A banner calling for changing the president of the Paraguayan Institute of Indigenous Affairs (INDI). After a week of mobilizations by Indigenous peoples, Juan RamĂłn Benegas resigned from the position. Photo: @OsvaldoteleSUR/X.
For several days, various Indigenous communities have been mobilizing and protesting in Paraguay against recent decisions of the right-wing government of Santiago Peña. Peña hails from the Colorado Party, one of the oldest parties in Latin America, which, incidentally, was the political base of the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989), one of the longest-serving dictators in 20th-century history.
The protesters are demanding the resignation of the president of Paraguayan Institute of Indigenous Affairs (INDI) and the restoration of the institution’s headquarters.
On October 3, it was announced that this Indigenous struggle in Paraguay had been successful. The leaders of the protests said, “Our heroic resistance has paid off. Today, the first point of our demand was achieved: the dismissal of Ramón Benegas from the presidency of the INDI. Following this measure, we held a meeting with the new president of the INDI, Mr. Hugo Samaniego, to whom we reiterated our demands. The new president agreed to return INDI’s headquarters to Asunción, which will allow for the full reactivation of services to our brothers and sisters.”
In addition, the Indigenous organizations stated: “In light of this situation, we have decided to return to our communities and remain in permanent assembly, ready to take to the streets again if the commitment to reopen the INDI headquarters in Asunción, with all its services fully guaranteed, is not fulfilled. Once again, we have demonstrated the strength of our resistance and our struggle. Long live indigenous resistance! We continue to fight for life and dignity.”
However, the news has been silenced by the dominant national and international media, which have instead attempted to portray Paraguay as a country without significant social conflicts, even amid growing protests against the corruption of the Colorado Party. To better understand this moment of struggle, Peoples Dispatch spoke with Amado Arrieta, a Paraguayan journalist and member of the Popular Party.
Peoples Dispatch: What was the political context of the Indigenous communities’ protest?
Amado Arrieta: The political situation in Paraguay is quite worrying. We are in a state of regression. In Paraguay, narco-politics has taken over the powers of the state. In the last elections, phenomenal fraud was reported, but the institution responsible for the elections did not allow the voting machines and the envelopes where the records were kept to be audited. There were many complaints. In this context, the conditions were created for the Colorado Party movement, called Honor Colorado and led by Horacio Cartes, to have an absolute majority in Parliament. The United States canceled Cartes’ visa and declared him corrupt, among other things, and he is now unable to leave the country. He is practically the president in the shadows. Santiago Peña worked with the company linked to the Cartes family and obviously follows Cartes’ orders to the letter. And the other factor is that the United States evidently reached an agreement with that political movement, and Santiago Peña obeys everything the United States orders him to do.
PD: And what hold does the Cartes group have on Paraguay?
AA: There is a monopoly of all businesses by this political group [Cartes]. They own practically all the gas stations. The large chains, supermarkets, and the most important media chains were acquired by Horacio Cartes. So there is no critical journalism. There are very few alternative media outlets that try to highlight the other Paraguay that is not seen in the mainstream media. In line with this, our organization, the Popular Party, has a citizen media outlet that is about to celebrate its 14th anniversary and is the only left-wing media outlet in the entire country: Radio TV Paraguay. There is a feeling of weariness and hardship among the people, among many people. And within this hardship and mistreatment, Indigenous communities suffer the most.
PD: Why did the Indigenous people protest on this occasion?
AA: INDI, the Paraguayan Institute for Indigenous Affairs, is the government agency responsible for addressing and trying to meet the needs of Indigenous peoples. One day, Santiago Peña decided to close its headquarters in Asunción and supposedly open departmental offices with the excuse that this would facilitate administrative procedures. What the government really wants to avoid is Indigenous people coming to Asunción [the capital of Paraguay], because they often come and stage protests and camp around the INDI headquarters for months. That is why it closed the office. In fact, the government changed the INDI headquarters: it abandoned the historic building where the office had always been located and moved it to a military barracks to prevent Indigenous people from camping there. But it didn’t work, because the Indigenous people closed all the roads around it.
PD: So they requested the reopening of their headquarters…
AA: The Indigenous mobilization began with the demand that the headquarters in Asunción be reopened, basically because all the institutions that can help meet the needs of the Indigenous peoples are in Asunción, not in the departmental capitals. So it makes no sense to open several departmental offices with the excuse that this will facilitate the process, because it is not true. After all, ultimately everything is resolved in Asunción. [The Indigenous people] met, I don’t know how many times, with the president and other government authorities to try to negotiate the reopening, but it was impossible. So the Indigenous mobilization hardened, and what they asked for in the first place was the reopening of the headquarters. [And now] they are calling for the removal of the current president. They are asking for more budget for land acquisition and an end to the evictions and violent abuses suffered by the communities.
The mobilizations lasted 11 days and closed roads in the departmental capitals. [At the protest sites] riot police, prosecutors, and governors appeared, trying to engage in dialogue and threatening to evict them from the roads to allow free transit, which is a constitutional guarantee, but so is mobilization and protest.
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PD: Which Indigenous peoples protested?
AA: Basically, they are all Indigenous peoples from the western region, or Paraguayan Chaco, and the eastern region.
PD: What were the Indigenous peoples’ means of protest?
AA: They blocked roads. In some places, it was intermittent, meaning they would close the road for an hour and then open it for 30 minutes. But in other places, they closed the roads for four or five hours. It depends on where the Indigenous people are most numerous, so in those places the measures are also stronger. Some roadblocks last four or five hours and cause traffic jams stretching for miles. Consequently, there were protests against the roadblocks. Only after several days of protests did the media begin to talk about the mobilization, but they said that the Indigenous people were breaking the law and preventing free transit, always criminalizing the measures and never talking about the underlying problem, what the Indigenous people are asking for and demanding.
PD: What was the response of the Peña government?
AA: For several days, the government’s response was absolutely nothing. We have an almost dictatorial government that finds it difficult to engage in dialogue. Suffice it to say that Santiago Peña is currently in Brazil, where he went for two days. He cares little or nothing about what is happening. But the inconvenience caused by the protests, the hellish traffic jams, and the loss of time throughout practically the entire country forced him to engage in dialogue.