Insecurity in the north of the country was one of the most important issues during the year. The crisis worsened in the last month.
In December, three new kidnappings, of which only one was able to return to his home alive, once again worried the population, who no longer knows who to turn to, given the failure of the State in combating these insurgent groups.
Hugo Pereira, a research professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences (UNA), questioned that the Joint Task Forces (FTC) have murdered peasants linked to the struggle for land. And they have established a discursive line where they allege that the peasants themselves are the ones who protect these groups that do not exceed 20 or 30 members.
“It is very doubtful that an insurgency can remain in an area for more than 10 years without having popular support. Which is null in the area, “he said.
He urged state agencies to seek the background of criminal gangs operating in the north. He questioned that the “revolutionary groups” demand from families over-indebtedness to pay for food for others with limited resources.
“I don’t think that delivering supplies will solve social problems. On the contrary, they are targeting the same government line, by delivering food when the problems are much more complex, ”he explained.
NEXT YEAR
For the analyst, violence and extortion will continue in 2022. He pointed out that production activities, such as soybeans and eucalyptus on a large scale, affect the territories occupied by peasant families.
“There are elements that allow us to predict that the conflictive scenario will increase like violence. As long as the State takes the matter seriously and does not simplify the problems any more. For the State, the poor are to blame, the exclusive development model is largely responsible, “he said.
HISTORY
The teacher explains that the land problem began in the same colonial period (1524 to 1811) with the establishments located in the north. The Spanish colony expands to the far northeast of Paraguay, handing over large estates to the military who served the colonial empire. In this way they become the first large landowners.
These establishments had armed groups that defended the large estates with blood and fire. Mainly from indigenous populations. Because, contrary to what the Spanish Colony pointed out, which occupied only unpopulated territories, the northern territories were occupied by indigenous communities.
Many of them were massacred by these armed groups. The defense of the latifundio was even a state policy.
Years later, from the fall of the dictatorship in 1989 to 2013, 75% of the death of peasants in the framework of the struggle for land is produced by paramilitary agents or directly hitmen.
“Today it becomes more visible within the framework of the struggle for land. I am very concerned that the State greatly simplifies the issue of insecurity by pointing out that the culprit of everything is the EPP or the ACA – EP, ”Pereira finally said.
