by BENJAMIN DANGL
Thousands of Paraguayan farmers raised their clubs, fists and placards into the air while marching through the streets of Asunción, the capital city, on Thursday, March 25. The farmers demanded that President Fernando Lugo follow through on his campaign promises for agrarian reform, including the distribution of land to poor farmers, and access to health care, education, better homes and roads for rural communities. After a year and a half in office, Lugo’s failures to meet such demands have led various farmer organizations to directly oppose his administration.
“We can’t speak of change if 80% of the fertile land in the country is in the hands of 1% of the population, while 85% of the campesinos [small farmers] have access to only 6% of all the land,” National Campesino Federation (FNC) general secretary Odilón Espínola told Efe.
The situation in rural Paraguay is dire; 38% of the country’s population lives under the poverty line, and most of this sector is based in rural areas. Paraguay has one of the most unequal distributions of land in the world, and the rapidly expanding soy industry is making matters worse.
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