassy in Asuncion.
Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela and Ecuador won't recognize the coup plotters. Venezuela cut off oil sales to Paraguay. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has proposed the expulsion of Paraguay from both Unasur and Mercosur.
Paraguay is already suspended; this means coup plotter Federico Franco was prevented from attending a key Mercosur meeting last week in Mendoza, Argentina, when the temporary Mercosur presidency would be handed over to Paraguay. The Paraguayan oligarchy -- under Washington's orders -- was blocking Venezuela's entrance in Mercosur. Not anymore; Venezuela becomes a full member by the end of the month.
Yet South American progressive governments must be very careful. If Paraguay is expelled from both Unasur and Mercosur, it will inevitably ask Washington for commercial and military help. That could translate into a nightmare -- US military bases in Paraguay.
Paraguay's oligarchs, the media they control, and last but not least the reactionary Catholic church hierarchy, calculate they will extend their power when elections take place in April 2013.
Lugo was in fact facing a Sisyphean task -- trying to steer a weak state, with minimum income from taxes (less than 12% of GNP), and under severe pressure by powerful transnational lobbies and comprador elites. This, by the way, is the structural reality of a great deal of Latin America -- and, roughly, one might add, of Egypt.
The result in Curuguaty was 17 dead -- six policemen and 11 farmers -- and at least 50 wounded. It simply doesn't make sense; the elite members of the eviction force, a hardcore unit named Special Operations Group, were trained in counterinsurgency tactics in Colombia -- under the right-wing Uribe government -- as part of the US-concocted Plan Colombia.
Plan Paraguay, for its part, was very simple; absolute criminalization of every peasant organization, forcing them to leave the countryside for transnational agribusiness.
So this was, essentially, a trap. Paraguay's rabid right-wingers -- joined to the hip with Washington, for example trying to prevent, by all means, Venezuela's entrance into the Mercosur common market -- were just waiting to pounce on a regime that had not, yet, affected its interests, but had opened up plenty of spaces for social protest and popular organization.
The "winners" in Paraguay had to be the usual suspects: the landowning oligarchy -- and its concerted campaign to demonize farmers; multinational agribusiness interests such as Monsanto; and the Monsanto-linked media (as in the ABC Color daily, which accused ministers not acting as Monsanto stooges of being "corrupt").
Agribusiness giants such as Monsanto and Cargill pay virtually no taxes in Paraguay because of the right-wing controlled Congress. Landowners don't pay taxes. Needless to add, Paraguay is one of the most unequal countries in the world; 85% of land -- like 30 million hectares -- is controlled by the 2% composing the rural aristocracy, a great deal of them involved in land speculation.
Thus their Miami Vice-style mansions in Uruguay's hip Punta del Este resort or, for that matter, Miami Beach; the money, of course, is in the Cayman islands. Paraguay is de facto ruled by this cream of the 2% mixing agribusiness with the neoliberal financial casino.
And by the way, as Martin Almada, a top Paraguayan human-rights activist and alternative Nobel Peace Prize winner, has noted, this concerns Brazilian landowners as well. The wealthiest soya bean producer in Paraguay is a "Braziguayan," double nationality holder Tranquilo Favero, who made his fortune under Stroessner.
A coup on the rocks, please
The Union of South American Nations (Unasur) treated what happened in Paraguay for what it is; a coup. Same with Mercosur. The contrast with Washington's position couldn't be more glaring. Coup plotter Federico Franco is a darling of the US Embassy in Asuncion.
Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela and Ecuador won't recognize the coup plotters. Venezuela cut off oil sales to Paraguay. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has proposed the expulsion of Paraguay from both Unasur and Mercosur.
Paraguay is already suspended; this means coup plotter Federico Franco was prevented from attending a key Mercosur meeting last week in Mendoza, Argentina, when the temporary Mercosur presidency would be handed over to Paraguay. The Paraguayan oligarchy -- under Washington's orders -- was blocking Venezuela's entrance in Mercosur. Not anymore; Venezuela becomes a full member by the end of the month.
Yet South American progressive governments must be very careful. If Paraguay is expelled from both Unasur and Mercosur, it will inevitably ask Washington for commercial and military help. That could translate into a nightmare -- US military bases in Paraguay.
Paraguay's oligarchs, the media they control, and last but not least the reactionary Catholic church hierarchy, calculate they will extend their power when elections take place in April 2013.
Lugo was in fact facing a Sisyphean task -- trying to steer a weak state, with minimum income from taxes (less than 12% of GNP), and under severe pressure by powerful transnational lobbies and comprador elites. This, by the way, is the structural reality of a great deal of Latin America -- and, roughly, one might add, of Egypt.
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