On Jan. 7, about 100 campesinos successfully blocked the spraying of pesticides on soy fields in the Ybypé community of the department of San Pedro, Paraguay. Riot police were mobilized to protect the fumigation tractors, but in a rare and inspiring turn, the campesinos convinced the officers of their right to resist the spraying. The police then refused to break up the blockade.

The Campesinos have so far resisted every attempt to fumigate these fields since the land was sold to Brazilian soy growers, who removed the previous life with …

Today, UN Indigenous People’s Day, Survival International will present a petition with 57,000 signatures to the Paraguayan government— in support of the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode, South America’s last (known) surviving uncontacted tribe outside the Amazon basin.

Recently, satellite imagery revealed Ayoreo-Totobiegosode land, nearly all of which has been taken over by powerful landowners, is being rapidly bulldozed to make way for cattle ranching. Those living in the forests can do little more than run.

Two Relatives, Leaders from the Ayoreo-Tobiegosode recently had this to …

A festival has recently begun in Buenos Aires, Argentina — in an effort to support the thousands of People affected by Yacyreta dam, one of the longest–running unfinished hydroelectric projects in the world. Construction of the dam began in 1979 — and so far over 80,000 People have been effected.

The Dam, located on the Paraná River, is a collaborative effort between Argentina and Paraguay. Widely regarded as a monument to corruption,
the project has thus far been plagued with political delays, corruption, disputes, and abuses/repression of the …

The letter campaign which focused in on the Yakye Axa People struggles to return to their Traditional Lands has just came to an end. All in all, over 17,000 letters were sent to the Paraguayan government, demanding it comply with a court order handed down by the Inter-American Human Rights Court.

In 2005 the IACHR declared that the lands in question – nearly 18,000 hectares – is the territory of the Enxert Yakye Axa and must be returned to them for free. The court also ordered the government …

The Summit of the People of the South Began today in Asuncion, Paraguay. A Live Radio Broadcast (in spanish) is available at sapukai.noblogs.org

This year’s Summit — bringing together social groups, NGO’s indigenous peoples, and others from around South America — is focusing on continuing the debates discussed in previous summits (Chile 1998, Quebec 2001, Mar de Plata 2005, Còrdoba 2006, Cochabamba 2006), and to move towards creating an expanded alliance between different social sectors, aswell as to discuss matters of sovereignty in South America.

At the Summit’s end, …

Paraguayan Women Fight to Change Agriculture and Patriarchy
By April Howard, http://towardfreedom.com
Tuesday, 13 March 2007

The state of Alto Paraná, Paraguay, sits on the triple frontier with Argentina and Brazil, an area which some Paraguayans know as the soy frontier. In the past 30 years, what was once jungle and small farms has become a vast sea of industrial soy plantations. On February 12, I spoke with three women who are working with ASAGRAPA to fight these corporations and the spread of industrial monoculture in Paraguay.

Companies such as Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland and Bunge have literally invaded eastern Paraguay, buying up …

A group of Ayoreo Indians has angrily condemned the landowners who are logging their territory illegally. Senior government officials have travelled to the Ayoreo’s villages to investigate.

The Ayoreo-Totobiegosode’s territory was recently included in the Chaco Biosphere Reserve in an attempt to protect it from the private landowners who are determined to log the area of all its valuable hardwoods.

The forest is protected by injunctions which make any activity on it illegal, but these injunctions have been repeatedly flouted.

The area is home to an unknown number of uncontacted Ayoreo families, whose forest home is being encroached upon from all sides. Amongst …