- 1 The War of the Triple Alliance was an armed conflict, occurring between 1864 and 1870, fought betwe (...)
1Paraguay has had a long history of land struggles from colonial times until the present time, with the conclusion of the War of the Triple Alliance1 in 1870 being the most representative historical fact that occurred. In effect, the land under the dominion of the State is considered as a mercantile object, which installed the matrix of intensive exploitation and extraction of national resources towards international markets.
- 2 The projects in progress are aimed at the extraction of gold, titanium, uranium, copper, iron, gas, (...)
As a consequence of these actions, the indigenous and peasant communities resolved to fight against the effects of the increasing capitalist agriculture and large-scale land exploitation2 in order to avoid being displaced from their ancestral territories.
2In this context, Luis Rojas Villagra presents his work La Tierra en disputa: extractivismo, exclusión y resistencia (in English The Land in Struggle: extractivism, Exclusion and Resistance) looking at extractivism from different angles, demonstrating that the main condition of extractivist activities in Paraguay is the use and exploitation of the land on a large scale (p. 10).
3The book offers an approach based on research regarding the extractive expansion in Paraguay, a country located in the heart of South America, whose geographical location offers a wide range of natural resources (fauna, flora, and water). This factor has increased the presence of the extractivist matrix especially to the exploitation of the land, thus leading to the destruction of the soil as well as the death of several ecosystems.
4Indeed, the author outlines how extractivism has developed in Paraguay, mainly considering the exploitation of land and natural resources for exportation at the detriment of the indigenous and peasant populations who initially owned these lands. Furthermore, Rojas Villagra outlines the effects of the extractivist matrix, examining the sanctions of the 1992 National Constitution of Paraguay and the 2002 Agrarian Statute, that establishes the content and limits of expropriation as well as its economic and social function, with the aim of making it accessible to a few companies (p. 20).
The struggle and permanent resistance of both the peasant and indigenous communities against these sanctions are illustrated with the desire to defend their own self-regulation and the protection of their ancestral territories.
- 3 Data elaborated by the Economic and Commercial Office of Spain in Asunción Updated to December 2019 (...)
5In analyzing the context of extractivism in Paraguay, the author introduces the extractivist model based on large-scale land usufruct and access (p. 10). These allowances caused macroeconomic stability of the country thanks to the consolidation of two specific sectors: agriculture and corporate livestock farming. Altogether, they represent 11.4% of the GDP of their sector, of which, agriculture registers 8.4% and livestock3 2.1%.
6Reintroducing the importance of these sectors for the Paraguayan economy, the author points out the need to question the extractivist matrix, in particular, the exacerbated extractivism, within the processes of territorial expansion and agribusiness. Within this perspective, the book includes a legal, juridical, and governmental approach whereby the appropriation and exploitation of natural resources and land are qualified as objects of transaction of the capitalist and mercantilist system both nationally and internationally. In fact, this mercantile conception of land was violently imposed during the periods of Dr. Francia's government (1814) and later in the Lopez's governments (1862). Thus, the author explains as follows: “Most of the land was in the hands of the State, outside the market, and was worked by the rural population (natives and peasants) within the framework of an agrarian policy…” (p. 7)
7Currently, this conception circumscribed by the appropriation of natural resources and land is reflected in the vast volume of soybeans plantations, as well as in the exploitation of livestock. To illustrate, in 1995, 833,000 hectares of soybeans were sown through large, highly mechanized latifundia. Ten years later, in 2005, it reached 2,000,000 hectares of this oilseed (p. 10). As a result, Paraguay has become a world reference in the production (6th producer) and export (4th exporter) of this crop4.
8Among the livestock sector, the importance of cattle (with 13.5 million heads) is noteworthy, since it contributes to both domestic consumption and exports, placing Paraguay as the 7th largest exporter of beef in the world5.
9Hence, agribusiness in Paraguay has become one of the most remarkable contributors towards environmental deterioration in the region, particularly due to the indiscriminate deforestation practices. Indeed, in 2012, 306,827 hectares were deforested in the Paraguayan Chaco, a surface equivalent to 25 times the area of Asunción, its capital (p. 14), eventually leading to hegemony by the agricultural companies. Unfortunately, this situation became a source of discussion, injustice, conflict, dispossession and, as a consequence, struggle for the possession of ancestral territories. Therefore, the various injustices documented in this book disclose how the economic model of the nation favors a privileged and minority elite sector of society, who are seeking the expansion of a ravaging trade and the accumulation of capital without limits (p. 36).
10Furthermore, this capitalist logic has also engendered a situation of tributary injustice; for instance the IRAGRO6 (Income Tax on Agricultural Activities) only increases the income tax rate for medium and small producers, whereas for large producers it maintains a rate of just 10% (p. 41). This logic is further aggravated by the refunds made by the Ministry of Finance to agro-export companies in terms of VAT on export activities. An example of this is the refund from the Ministry of Finance in concept of tax credit to several agro-exporting companies such as Cargill, granting them the amount of 145.325 million Gs7 (Guaranies) (US$ 33.4 million) between 2008 and 2013; to ADM Paraguay SA, 72,454 million Gs (US$ 16.6 million) and to Bunge, 39,332 million Gs (US$ 9 million) (p. 41).
11Thus, this action is justified and strengthened in public policies within government institutions reflecting a Eurocentric vision wherein the American and European colonialist vision of excessive consumerism prevails, covering up the dominance and power of the State in agricultural practices. Within this framework, the author explains that the extractive and agribusiness models prioritize globalized capitalism as it requires more land for its enhancement and conservation in a worldwide economy dominated by the mercantilization of lands. Immersing himself in the legal and juridical dimensions of access to land, the author points out that the legislative and administrative framework favors both capitalism and intensive land exploitation through agrarian mercantilization.
- 8 Symbolic violence is considered as the deployment of discourses and practices for the expropriation (...)
12Additionally, the author presents and analyzes from a contemporaneous perspective the economic and social effects of intensive land exploitation, agrarian mercantilization, territorial accumulation and dispossession leading not only to direct violence (forced displacement, militarization of the area, violent eviction) but also to processes of symbolic violence8 between peasants as well as indigenous communities and the State. As a consequence, the affected people have been stereotyped and stigmatized, developing a kind of sub-humanization or dehumanization of the population and its effects. Consequently, as poverty increases, it is well known that social, economic and health inequalities will also grow.
- 9 The indigenous population living within the borders of Paraguay is composed of 19 indigenous people (...)
- 10 More information about the native population of Paraguay at http://www.tierraviva.org.py [accessed (...)
13Thus, the book presents the complexity and difficulty faced by the peasant and indigenous communities in their struggle and resistance to extractive activities, the rooting of families, and the realization of their rights. In fact, in chapter five, the author portrays the most emblematic cases of extractivism in Paraguayan peasant and indigenous communities (p. 42). As to the cases and problems of extractive exploitation and multiple resistances of peasant and indigenous communities outlined by the author, it is important to underline that an indigenous population9-10 historically and ancestrally governed by its own system of self-government, in their attempts to survive, should adopt the Western system of government, while taking into account the various acts of selective assassination of its leaders in the context of the struggle for land (p. 43 and subs.).
- 11 Native to the Guarani language, Tekoha is the term used to designate a territory that goes beyond a (...)
14From this perspective of struggle and resistance, there are certain populations, especially of indigenous people who are linked to their ancestral territory, where the land is part of their Tekoha11. In addition, their connection with the land is represented by their cosmovision of life, containing a historical, cultural, and traditional value. The Tekoha respects and consolidates the relationship between man and nature, respecting its cycles and above all, respecting nature, considered as a subject with rights, in total opposition to the capitalist and mercantilist logic where the land is deemed as an object, a commodity destined to the highest purchaser under the condition of obtaining profits or exchanging it for a property/resource of higher value.
15Hence, the expropriation and eviction from the land causes a break between the indigenous communities and their connection to it, which means losing their identity, their way of being, their very existence. As a consequence, the ancestral community finds itself confronted with the tangled legal dimension of public policies related to access to land imposed by the state as a condition of large-scale land development (p. 52). As a result, the dynamics of capitalism transmute the relationship with ancestral territory assigning an economic value to the land. Moreover, it promotes an important ontological extractivism since it is part of a process of subordinate integration of the Paraguayan economy into international trade.
16While the book does not give us a general vision of the struggle against the economic and political extractive power of the Paraguayan indigenous and peasant communities, it does lead us to a deep questioning regarding the possibility of developing new doctrines and legislation that would reduce conflicts of interest, violence, facilitating self-regulation, and thus reducing the destruction of land. At the same time, these new processes could reestablish the relationship between man and land / nature in order to oppose the dominant and technocratic contemporary society.
17In fact, based on the information and data included in Rojas Villagra's research, it is necessary the construction of alternative economic and socio-political models to fight against extractivism with the aim of reducing inequity in the distribution and access to land. Simultaneously, it would favor the development of agro-ecological projects to lessen the impact of the capitalist extractivist activities by incorporating environmental variables into economic resource management models (Fernández, 2007) to decrease Paraguay's exacerbated extractivism.
Consequently, the pending subject is to reestablish the resistances and struggles of the indigenous and peasant communities as the first step towards the creation of a new counter-hegemonic economic and social model where land is no longer a mere commercial object.
Although the book does not delve into details about the data and economic effects of extractivism in Paraguay, it presents the basic and theoretical elements of the economic, political, social, and environmental implications of the expansion of extractivism in the national territory.