Left-Leaning President’s Election Gives Hope to Landless Paraguayans

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SAN PEDRO, Paraguay — On the edge of a farm here, Rogelio Silva, a peasant organizer, looked out over the half-dozen tents where his Paraguayan compatriots were cooking soup over a campfire. Near the roadside, two banners tied between trees expressed a common sentiment in Paraguay’s agricultural heartland these days.

“Get out, Brazilians,” one read.

“Land or death,” read another.

Peasant farmers, emboldened by the election of Fernando Lugo as president in April, have been invading dozens of farms along the border with Brazil. They say that Paraguayan land is being occupied illegally by Brazilian farmers, and that corrupt officials have allowed these outsiders to acquire land for decades.

Just days after Mr. Lugo, a left-leaning former Roman Catholic bishop, was inaugurated in August, the local police forcibly removed more than 500 peasants squatting on farmland here. Within a few more days, the peasants were back with more tents.

“The Brazilian owners tried to throw us out, but we are not leaving,” Mr. Silva said. “We need to fight for what is rightfully ours, for what was stolen from us.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/world/americas/14paraguay.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin