Social Movements and the Struggles for Rights, Justice and Democracy in Paraguay (Social Movements and Transformation) 3031258827, 9783031258824

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SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND TRANSFORMATION

Social Movements and the Struggles for Rights, Justice and Democracy in Paraguay Edited by Charmain Levy · Laureen Elgert Valérie L‘Heureux

Social Movements and Transformation Series Editor

Berch Berberoglu Sociology University of Nevada Reno, NV, USA

This series tackles one of the central issues of our time: the rise of large-­ scale social movements and the transformation of society over the last thirty years. As global capitalism continues to affect broader segments of the world’s population workers, peasants, the self-employed, the unemployed, the poor, indigenous peoples, women, and minority ethnic groups there is a growing mass movement by the affected populations to address the inequities engendered by the globalization process. These popular mass movements across the globe (such as labor, civil rights, women’s, environmental, indigenous, and anti-corporate globalization movements) have come to form a viable and decisive force to address the consequences of the operations of the transnational corporations and the global capitalist system. The study of these social movements their nature, social base, ideology, and strategy and tactics of mass struggle is of paramount importance if we are to understand the nature of the forces that are struggling to bring about change in the global economy, polity, and social structure. This series aims to explore emerging movements and develop viable explanations for the kind of social transformations that are yet to come.

Charmain Levy  •  Laureen Elgert Valérie L’Heureux Editors

Social Movements and the Struggles for Rights, Justice and Democracy in Paraguay

Editors Charmain Levy Department of Social Sciences Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO) Gatineau, QC, Canada

Laureen Elgert Department of Integrative and Global Studies Worcester Polytechnic Institute Worcester, MA, USA

Valérie L’Heureux Department of Sociology and Anthropology Concordia University Montreal, QC, Canada

Social Movements and Transformation ISBN 978-3-031-25882-4    ISBN 978-3-031-25883-1 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25883-1 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Acknowledgments

Writing acknowledgments for an edited volume is a daunting but crucial task. Having said that we would still like to acknowledge the efforts of people without whom this project never would have seen the light of day. First, working with all the contributors was a lovely experience. Much respect to Berch Berberoglu, who believed in the relevance of this project from the start and made it possible to reach a larger audience to learn more about social movements in Paraguay. Thanks to Sujatha Mani, Elizabeth Graber and the wonderful folks at Springer Nature for their support of the project. Special thanks to Marialuz Albuja, who helped with the translation of five chapters, and Cynthia Allegrezza who helped with copy-editing. The front cover image for this book has been provided by Bareiro at Fotociclo. Finally, we dedicate that book to the people in Paraguay struggling for their dignity and rights. This project was made possible with the funding of SSHRC and FQRSC.

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Praise for Social Movements and the Struggles for Rights, Justice and Democracy in Paraguay “This superb collection on Paraguayan social movements offers us an unparalleled account not only of why Paraguay’s democratization can appear more formulaic than functional, but also more broadly of how democracy seeps into any crack afforded it and works to slowly fracture the authoritarian edifice.” —Sean Burges, Assistant Professor, Global and International Studies, Arthur Kroeger College of Public Affairs Carleton University “Paraguay has long been treated as an enigmatic country. But it really is not. Insightful inquiries on this country, as offered in this edited volume, underscore the point. They reveal a complex yet discernable political process. Levy, Elgert and L’Heureux’s collection of twelve essays does so by exploring Paraguay contentious politics. The editors have assembled a group of Paraguayan and international scholars, activists and practitioners, who examine various progressive social movements in this country, namely, among the peasantry, labor, indigenous people, women, LGBT+ community, and students. Challenging the status quo in Paraguay has been a daunting task, given the weight of the country’s conservative inertia. This impetus is embedded in the nation’s deep structural inequities, authoritarian legacies, patriarchal traditions, and in the nature of its political regime: a feeble democracy established in the 1990s under the aegis of the political party that sustained the country’s previous autocratic rule. This book highlights the quest for social justice, freedom and substantive rights amid this conservative momentum. It does so by offering a sympathetic, yet clear-eyed assessment of these social movements. As the studies show, in such settings, the struggle to effect change must, first and foremost, stir efforts to break with the past.” —Miguel Carter, PhD, DEMOS – Center for Democracy, Creativity and Social Inclusion

Contents

 Introduction: Social Movements in a Paraguayan Context  1 Valérie L’Heureux, Laureen Elgert, and Charmain Levy  Paraguay in the Twenty-First Century: From the Rise of Progressivism to Conservative Rearticulation 27 Ignacio González Bozzolasco  Peasant Movements in Paraguay 43 Ramón Fogel  Movement-in-Motion: CONAMURI and the Making of a A Feminist Agroecology 61 Jamie C. Gagliano Understanding Indigenous Movements in Paraguay: The Case of the Xákmok Kásek Community and the Scales of Resistance 83 Andréanne Brunet-Bélanger  The Paraguayan Labor Movement at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century107 Ignacio González Bozzolasco and Raquel Rojas

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Work, Gender, and Labor Organizing: Paid Domestic Workers’ Unions in Paraguay129 Raquel Rojas  The Feminist Movement in Paraguay: No Way but Forward155 Charmain Levy and María Molinas Cabrera State Violence Against LGBTQ+ setting the Boundaries of Citizenship in Paraguay181 Marco Castillo and Mirta Moragas Mereles  The Movement for the Right to Education in Paraguay: Student Actors and Disputes over Youth Subjectivities in a Society of Inequality209 Luis Ortiz  The Organization and Struggle of University Students in Paraguay: Student Movement Demands for Socio-educational Rights233 Magdalena López and Jorgelina Loza  Conclusion: Mobilize, Repress, Repeat261 Laureen Elgert, Charmain Levy, and Valérie L’Heureux Index273

Notes on Contributors

Ignacio  González  Bozzolasco is a sociologist and researcher at the National Council of Science and Technology of Paraguay (CONACYT). He holds a PhD. in Social Sciences (University of Buenos Aires—UBA), a Master’s in History (National University of Asunción—UNA). He holds a B.A. in Sociology (Catholic University of Asunción—UCA) which specialized in Social Development (FLACSO). He is a lecturer and Postgraduate Director at the Faculty of Social Sciences (UNA) in Paraguay. His publications include: La encrucijada del cambio. Análisis sobre la realidad social y política del Paraguay contemporáneo (2013) and El Nuevo Despertar. Breve historia del Movimiento Intersindical de Trabajadores del Paraguay (2013). Andréanne  Brunet-Bélanger holds a BA in International Law and International Relations and an MA in Political Science from the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM). She is a PhD candidate in Political Science (University of Montréal). Her studies focus on the diffusion of international norms in domestic law, particularly on Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC). She is interested in issues of implementation of judgments from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights related to the FPIC norm in Paraguay and their institutionalization. More generally, her interests overlap with the judicial and political, as well as feminist critiques of law. María Molinas Cabrera  studied psychology and communication at the Catholic University of Asunción (UCA) as well as gender and human rights in the Regional Program of Training in Gender and Public Policies (FLACSO) and the Interdisciplinary Course on Human Rights (Inter-­ xi

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American Institute of Human Rights). She is a feminist and human rights activist, active in the student and feminist movement. She has worked for human rights, gender, and development non-governmental and international organizations. She has made several contributions and published articles in the Coordination of Human Rights of Paraguay (CODEHUPY)’s human rights annual reports, and to the Documentation and Studies Center (CDE). Marco Castillo  is a PhD candidate in Sociology at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center. His research seeks to understand violence and authoritarian governmentality processes in dictatorial and post-­ dictatorship settings, repression of subaltern groups, and political resistance. He focuses mainly on Paraguay as a case study to examine how processes of dictatorship and democratization evolve in terms of repression against minorities, rights, citizenship, and inequality in Latin America. Laureen  Elgert is Associate Professor of Environmental Policy and International Development at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She holds a PhD in Development Studies from the London School of Economics, an MSc in Health Promotion from the University of Alberta, and a BA in Development Studies and Anthropology from Trent University. Laureen worked in the Mbaracayu Biosphere Reserve in Paraguay’s Interior Atlantic Forest, where she helped facilitate the emergence of local and regional governance institutions. Most recently, Laureen has been working on a project that investigates local resistance and global discourses of Rights of Nature in struggles against large-scale mining in Ecuador. Ramón  Fogel  holds a Ph. D in Sociology, is a CONACYT Level III Researcher, professor at FLACSO Paraguay, and recipient of the National Congress award that recognizes his research contribution in the area of agrarian studies. He is the founder of the Center for Interdisciplinary Rural Studies (CERI) and the author of more than 30 books and 100 published scientific articles. In 2017, he received the“50  years of CLACSO” award from the Latin American Council of Social Sciences. Jamie C. Gagliano  is a PhD student in Geography at Rutgers University-­ New Brunswick. They received their Master’s in Geography from Syracuse University. Their work engages critical agrarian studies and feminist ­science and technology studies to parse Paraguay’s political economy of reforestation.

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Charmain Levy  holds a PhD in Anthropology and Sociology of Politics (University of Paris VIII), is a full professor at the Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO), teaching International Development Studies. She is a specialist in Latin America, and social movements; and also feminist, urban and development studies. She is also a researcher in the Research Team on Inclusion and Governance in Latin America (ERIGAL) and the Quebec Network of Feminist Studies and Research (Réqef). She authored numerous articles and book chapters on social movements. Her most recent publication (with Simone Bohn) is Twenty-first Century Feminismos: Women’s Movements in Latin America and the Caribbean. Valérie  L’Heureux  is a PhD candidate in Social and Cultural Analysis (Concordia University) and is interested in the strategies and influence of transnational social movements, the politics of radical internationalism, and relational ethics. She holds a BA in International Studies from the Université de Montréal and an MA in Political Science from UQÀM. Her research interests include Paraguayan politics, the G20, communication rights, and philanthrocapitalism. Magdalena López  holds an MA in Political Science and a PhD in Social Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). Since 2010, she has coordinated the Social Studies Group on Paraguay at the Institute for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the UBA. She is also an Adjunct Researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) of Argentina, and a member of the Gino Germani Research Institute (UBA). She has published numerous articles and books on the development of Paraguayan democracy and its obstacles, investigating the political and economic elites, and various social collectives that organize themselves within the democratic margins. Jorgelina Loza  is a sociologist at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). She holds an MA in Sociology of Culture and Cultural Analysis from the National University of San Martín, and a PhD in Social Sciences (UBA). She is an Adjunct Researcher at the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research of Argentina (CONICET) and a researcher in the International Relations Area of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences—Argentina, and at the Gino Germani Research Institute (UBA). Currently, she is engaged in research on transnational collective action networks of Latin American women.

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Mirta Moragas Mereles  is an LLM in International Legal Studies with a Specialization in Gender and Human Rights by the American University Washington College of Law. She is currently the Director of Policy and Advocacy at Synergía, Initiatives for Human Rights, and specializes in research on gender and sexuality issues. Luis Ortiz  holds a PhD in Sociology from the École des Hautes Études en Science Sociales (France), an MA in Social sciences from FLACSO (Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, México). He is a researcher at the Instituto de Ciencias Sociales in Paraguay (ICSO) and a professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the National University of Asunción (FACSO-UNA). Raquel  Rojas is Researcher and Lecturer at the Institute for Latin American Studies at the Freie Universität (FU) Berlin and Researcher (Level I) at CONACYT-Paraguay. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the FU Berlin and a MA in Social Sciences from the Humboldt University of Berlin. Her research focuses on inequalities, social movements, labor relations and care work.

Introduction: Social Movements in a Paraguayan Context Valérie L’Heureux, Laureen Elgert, and Charmain Levy

Social movements, collective action, and contention take place in objective conditions, and it is important to determine how the national socio-­ economic and political factors can condition this mobilization. Thus, understanding how social movements have developed in Paraguay becomes more comprehensible when analyzed as part of a long-term process, where their interventions are enmeshed with the political and

V. L’Heureux Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada L. Elgert Department of Integrative and Global Studies, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA, USA e-mail: [email protected] C. Levy (*) Department of Social Sciences, Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO), Gatineau, QC, Canada e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. Levy et al. (eds.), Social Movements and the Struggles for Rights, Justice and Democracy in Paraguay, Social Movements and Transformation, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25883-1_1

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social circumstances in which they unfold. This also means considering different political actors—in terms of their goals, organization, strategies, and means—and how they interact with each other. Given that social movements are in constant interaction with the political system, both responding to it and altering it, it is essential to analyze the impact of social movements and their interaction with other political and state actors in a historical context. The Paraguayan reality is still widely unknown by the international audience, even among Latin America’s experts. There is much to say about this South American country enclaved by Brazil, Argentina, and Bolivia, this “island surrounded by land”, as it was described by the Paraguayan novelist Augusto Roa Bastos. As stated by Renée Fregosi, Paraguay has long been a country apart, isolated and unknown. Its history, both original and tragic, seems to push Paraguay to consider itself more in a mythical or fantastical mode than in a rational one. Like the mythical thought that denies any historical evolution and presents reality as the same as the origins, Paraguayans have developed a tendency to conceive their history as a non-history, a still time where nothing changes, or a circular time, an infinite series of revolutions that always bring back to the starting point, to the same one: the unique and unchanging Paraguayan identity, the Guaraní nature, exclusive definition of the humanity. (1997, p. 7)

Isolated in the past, Paraguay has played the game of regional integration for decades and is well-deserving of academic attention, hence it is hard to comprehend why there is so little academic literature on this enclaved country and very little up-to-date and contemporary work about the situation in the twenty-first century. Souchaud, addressing this issue, recalled that most of the work done by social scientists has been around the Jesuit missions as the main topic of Paraguayan historiography, and around the Stroessner era and the early years of the democratic transition (Souchaud, 2015). But indeed, the post-Stroessner era of transition towards democracy is both an interesting and instructive case of democratization under conditions of elite capture, under-regulated capitalism, and extreme inequality. It is also, as this volume demonstrates, a fruitful context for examining the possibilities and limits of social movements in struggles for rights and justice.

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Paraguay Today Paraguay is largely Catholic and Mestizo, not unlike surrounding countries. Paraguay’s Guarani culture and traditions, however, are unique, are alive and well, and are a great source of pride for Paraguayans. Most Paraguayans are of Guarani ancestry, and speaking Guarani is a strong marker of Paraguayan identity. It has been one of the two official languages since 1992, alongside Spanish, and has been used in schools since 1996. Other traditions, such as drinking tereré (a cold version of the most known mate popular in the region) and eating chipa (a kind of cheesy bagel), are quintessentially Paraguayan customs. Paraguay, however, is also a country characterized by cultural diversity and dynamism with transregional connections. Different migration waves brought Brazilians, Germans and Koreans, and Taiwanese. On the other hand, many Paraguayans have emigrated to other countries, such as Argentina and Spain, in search of employment opportunities. Indigenous people, representing 2% of the population, are composed of Ayoreo, Aché, Mbyá, and a dozen other indigenous communities that are threatened by systemic discrimination and dispossession, struggling for their mere survival. Paraguay ranks as the second-poorest country in South America, and one of the most inequitable ones. Paraguay’s economy is rooted in the latifundio agrarian model, dominated by legal and illegal imports and exports, the penetration of transnational capital in strategic areas, and state-dependent business. Historically, the economy depended on subsistence agriculture, cattle-raising, and extractive enclaves that contributed to the development of a small economic elite and a relatively new rural oligarchy. Their origins were established in the last century and crystallized during the Stroessner era, when 12 million hectares of land were distributed in an irregular and clientelistic manner to both nationals and foreigners (Danielsen, 2009, p. 49). The result of this legacy has been a sharp divide between the rich and the poor in Paraguay, epitomized by the contrast between the lively Mercado 4, an enormous popular market, and the upscale Paseo La Galeria shopping mall. Exacerbating this stark contrast is the mass rural to urban migration over the last decades, involving hundreds of thousands of people. Many have ended up, for example, in the Bañados area, a former swamp, then a garbage dump, and now a neighborhood for those migrant populations looking for survival in highly precarious conditions.

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Indeed, Paraguay today is a country of contrasts. Opportunism sits side by side with destitution in the rich agricultural countryside. Such contrasts have thwarted processes of democratization on many fronts, but have also provided an impetus for the emergence of social movements as vital conduits for the voice of the people. Furthermore, different social movements have come together in many expressions of solidarity, all working toward a more just and democratic Paraguayan future.

Early Seeds of Discontent: War, Dictatorship, and Growing Land Inequality To understand the present, one must (predictably) look to history. In Paraguay, the Guerra Guasu (the Great War), or the War of the Triple Alliance (1864–1870), shaped much of the social, economic, and political trajectory of the country. The war is widely billed as Latin America’s bloodiest and planted early seeds of unequal, and foreign, land tenure. Waged against Paraguay in the name of the expansionist aims of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay, it was supported and funded by the British administration, resentful against Paraguay for resisting its colonial aspirations (Abente Brun, 1987). By the end of the war, Paraguay had lost 96% of the male population, half of its territory and found itself with massive amounts of debt. Beyond the territory lost directly in the war, the war debt forced the hand of the government to sell off tracts of land to foreign interests, including Argentinians and Brazilians, but also wealthy investors in North America and Europe (Leuchars, 2002; Alix-Garcia et al., 2020). For the first time, Paraguay was forced to take on foreign loans, particularly from Britain. The war left Paraguay in ruins and the devastation strongly resonates to this day in both psychological and material ways (Warren, 1962). One of the most lasting effects has been the concentration of land and foreign land ownership, which remains a consistent theme, revisited and exacerbated under the crony capitalism of dictator Alfredo Stroessner, and then further again by the multinational corporate takeover of the Paraguayan landscape. Stroessner came to power, unopposed, in 1954 with the support of the Paraguayan military and the Colorado Party (ANR). He ruled with an iron fist for 35 years through a mixture of violence, intimidation, repression, and cronyism (Abente Brun, 1989). After he left power, the Colorado party continued to form national governments for another 26  years,

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making the 61-year Colorado run in power the longest of any political party in the world. The Colorado party operated through a vast clientelist network of public jobs, outside of which employment was scarce. The party also maintained power by imbuing social life with mistrust (Lambert, 1997). Neighbors, friends, and even family were encouraged to surrender anyone suspected of generating or supporting political opposition. Even those, some still recall, with blue curtains (the color of the opposition party, once it was made legal in 1962) could be suspected of dissidence. During the Stroessner period the Catholic Church provided “one of the only places for Paraguayans to organize without fear of repression” (Dangl, 2014, p. 333) and it was here, in the Christian Agrarian Leagues, where Jesuit priests and peasants resisted exploitation by large landholders, and created small utopian socialist agricultural communities of brotherhood and cooperation, under the philosophy of ‘yopoi’ (from all to all) (Dangl, 2014). Reaching numbers in the tens of thousands, the Christian Agrarian Leagues sowed the seeds for later campesino social movements, including Brazil’s Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST)— Campesinos Sin Tierra in Paraguay—and laid the foundations for the development of liberation theology (Kleinpenning & Zoomers, 1991). The Ligas operated through the 1960s, avoiding the fate of unions and would-be revolutionaries that were crushed by the administration. Finally, in the 1970s, Stroessner’s toleration of the Ligas, heretofore treated by the Colorado government as a way of quelling rural unrest and protecting large landholders, ceased. The homesteads were attacked and pillaged, the Jesuits were thrown out of the country, and peasants were placed in concentration camps (Elgert, 2014). The persecution, repression, and exile of many social and political activists opposing Stroessner (political opponents, union leaders, communists, etc.) characterized that period (López, 2022, pp. 369–372). Meanwhile, Stroessner rewarded his local military and civilian supporters, and his would-be supporters outside of Paraguay with ‘gifts’ of land; lands that became referred to as ‘tierras malhabidas’, or ‘ill-gotten lands’ (Hetherington, 2012). Despite economic growth, Stroessner’s rein led to the second-highest rates of inequality in South America and land inequality unparalleled in Latin America. Challenging the legitimacy of these tierras malhabidas, the peasantry would organize locally and stage occupations of these properties. The plastic tents and makeshift kitchens and latrines of the campesinos campsites became a signature of the Federación Nacional

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Campesina (FNC) protests. James Paynter visited Paraguay in 1987 and wrote for the New Internationalist: Between 1981 and 1986 there were 31 documented cases of land occupations involving more than 8,000 families, most of them in the eastern regions where foreigners have bought up the land. There have been at least another ten in 1987… With no cash and no jobs, thousands of Paraguayans have turned to occupy unused land in a desperate attempt to grow the food they need. This has led to violent and sometimes fatal conflicts between peasants and army-backed or police-backed landowners. (https://newint. org/features/1987/11/05/country).

The bleak situation of people forced from the land, with few prospects, left few alternatives to the land occupations, which often turned to violent clashes between the occupiers (or invaders, depending upon who you talked to) and state or private armed forces. The Shaky Transition to Democracy The post-Stroessner period, beginning in 1989, marked Paraguay’s transition to democracy (Gillespie, 1990). In the case of Paraguay, this was not just a process of restoration of democratic institutions and traditions, but their reinvention (Abente Brun, 2012). Furthermore, the transition has the uniqueness of being both dominated by the military and by the continued hegemony of the Colorado Party,1 until 2008 (Larrouqué, 2019). The dominance of a single party in government for over 70  years has reverberated throughout most societal organizations, including trade unions, neighborhood associations, and student unions, that consist of a patronage pyramid structure. The main democratic governance problem in Paraguay is that the two major political parties seek to capture the state and use their power over public resources for their benefit and also that of their allies. In this sense, the Paraguayan state and political regime have assured the maintenance and reproduction of systematic inequalities of power and resources, distorting decision outcomes in favor of particular interests (Held, 1995, p. 114). It was the strength of this social structure 1  Cerna Villagra et  al. (2021) describe the Paraguayan political system as enduring but unstable, featuring historically two traditional, ideologically undifferentiated parties (Partido Liberal Radical Autentica and the Colorado party), accentuated clientelism, a pernicious socio-economic structure, and a political culture based on patriarchal strongman leadership.

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that pacified most of the population into submission and subdued social movement mobilization, that is, until the economic stagnation of the late 1990s and the subsequent elite divisions. This partial transition under the rule of the Colorado party has limited the vitality of the civil society and challenged democratic consolidation, combined with the well-established clientelist practice (Palau et al., 2018, p. 57). The transition was ‘decidedly shaky’ at best (Lambert, 2008), but “social movements began to emerge from clandestinity” (Dangl, 2014, p. 333). Meanwhile, as elsewhere in Latin America, the 1990s marked an intensification of neoliberal policies. The privatization of state industries “weakened the workers’ movement, raised unemployment, and worsened working conditions” (Dangl, 2014, p. 334). The Soy Republic: Ecoterritorial Solidarity among Social Movements The soybean that appeared during the Stroessner regime and grew in the twenty-first century to cover most of Eastern Paraguay is an intensely industrialized crop and merits its own place in the social, economic, and political history of Paraguay’s democratic transition. By 2014, Paraguay was the fourth-largest exporter of soybeans in the world (Birch, 2021), falling to the sixth-largest producer by 2016—still remarkable given its minuscule size relative to other soy-producing nations that include Brazil and the US. The seed is trademarked as ‘Roundup Ready’ and is genetically modified to resist the application of Roundup, a pesticide that Monsanto (now Bayer) proudly promotes as it ‘kills everything green’. The combination of GMO seed and Roundup has made modern soy farming incredibly efficient on large tracts of land, enabling mechanization and requiring little labor (Elgert, 2016). Roundup is often sprayed using aerial crop dusters, which is efficient but not precise. The countryside has become poisoned with an estimated 20 million liters of agrochemicals per year (Dangl, 2014, p.  335). Traditional and subsistence agriculture has become impossible, rates of cancer and related illnesses exploded, and even deaths due to agrochemical exposure have become unsurprising. If all of this was not enough to banish the peasants from the countryside, those that remained were often intimidated and threatened until they left (Fogel, 2005). In addition, the years of exceptionally high economic growth centered around soybean exports were also associated with a worsening in income distribution as the bottom income ladder saw their incomes fall by one-third between 1990 and 2014 (Birch 2021).

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In the rural sectors, any hope for a post-Stroessner, democratic renewal probably only served as cover for the increasing power and control over the country held by transnational corporations, including agribusiness giants Syngenta and (then) Monsanto. Indeed, as Stroessner’s dictatorship faded, the ‘Republic of Soy’ came into sharp focus (Correia, 2019; Ezquerro-Cañete, 2016). As Radcliffe (2004) notes, social movements highlight the territorial nature of state power through their transgression of the spatial rules organizing Latin American geographies—thus breaking with the hegemony of the postcolonial state, doing so in parallel to globalization’s undermining of the national state. The ruthlessness of the soy regime in Paraguay animated the peasant sector and gave rise to the country’s most critical social movements, who Fogel identifies as “the main actors challenging the oligarchic hegemony and at the same time confronting the state and the agribusiness associations that respond to crony capitalism” (Fogel, 2023). Cheap land, zero taxes, large landholdings, and poorly enforced labor and environmental laws created an ideal scenario for agribusiness and investors. A further favor to corporate interests included historically weak Paraguayan public institutions controlled by specific interests. The agribusiness sector, for one, is well represented in congress (Cerna & Solís, 2018; Duarte & González, 2016; Larrouqué, 2019). Social movements have responded to the ongoing entrenchment of the so-called ‘Soy Republic’ and, more generally, the “current cycle of neo-extractivism” by using it as a baseline of protest and producing “an ecoterritorial turn in social mobilization” (Svampa, 2021, p. 285). In response to the extractivist development model in Paraguay, the peasant movement is at the forefront of an original empowerment strategy and a concerted drive for the decommodification of social relations, which are having a massive regional and international impact (Munck, 2020). A third paradigm is emerging, focused around “food regime analysis”, which seeks to show how food production is shaped by the forces of globalization. It was the notion of “food sovereignty” (coined by Vía Campesina around 1996) that began to articulate a new paradigm of social transformation. The notion of “food sovereignty” asserts that people have the right to healthy, and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically social and sustainable methods. This was taken up within a popular feminist praxis by CONAMURI, as demonstrated in Gagliano’s chapter.

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Democratization and Disillusionment: An Opening for Social Movements As in other Latin American countries, expectations in terms of better policies, programs, and economic decisions led to disillusionment with the new post-authoritarian democratic regime as well as frustrations around ongoing corruption, violence, political infighting, and the adoption of neoliberal adjustments and restructuring of the economy. The new democratic climate of the 1990s and 2000s facilitated the reorganization of civil society, the mobilization of social movements, and the emergence of collective claims that could not develop under authoritarianism (Almeida & Cordero, 2015; Silva, 2009). The first issue at hand was to frame the problem for decision-makers, members, and the general public. Social change comes from the diffusion of new meanings and praxis that originated in movements and their members excluded from the centers of economic and political power (Silva, 2015). The democratic transition played a central role for Paraguayan social movements until the twenty-first century, which was characterized by chronically unstable political conditions that led to the emergence of large mobilizations at specific moments of political unrest. These new contextual conditions opened up opportunities for historically aggrieved sectors of society to organize and express their demands collectively and publicly. In this context, local grassroots groups synchronized their campaigns and formed national social movements to fight against privatization. Later, the aim of Paraguayan social movements consolidated against a specific model of development that threatened different livelihoods (soybean production) as well as expanding memberships around consolidated claims (feminist, indigenous, worker). The growth of organized civil society was also reflected in increased levels of participation in small-scale neighborhood organizations (vecinales), the increasing power of organization and mobilization of peasant federations, and the emergence of broad, multi-sector citizens’ coalitions, such as Tekojoja People’s Movement, Country for Everyone (País para la Mayoría) and the Popular Social Front (Frente Social y Popular), which have led several efforts to defend, deepen, and expand democratic practices.

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A Brush with Pink Tide Politics: The Colorado Stronghold on Paraguayan Politics The hopes for social, economic, and political improvements that emerged in the wake of the dictatorship rose further still with the 2008 election of Fernando Lugo. Riding Latin America’s pink tide, the election of Lugo and his party Frente Guasú (Great Front) marked the end of the 61-year rule of the conservative Colorado party, and “was hailed as a crucial step forward for democracy [in Paraguay]” (The Economist, 2012). Lugo’s victory seemed to put further distance between the country and the corrupt politics and elite capture of the Stroessner era, and the utter domination of the Colorado party on Paraguayan politics. Lugo’s success resembled the election of leftist governments in other parts of Latin America, in its promise to address the social, political, and economic damage done by decades of neoliberalism, structural adjustment, and the consolidation of power (Gott, 2008). On the streets of Paraguay, it seemed special; one could only describe the atmosphere as pure ecstasy. People singing, crying, clutching flags and each other, with palpable euphoric relief. The democratic change felt imminent, and after generations of oppression and peril, the people would be saved by this ‘Bishop of the Poor’. The victory of the former bishop sparked renewed hopes for democracy in Paraguay, especially among the most relegated sectors in economic and social terms, and among the group of peasants who had been organizing since the transition to demand land, the pardon of debts, integral land reform, and protection for family farming in order to guarantee food sovereignty. (López, 2022, pp. 380–381). Fundamental to the rise of social movements and Lugo’s triumph was a group of individuals who played a critical role since the beginning of the democratic transition in this country. ‘New democrats’, a term coined by Hetherington, can be described as “an Asunción professional of the left, steeped in opposition to the dictatorship and support for campesino struggles, but who moved in class and cultural milieus that excluded them” (Hetherington, 2011, p. 52). From the moment Lugo assumed the presidency of the country, several unions and social movement leaders became a part of the government in an attempt to influence the changes that they had been advocating for years, but now from within. The opening of political channels during the Lugo government was a starting point for several social movements

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(feminist, workers, LGBTQ+) to get their claims onto the political agenda. Some of these claims, such as the femicide law and the domestic workers’ labor law, happened in subsequent governments. Prosman (2021) argues, however, that what happened was rather a rapid co-option of these leaders by the logic of state power. Although the election of the Lugo government represented a turning point in Paraguayan politics, it could not change the context of the economic and political influence of a conservative oligarchy that felt their privileges were at risk and sought to destabilize and ultimately topple that government (Levy, 2013). Given the structure of the political system and the correlation of political forces, the election of a left-leaning opposition candidate did not result in a shift in power relations among social classes, although it did integrate new political actors into institutional politics and consequently allowed for minor changes in social policy. While the traditional ruling elite was no longer in the executive branch of government, it dominated the legislative and judiciary branches and held the balance of power to guarantee continuity in the country’s political economy and regime. Beyond promises of broader distribution of resources through social spending and an end to corruption, Lugo’s election lynchpin spoke directly to the disenfranchised peasantry who were increasingly harmed and displaced by soy production. His promise was to pursue agrarian reform and finally redress decades of illegal and market-based concentration of land. Tensions between the agro-industry, large farmers (particularly soy producers), and left-leaning Lugo were no secret. One outspoken critic has been Blas N. Riquelme, one of the richest landowners in Paraguay, and an ex-senator in the Colorado government during the Stroessner dictatorship. Many Paraguayans closely associate Riquelme with the ‘old political order’. On 15 June 2012, 17 people were shot dead in a confrontation between civilians and police, on Marina Cue, a 2000-hectare property in Curuguaty, owned by Riquelme. He had called in police to evict the peasant group accused of ‘invading’ the land, in the fashion that began in the Stroessner era, to protest tierras malhabidas. Indeed, such conflicts had happened before, but this was the most fatal in decades (Carbone & Soto, 2018). Widespread blame pointed the finger at Lugo and his ‘inflammatory’ land politics, and the Curuguaty massacre catalyzed the Presidential impeachment, as the largely Colorado opposition in congress claimed that it was proof that Lugo was unable to maintain order in the country:

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In the media, which now treated communism and farmers with equal suspicion, Lugo was accused of siding with the farmers and instigating class conflict among Paraguayans. Lugo’s impeachment can be seen as a congressional coup d’état based on the speed with which it moved forward, the violation of procedural law, the lack of evidence, and the refusal on the part of legislators to acknowledge the need for any, given that, in their opinion, the president’s conduct was common knowledge. (López, 2022, p. 382)

While the impeachment is not universally regarded as a ‘rupture’ of democracy in Paraguay, murmurs of a ‘coup’ came from much of the international news media and spokespeople of the Organization of American States (OAS). The whole process lasted 31 h, scarcely offering Lugo a chance to muster a defense. A key witness was found murdered shortly before testifying. Furthermore, and perhaps not coincidentally, “There is also no denying that the coup was integral to returning the Colorado Party to power under President Horacio Cartes, who continued his predecessor Franco’s program of accelerated agricultural neoliberalisation” (Shalk, 2021). Thus, we see again, how social movements mobilize large numbers of people in order to forge political change, such as the election of Lugo, but are often faced with a substantial backlash. Change does not come easy when authoritarian and elitist practices and goals are embedded in government institutions and systems. This was especially true of the Lugo government, elected in alliance with the Liberal party and a minority in congress and the senate. In the passing years since the ousting of Lugo, Paraguay’s countryside has become increasingly militarized and state-run crackdowns on protests and land occupations have become ever more commonplace. Furthermore, with the increasing consolidation of large-scale, industrial agriculture, and unregulated acceptance of harmful agro-toxics, combined with the reprisal of even the most basic social programs and state support for rural people, traditional agriculture is increasingly subjugated and relegated to the margins. The promise of agrarian reform has never been more distant and the economic and political stronghold of the Colorado conservatives grows resistant to challenges every day (Ezquerro-Cañete & Fogel, 2017). More broadly, institutional politics and access to state decision-making and resources remain exclusive to a limited group of politicians

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representing the interests of an even more limited sector of society.2 They occupy and use the state apparatus to advance their own economic and ideological interests while trying to maintain order through weakened clientelist networks. State violence maintains a concentration of power and high levels of economic inequality. Given the centrality of ranching and export agriculture to the economy, the influence of the agro-exporting and land-owning elite on government macroeconomics and security policy should not come as a surprise, nor should the centrality of the struggles around issues of agrarian reform.

Contemporary Social Movements in Latin America: Remobilization of the ‘Old’ and Transformation into the ‘New’? There are structural and systemic characteristics found across Latin America that date back to colonialism and imperialism that are found in Paraguay: social conservatism,3 patriarchy, religious moralism, racism, and the patrimonial and oligarchic state. Most recently, Paraguay was part of the so-called pink tide and right-wing backlash. In modern times, we can also find influences of American imperialism, traditional development models, militarism, neoliberalism, and the Washington Consensus. What is particularly interesting in the following chapters is how these structural traits and tendencies play out in Paraguay and how social movements respond to them. Certainly, Paraguay’s legacy of institutional violence and political polarization conditions the limits of contention and mobilization, but we also find in this volume’s contributions creative alternatives at the grassroots and social movement claims inspired through exchanges of knowledge and practices with neighboring countries and regional social movement networks. Social change comes from the diffusion of new meanings and praxis that originated in movements because their members were excluded from the centers of economic and political power (Silva, 2015). The next section will connect different social movement theories with the social movements studied in this volume. 2  Elected women only represent, on average, 17%, while most elected and appointed officials are predominantly white and from the upper class (Cerna Villagra, 2015). 3  In a recent contribution, López mentions the “strong public opinion against grassroots organizations and protests” and the fact that still today, many Paraguayans consider the term campesino “a pejorative term associated with communist ideals” (2022, pp. 385–386).

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Identity, Internal Movement Dynamics, and Solidarity across Movements There are different approaches to social movements, such as historical materialist studies of labor, peasant movements, and cultural ones emphasizing the importance of meanings, emotions, and practices for post-­ material, identity-based organization of subaltern social groups, like indigenous peoples, women, and LGBTQ+. Social movements find and create meaning at the cultural level, and collective action is always dependent on a process of cultural identity formation (Munck, 2020). In this volume, we find cross-over and intersectionality between material and identity-based movements where mixed analysis is necessary to grasp their different dimensions and meanings. The new within the old and the old within the new pattern of uneven and combined development was a socio-economic process, but it was also characteristic of Paraguayan political and cultural domains. Identity and culture are neither fixed nor homogeneous from this perspective as they constantly shift and change. This dynamism influences the social movements that confront this context and contribute to it. They are often torn between modern and traditional modes of organizing and identity formation (Munck, 2020). As a result of the long history and renewal of most social movements, they often simultaneously address both long-standing claims and take on new ones, using both older repertoires of actions and adopting new ones (such as social media apps). More radical civil society actions have been highlighted by analysts (Duarte & González, 2016; Prosman, 2021). For example, the mass protest in April 2017 against the “amendment crisis”: the proposed constitutional revision that would have allowed presidential reelection. Images of the Paraguayan Congress being looted and lit on fire by a vociferous mob traveled around the world (López, 2022). Furthermore, a growing number of studies highlight the relevance of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for forming networks and coordinating collective actions (Vasquez, 2011). New digital tools have changed how social movements mobilize in both democratic and authoritarian contexts. While traditional street protests and school occupations remain central to the student movement, for example, there are emerging digital activist practices that have enlarged and diversified the students’ tactical repertoire. Intersectionality is addressed by several social movements in this volume (feminist, indigenous, peasant, worker, and LGBTQ+) and refers to

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the ways in which different forms of social inequality, oppression, and discrimination intersect and become woven into the overall mosaic of identity. Whether it be women, peasants, urban poor, or domestic workers in Latin America, their identities are formed through intersectionality. It could be argued, as Lutz, Herrera Vivar and Supik (2011, p. 9) do, that intersectionality represents a paradigm shift—“a quantum leap: from the idea of differences between women, via the deconstruction of the category of gender, to the interconnections between different dimensions of inequality”. The recognition of intersectionality has, in many cases, led to inter-­ movement solidarities. Their strategic choices, too, are relational and taken within the context of other parts of the broad mosaic of social movements. The feminist movement increased its organizations and membership with youth fresh out of the students’ movement. Real dynamism and creativity often occur in the interface between social movements, as in the case of the feminist movement, the women’s peasant movement, and the LGBTQ+ movement (Munck, 2020). Popular feminism also interacts with the peasant movement and the indigenous movement. Social movements are constantly deploying novel practices, discourses, and conceptions of democracy, participation, development, rights, and citizenship. Wickham-Crowley and Eckstein (2015) believe that it is fruitful to view Latin American social movements as pursuing political-­ institutional goals and trying to gain access to state resources. Even though they are autonomous from the state and elites, many of them still receive funding for projects and they all address the state to claim material resources as well as laws and policies to advance their rights and freedoms. Many claims are material (land titles, salaries, working conditions, agricultural production material), but the student movement is knowledge-based and the feminist and LGBTQ+ movements claim legal recognitions and rights as well as security and health policies to improve their quality of life. Rice (2012) provides a more nuanced claim—that neoliberal reforms debilitate class-based actions (labor) through privatization and economic structural adjustments but activate other forms of resistance (e.g., indigenous movements). There are also larger political issues concerning societal decision-making and representation meaning that all social movements mobilize well beyond the material. The waves of protest in the post-Lugo government period counted on inter-movement solidarity and action among and between movements to pressure the government and to share information and knowledge about

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institutional resources. Waves of protest—periods of heightened protest by multiple social movements and social sectors seeking a variety of goals across the national territory (Almeida, 2020)—targeted government institutions, political leaders, and their policies. They negotiate with authorities and/or build alliances with disgruntled political elites to push their demands. In addition to the networks of the domestic middle class, it is also important to recognize how Paraguayan social movements have connected with international organizations and networks. Such connections have bolstered efforts to promote global discourses of recognition of rights in struggles around gender, indigeneity, and class. The growth of supranational relationships between movements contributed to new repertoires as well as knowledge production and solidarity between and among national social movements. The intensity of mutual contacts and the development of joint campaigns have steadily increased from the early 1990s onwards. Meetings served as sources of inspiration and points of coordination for local campaigns. These become ever more important as local politics have recently taken a new turn toward conservativism and populism. Leftist oppositional political parties took advantage of the enormous growth of social movements fighting neoliberal policies in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Several chapters recognize how much collective action is motivated by various forms of threat. Economic threats are directly related to global pressures for market deregulation while the ecological threat of climate change derives from global industrial output (Almeida & Pérez Martín, 2021). These include livelihood threats for peasants and indigenous groups; personal security for women and LGBTQ+ populations. In addition to mobilizations over the threats of government corruption, electoral fraud, and state repression, economic threats (at the national level) and ecological threats (at the local and transnational levels) mobilize the greatest number of people in collective action in the twenty-first century.

In this Volume This volume will thus contribute to understanding how social movements within the context of a weak state, authoritarian political elite, and a deficient democratization process contribute to progressive public policy, socio-economic development, and democracy. This book’s contributions also focus on how Paraguayan social movements are similar to or different

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from their Latin American counterparts, how the particularism of Paraguay explains these variations, and how overarching regional tendencies might explain the similarities. The contemporary literature on Latin American social movements is vast and diverse. However, compared to many Latin American countries and their social movements, there are few studies on Paraguayan movements, and Paraguay per se has been (and still is) understudied in general (Souchaud, 2015). That is not to say that Paraguayan scholars and intellectuals do not study or publish on their country’s social movements. However, many of these studies have not made it into the debates and discussions on Latin American social movements. Nonetheless, a new generation of Paraguayan scholars is changing this, as Paraguay has been teeming with social movement development and activity over the last decade, which deserves academic attention and analysis. Although there are numerous publications in Spanish, there are still too few in English. This volume hopes to contribute to reducing these gaps, by being the first English-language book on social movements in Paraguay. Including Paraguayan social movement case studies is not an end in itself, but a contribution to social movement theory not only in applying established theories to these case studies, but by validating their adaptation to the particularisms of Paraguay and contributing to new theories from the Paraguayan standpoint. The contribution of this volume is twofold: to provide new empirical examples in the study of Latin American social movements and their contribution to development and democracy, as well as to validate or challenge social movement theories utilizing empirical studies of Paraguayan social movements. Each chapter will present a background to the movement while dedicating most of the chapter to the movement in the post-­ Lugo era (2012–2021). Together the various chapters will contribute to a better understanding of social movements in Paraguay and Latin America and thus dialogue with the existing literature and social movement theories and consider how such studies can further our understanding of social movements in Paraguay and Latin America in general. Finally, the study of different social movements within the Paraguayan context will take into consideration the links that each movement has forged with other such movements in Latin America, including the contributions that Paraguayan social movements have made to regional networks. After setting the stage with a historical overview, the chapters in this volume will successively present different perspectives on a general social

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movement in Paraguay that has been influential in bringing social, political, and economic struggles to the fore. The study will consider rural and indigenous, labor, sex and gender-based as well as student social movements. The historical overview details the post-Stroessner era in Paraguay and the return of the Colorado rule. Despite neoliberalism is losing hegemony globally, it is part of the neoconservatism that is once again on the rise in Paraguay, “taking as their banner a set of anti-rights proposals and repositioning the old repertoire of slogans raised during the Cold War on political agendas” (González Bozzolasco, 2023). González Bozzalasco gives an overview of Paraguay’s political, social, and economic history leading up to the ousting of Fernando Lugo from the presidency in 2012. He focuses on the country’s transformations of the late 1990s and early 2000s, most significantly, the fall of Alfredo Stroessner and his authoritarian regime and the insidious emergence of the neoliberal agenda that took root in the first years of democracy. He shows how, despite public critiques and post-neoliberal proposals, neoliberalism and the elites served by it, maintained dominance in the country. The first set of chapters in the volume discusses the peasant-led agrarian movement that has, for decades, addressed nearly a century of concentrated land holdings and growing inequality epitomized by land and rural discontent. Ramon Fogel has been writing about the modern, yet familiar campesino/peasant struggle around the soy enclave for decades, and in this volume he offers insights into how the most established and longstanding campesino organization, the Federación Nacional Campesina/National Peasant Federation (FNC), builds alliances with other organizations around economic, social, and political objectives that oppose large-scale agricultural extractivism and the accompanying capitalist structure. The current agrarian structure is dominated by elites and ‘free market’ policies. Jamie Gagliano’s chapter picks up and advances Fogel’s discussion of the more traditional rural social movements by providing a unique perspective on the intersectionality of new social movements through her examination of CONAMURI (Organización de Mujeres Campesinas e Indígenas) and the making of a feminist agroecology. She highlights how social movements do not have to be either class-based or identity-based, but can bring people together based on multiple identities and everyday needs through unifying discourses at the national level. She also discusses the organization’s feminist and Indigenous approaches to agroecology

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and seed politics, vis-à-vis the dominance of GMO soy and cotton seeds in Paraguay. Likewise, Andréanne Brunet-Bélanger examines the claims to land of Indigenous communities, which, in some ways, resemble the demands of campesinos, but also invoke national and global discourses of indigenous identity and inalienable rights. The chapter investigates how the Xákmok Kásek mobilization case and claims demonstrate different ways indigenous movements seek identity, territory, and autonomy.4 It centers on communal rights, the legitimacy of indigenous knowledge and the ever- present reality of resistance. There are tensions within this cluster of movements, between a bid to recreate autonomous indigenous communities and the tasks of engaging through alliances in the struggle for democratization (Munck, 2020). The second set of chapters examines the organization of labor unions and the labor movement more generally. As in other Latin American countries, the workers’ movement was shaped by the nature of the dependent development process, albeit not in a deterministic manner. “Political unionism”, wherein trade unions turn to the state for the satisfaction of their demands, has been quite common in Latin America (Munck, 2020). Ignacio González Bozzolasco and Raquel Rojas argue in their contribution for a repositioning of the trade union movement as an object of study given the limited academic production on the subject from the 2000s onwards, despite its ongoing importance, particularly in Paraguay. González Bozzolasco and Rojas offer a panorama of the formalized labor movement since the 1960s and show how the changing political landscape has effectively shaped the possibilities of organizing. They provide a survey of the Stroessner, early post-Stroessner, and neoliberal periods, analyzing the number of unions and union membership. They document the fragmentation and weakening of the trade union movement since Stroessner’s fall and the intensification of Paraguay’s insertion into the global economy and political commitment to neoliberal policies. Their analysis focuses on “trade union experiences in recent years, attempts to build consensus in 4  Yashar (2005) suggests that the combination of changing citizenship regimes (p. 377), trans-community networks, and political associational space triggered the politicization of Indigenous identity in the region. In Yashar’s view, the shift from corporatist to neoliberal citizenship regimes politicized ethnic identities by threatening Indigenous peoples’ cultural, political, and material interests, while pre-existing community ties provided the organizational linkages to forge movements and political liberalization the space for Indigenous peoples to organize and mobilize.

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collective action coordination, as well as their relationship with the state, their participation in social dialogue, and the possibilities of effectively influencing the country’s political agenda” (2023). Their fascinating public–private comparison shows the rise and rise of labor unions through the Stroessner period, and immediately after the fall of the regime, but then, despite (or because of) higher numbers, they became more fragmented and membership declined. Their surprising, almost counter-intuitive conclusion is that organizing was much less possible and effective after the democratic transition, given the new constraints on organizing under free market policies. In a separate chapter, Rojas serves up more fascinating insights into the surprising source of a unique and specialized labor organizing effort: the domestic workers’ movement. This chapter makes the strong case that the union’s weakness is actually its strength, as it is able to remain somewhat unnoticed while forging alliances with international organizations that help advance its objectives. Rojas illustrates how despite their limitations (including gender and a reluctance to see ‘care’ as ‘work’), they overcame legal discrimination by obtaining a law that warrants them the same labor rights as any other worker, and “became a recognized political actor taking part… in discussions for the development of a National Policy on Care” (Rojas, 2023). In the following set of chapters, contributors provide accounts of movements that have confronted and negotiated Paraguay’s conservative, machismo culture, fighting a few hard-won battles for women’s rights and recognition and rights for the LGBTQ+ community. Charmain Levy and María Molinas Cabrera offer a comprehensive overview of sociopolitical trends and defining moments that have shaped the women’s rights movement and limited its momentum in Paraguay. They demonstrate that, when compared with other countries in Latin America, Paraguay has made little progress in women’s equality though some victories have maintained hope. Their analysis lands more squarely in the ‘New Social Movements’ arena with their examination of strategic alliance-building of feminist policy advocates that represent “issue networks”—coalitions that connect the movement with senior officials, policy analysts, human rights lawyers, elected legislators, and other stakeholders. They emphasize the importance and potential strength and influence that comes from engagement with transnational feminist movements and international standard-setting

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processes, such as those created under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Marco Castillo and Mirta Moragas Mereles expand the discussion of gender to Paraguay’s LGBTQ+ community, using first-hand accounts to investigate responses to the use of state (police) violence and how the citizenship of individuals part of this community is bounded and marginalized. They examine how substantive citizenship is constructed around the archetype of Paraguayan masculinity and hegemonic heteronormativity and continues to be denied to LBGTQ+ people. They describe an imaginary that excludes LGBTQ+ from legitimate, recognized participation in the social and political life of a nation/community. To conclude, Castillo and Moragas Mereles discuss ‘techniques of oppression’ designed and deployed to actively marginalize LGBTQ+ people from substantive citizenship: police violence and censorship. Finally, the last contributions investigate Paraguay’s educational and student movements. The chapters written by Ortiz and Lopez and Loza turn to student movements, which have been an important part of the Paraguayan landscape of resistance in both the areas directly related to quality and access to education and the larger field of public goods provision and government responsiveness to public need. Both these chapters highlight the internal struggles of these student movements to break with Paraguay’s authoritarian past in terms of organizational practices.5 Luis Ortiz presents an in-depth analysis of how high school students became a formidable source of protest and resistance and folded demands of access to education into wider demands for government action to provide solutions to public claims. The student movement emerged during the democratic transition and attended to both the right to education and also the wider social inequality and lack of development. Ortiz examines how extreme inequality limits access to education in a system where it is not considered a citizen’s right, but rather a service 5  Similarly, Donoso’s (2013) account of the 2006 high school student protests in Chile emphasizes the relevance of internal democracy mechanisms (such as assemblies and having spokespersons instead of presidents) for strengthening movement organizations, maintaining autonomy from parties, and creating links with non-student groups. Using protest event data for Chile between 2000 and 2012, Somma and Medel (2019) also show that street demonstrations coordinated by a large number of organizations—especially umbrella organizations—convoke more participants than those without organizational support. A similar pattern can be witnessed in the Paraguay student movement in the 2010s and its horizontal expansion across the country.

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provided to users; a commodity to be traded in the marketplace and bought and sold by those who are economically able. Thanks to the student movement, the nature and goals of education became publicly debated. Ultimately, social movements pushed that debate towards achieving “public, free and quality education” (Ortiz, 2023). Magdalena López and Jorgelina Loza examine student movements from a more symbolic and performative perspective, focusing on discourses, traditional forms of organizations, and collective experience of protest. They write about the later movements in the 2010s: the university student movement has had, since the time of the Stroessnist dictatorship, a fundamental role in the struggle for quality education providing access to universal and free education. They analyze, for example, multiple experiences on the university front, such as the “UNA no te calles” (2015), the “takeover” of the Catholic University of Asunción building (2017), and the struggle for “zero fees” in public universities (2020). These demonstrations are highly political and often express discontent and demands far beyond the university. Each of these chapters takes a unique approach to examining the social movements that have helped shape Paraguayan society and have given voice to different constituents, focusing on the period after the fall of Fernando Lugo—that Mercosur collectively regarded as a coup. Despite this challenge to democratization in Paraguay, these movements persist and have been successful in different ways and for different reasons. In aggregate, the approaches include an emphasis on the historical situation and development of movements (Fogel, Levy and Molinas Cabrera, González Bozzolasco and Rojas); the way in which intersectionalities of gender and class have given rise to movements (Rojas, Gagliano); the connections with broader rights movements and international organizations and discourses (Rojas, Brunet-Bélanger). Despite the different theories and disciplines involved in each chapter, a few things remain consistent across them. The first is the far-reaching effects of neoliberalism and the repression of a political ideology that advances the primacy and essentialism of the free market. Many of the chapters capture the comparative irony that the free market was a primary feature in the democratic transition, presenting new challenges to democratization, and, in some ways, has made few improvements over the dictatorial repression leading to more inequalities and wealth concentration. The second is the strength and persistence of conservatism, which through the Church and the patriarchal state impose traditional and exclusionary

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gender relations and where the education system has become a new battleground. Only by understanding the Paraguayan context and its main actors at the turn of the century can we grasp the country’s reality in the first part of the twenty-first century and the collective action of social movements.

References Abente Brun, D. (1987). The war of the triple Alliance: Three explanatory models. Latin American Research Review, 22(2), 47–69. Abente Brun, D. (1989). Stronismo, post-stronismo and the prospects for democratization in Paraguay. University of Notre Dame, The Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies. Abente Brun, D. (2012). Estatalidad y calidad de la democracia en Paraguay. América Latina Hoy, 60, 43–66. https://doi.org/10.14201/alh.8973 Alix-Garcia, J., Schechter, L., Valencia Caicedo, F., & Zhu, S. J. (2020). Country of women? Repercussions of the triple alliance war in Paraguay. Retrieved August 29, 2022, from https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3598489 Almeida, P. (2020). Movimientos Sociales: la estructura de la acción colectiva. CLACSO. Almeida, P., & Pérez Martín, A. (2021). Economic globalization and social movements in Latin America. In X. Bada & L. Rivera-Sánchez (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of the sociology of Latin America (pp.  390–411). Oxford University Press. Almeida, P., & Cordero, A. (Eds.). (2015). Handbook of social movements across Latin America. Springer. Birch, M. H. (2021). Paraguay and Mercosur: Unlocking Global Potential in a Regional Trade Agreement. In Ganson, B. (Ed.). Native Peoples, Politics, and Society in Contemporary Paraguay. University of New Mexico Press. Carbone, R., & Soto, C. (2018). ¿Qué pasó en Curuguaty? Tren en Movimiento. Cerna Villagra, S.  P., Villalba Portillo, S.  M., Tamayo Belda, E., & Mereles, P. R. (2021). Paraguay’s political system from authoritarian hegemony to moderate pluralism, 1954–2019. In B. A. Ganson (Ed.), Native peoples, politics, and society in contemporary Paraguay (pp. 73–108). University of New Mexico Press. Cerna, S., & Solís, J. (2018). Paraguay: entre el pluralismo moderado y el predominio de los actores tradicionales. In M.  Alcántara et  al. (Eds.), Elecciones y partidos en América Latina en el cambio de ciclo (pp.  353–376). Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas. Cerna Villagra, S. (2015). De residentas a presidentas: la procelosa participación de la mujer paraguaya en la política y la emergencia del movimiento político feminista Kuña Pyrenda. Ciencia Política, 10(20), 219–241.

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Paraguay in the Twenty-First Century: From the Rise of Progressivism to Conservative Rearticulation Ignacio González Bozzolasco

Introduction This chapter offers, first and foremost, an extensive overview of the recent political, social, and economic history of Paraguay. The focus is on the transformations that emerged in the years prior to the turn of the century, marked by the fall of the Stronist authoritarian regime and the momentum of the neoliberal agenda during the first years of democracy, as well as the characteristics of post-neoliberal proposals until the emergence of a new neoconservative cycle. An analytical framework is developed with the conviction that a better understanding of the Paraguayan reality in the first part of the twenty-first century is only possible in light of recognizing the main actors who played the leading role in the previous period, along with their proposals and characteristics.

I. G. Bozzolasco (*) Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigación Social (CIIS), Asunción, Paraguay e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. Levy et al. (eds.), Social Movements and the Struggles for Rights, Justice and Democracy in Paraguay, Social Movements and Transformation, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25883-1_2

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In order to achieve this, the chapter is structured around five central sections. The first presents the historical background that marked the hectic end of the twentieth century. Thus, a quick tour of the political history of Paraguay is offered, emphasizing the final phase of the political regime established by General Alfredo Stroessner (1954–1989). As in much of the region, the fall of Stroessner opened the doors to a process of transition to democracy in line with a period of international economic crisis and the acceptance of neoliberal proposals. The second section presents the general characteristics of the structural adjustment policies in the country, their scope and singularities. In this sense, it briefly describes how the guidelines of the Washington Consensus in Paraguay focused on the promotion of the privatization of state companies, which generated the articulation of reactions and protests by various social and political actors in the country. Throughout the third section, the reactions to neoliberalism on the social scene and in national politics are briefly analyzed. The process of coordination that social organizations achieved, through mobilizations and protests, and the paralysis of the privatization process of the state telecommunications company stands out. This experience represented a milestone that rearticulated politics in the post-neoliberal stage. The fourth part of the chapter deals with the main characteristics of the rise and fall of progressivism in the Paraguayan political arena. This process is presented as a reconfiguration of forces that is, above all, a post-­ neoliberal proposal. Thus, it analyzes these positions both inside and outside the historic Colorado Party, which governed throughout the Stronist period, as well as throughout the first two decades of transition to democracy. Finally, the conservative turn provoked after the abrupt interruption of the government of former President Fernando Lugo (2012) is explored. This describes the general characteristics of the return of the Colorado Party to power, led by the tobacco businessman Horacio Cartes, etching out a new conservative dynamic in national politics in tune with the rise of the right in the hemisphere.

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A Hectic End of the Twentieth Century in the Background At the end of the nineteenth century, a peculiar two-party political system was formed in Paraguay, following the creation of the two traditional parties shortly after the culmination of the disastrous war against the Triple Alliance (1865–1870). Both party organizations were established in 1887, with a strong influence from the invading powers of Brazil and Argentina: the National Republican Association (ANR), later known as the Colorado Party; and the Democratic Center, later called the Liberal Party (PL). Thereafter, these organizations established a bipartisan logic in the local political arena that, despite the changes and transitions that occurred throughout history, still retains many of its main characteristics. In general terms, both parties nevertheless maintain similar structures and characteristics since their establishment: they are traditional electoral parties, oligarchic in nature, but deeply rooted in different strata of the population. Paraguayan bipartisanship was characterized by long periods of government control by both political forces. The ANR exercised this control in three periods: 1887–1904, 1947–2008, and 2013 to the present. While the PL did so between 1904 and 1940, with a brief interregnum of 18 months between 1936 and 1937, involving the establishment of a revolutionary government headed by Colonel Rafael Franco, after the Chaco War against Bolivia (1932–1935). The second period of government exercise by the ANR included the 35 years of the authoritarian regime established by General Alfredo Stroessner (1954–1989), which consolidated a structure that unified three pillars of power under the same command: the government apparatus, the Armed Forces, and the party structure of the ANR (González Bozzolasco, 2013b). The Stroessner regime not only allowed the ANR to consolidate power in a situation of strong political convulsions, but also laid the foundations for the permanence of that party in power for three and a half decades and imposed a consensus among the country’s dominant groups. To this extent, Stroessner managed to largely demobilize the social and political actors who opposed him. Thus, the worker, peasant and student organizations unrelated to the regime were the target of permanent attacks at the end of the 1950s, as well as during the 1960s and 1970s. These included the experiences of: the Paraguayan Confederation of Workers (CPT), who intervened after the general strike of 1958; the peasant articulation called Christian Agrarian Leagues, object of several repressive actions during the

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1960s and 1970s; and the university student group known as the Independent Movement (MI), which was the object of strong persecution between 1976 and 1977 (González Bozzolasco, 2013a; Arditi & Rodríguez, 1987; Laterza, 1986). Similarly, attacks were launched against any progressive political articulation that, under the motto “democracy without communism”, decimated three generations of militants and political activists (González Bozzolasco, 2013b). Political organizations with a pronounced left orientation, such as the Paraguayan Communist Party (PCP), the Febrerista Revolutionary Party (PRF), and the March First Organization (OPM), among others, saw all areas of legal political partition canceled and were pushed to clandestine action (Sánchez et al., 2020). During the 1970s and 1980s, in line with much of the region, Paraguay went through a process of great transformation. Thus, at the end of the 1970s, after the consolidation of Stronismo as a political order with the promulgation of the 1967 Constitution and the 1977 Constitutional Amendment, the Paraguayan economy experienced unprecedented economic growth in its history. It was sustained with two main pillars: the construction of the Itaipu hydroelectric dam, in conjunction with Brazil; and the expansion of the agricultural frontier, with a predominant rural population. The financial figures for the period give a clear example of the aforementioned economic growth. In the period between 1973 and 1981, Paraguayan Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at an average annual rate of 9.4%, even reaching 11% between 1977 and 1980. Regarding the different sectors of production, between 1973 and 1981 average increases of 7.3% were experienced in the primary sector, 11.3% in the secondary sector, and 9.5% in the tertiary sector. Construction, commerce, and finance were among the most dynamic sectors (Arce & Zárate, 2011, pp. 224–225). This accelerated growth impacted the imagination of a significant part of the population that, to this day, continues to perceive this government as the protagonist of an unprecedented development in the country’s history, despite its clearly authoritarian characteristics. The effects of a conservative modernization process are clear. For example, works such as those by Luis Galeano speak of a process of conservative, late, and partial capitalist modernization: conservative due to the central and leading role played by the authoritarian State; belated since, unlike most of the countries in the region, agrarian capitalist modernization took place in Paraguay

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only recently, in the second half of the twentieth century; and partial, because it only managed to gain a foothold after the fall of the Stronist regime and the beginning of the transition to democracy, throughout the 1990s (Galeano, 2016, pp. 11–13). However, this economic expansion stalled in the following decade with the completion of the dam construction (and the huge foreign exchange earnings it generated), combined with the international debt crisis and its impact on the entire region. As a result, starting in 1982, the Paraguayan economy plunged into a major crisis with negative GDP rates, falling investment, fiscal and balance of payment deficits, as well as a serious accumulation of foreign debt (Borda, 1987, p. 61). In addition, since 1982 there has been a sustained increase in inflation which, starting from 0.7% in that year, reached peaks of 25% in 1985, 32% in 1986 and 26% in 1989 (Arce & Zárate, 2011, pp. 236–237). The economic crisis had significant political and social repercussions for which different organized political and social sectors increased in intensity their slogans and pressures for a greater opening by the regime, promoting demands for a democratic order (Rivarola, 1987; Flecha et al., 1993). Subsequently, a sustained process of recomposition of various social and political actors could be observed during the second half of the 1980s that, later, would assume an important role in the beginning of the democratic transition. Among the emerging social organizations and movements in this period were: peasant organizations, such as the Paraguayan Peasant Movement (MCP) and the National Coordinator of Agricultural Producers (CONAPA); labor unions, such as the Inter-Syndical Workers’ Movement (MIT); and joint student organizations, such as the Federation of University Students of Paraguay (FEUP), clearly the most active of the period (Arditi & Rodríguez, 1987). In line with these sectors, in 1987 the political articulation called the Popular Democratic Movement (MDP) was born, which was the clearest expression of the social rearticulation process. Mainly articulated by activists from the student and union sectors, this new grouping was the convergence of different progressive and socialist aspects, constituting a public space to dispute a greater public presence, given that the regime restricted electoral political participation to progressive sectors in general. The MDP managed to grow in numbers and influence between 1987 and 1989, until the change in the political system divided the organization due to differences over the strategies to be followed (Sánchez et al., 2020, p. 279).

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Finally, in February 1989, a coup d’état from within the regime put an end to 35 years of uninterrupted rule by General Alfredo Stroessner. This opened a new stage of public liberties and the incorporation of new actors into the political scene. At the same time, the beginning of the democratic transition brought with it the constitution of a new political order, more democratic institutions, and different rules of the game for access to power.

Neoliberalism in the Making For all of Latin America the final years of the twentieth century meant a period of great and accelerated political and economic transformations. If politically the changes represented the transition from dictatorial governments to more democratic forms of government, economically the transformations constituted the passage from a state-centric development model to one based more on the free market (Cavarozzi & Casullo, 2002, p. 11). In this context, the structural adjustment measures promoted by the Washington Consensus required the reduction of fiscal spending, diminution of the state apparatus, the privatization of companies and public services, the orientation of national production towards exports, as well as the promotion of a free market for goods and services. Beyond the peculiarities and specificities with which these lines of action were carried out in Paraguay, the country did not escape this shift. Therefore, the transformations promoted affected the Paraguayan State, as well as its development model and political dynamics. Thus, the first attempts at institutional and economic reforms in vogue throughout the region were introduced in the country, coinciding with the beginning of the transition to democracy. As a result, a series of disputes was generated that transformed the entire political-institutional apparatus of the State, which resulted in the liberalization of the financial system and the privatization of some small state-owned companies, although the vast majority of transfers to the private sector were truncated (González Bozzolasco & Martínez Escobar, 2019a, p. 64). The structural adjustment measures carried out were based on diagnoses and recommendations made by international organizations, such as the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), with the argument of recovering economic growth in the country. Although the measures were similar to those carried out in other countries of the region, Paraguay possessed important differences with many of them: it did not

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have a state superstructure; it did not have a welfare state; nor had it gone through a process of industrialization by substitution of imports (Nickson, 2005). The discussion regarding the restructuring of the Paraguayan State took place during the 1990s, lasting until the beginning of the 2000s. Through Law 126/1991, various public companies were established as subject to privatization, such as: alcohol administration, the merchant fleet, the airlines, the railway, and the steel company. In addition, during the 1990s and 2000s, new entities were created in charge of regulating telecommunications and health services, while the state companies became public limited companies with the majority of shareholding in the hands of the State. However, the companies that ultimately sold were few and far between. With the promulgation of Law 1615/2000, a new process of privatization of public companies was undertaken, beginning with the telephone company. However, social protests and the lack of political consensus ended up stopping a new attempt. In this context, the traditional prebendary practices of the national political scene were perhaps an additional factor that impeded the advancement of neoliberal. So too, the already small structure of the Paraguayan State, at least in comparison with its counterparts in the southern American cone. Faced with conditions such as those mentioned above, many actors in the Paraguayan political arena could see policies aimed at promoting a small state as disadvantageous, greatly reducing the resources of power in the Paraguayan political field. This process was developed in two different periods. The first, between 1991 and 1998, under the Colorado governments of General Andrés Rodríguez (1989–1993) and Juan Carlos Wasmosy (1993–1998). The second, at the beginning between 2000 and 2002, with the agreement among the main political parties represented in Congress, under the National Unity government of Colorado President Luís A.  González Macchi (1999–2003) (González Bozzolasco & Martínez Escobar, 2019b, p. 98). The arguments held were similar to those presented throughout the region, discourses that “combine economic liberalism and conservative political hegemonism, in a combination that excludes or disqualifies other expressions of political pluralism” (Bosoer & Leiras, 1999, p. 109). The victims of the process were portrayed as the assailants. The beneficiaries of public services, the salaried sectors, the vulnerable population in need of

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state support and the citizenry in general were considered responsible for state waste. Meanwhile, the big businessmen were no longer willing to solve their problems. Thus, a “shock” narrative or doctrine was created to promote neoliberal measures (Klein, 2011).

Reactions to Neoliberalism If the epicenter of the political-economic agenda throughout the first years of the transition to democracy was the role of the State, its transformation through privatization was one of the constitutive issues. In this sense, it operated as a driving force for a variety of negotiations and confrontations that articulated both competition and cooperation between political and social actors, affecting the entire political arena. In this new scenario, the field of social protest gained relevance as one of the theaters of battle. The social organizations and political actors of the Paraguayan left were natural actors in these struggles, but exponents and groups belonging to the traditional parties also played a central role on the scene. The labor unions actively participated in this new scenario represented in three trade union centrals: the Single Central of Workers (CUT), the Paraguayan Confederation of Workers (CPT), and the National Central of Workers (CNT). The strongest of these was the CUT, a continuation of the Inter-Union Workers’ Movement (MIT) that emerged in the final years of Stronism (González Bozzolasco, 2013a, p.  136). Its actions focused on increasing the minimum wage, as well as against the demands of business associations to liberalize wages. During that period, the first general strike in democracy took place 36 years after the last measure carried out at the beginning of the Stronist period (1958). Thus, in coordination with the peasant unions and with the support of the opposition parties, the three existing trade union centers promoted a general strike on May 2, 1994 with the following slogans: salary increase of 40%, rejection of privatization and corruption, and a comprehensive agrarian reform (CDE, 1994, p.  2). During the same period, initiatives for the promulgation of a new Labor Code also arose, at the request of the International Monetary Fund (Céspedes, 1993, p. 65). For their part, in tune with the neoliberal proposals in vogue in the region, Paraguayan business associations proposed labor flexibility to reduce the already diminished labor guarantees existing in Paraguayan labor legislation. The main demand was to eliminate the legal minimum

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wage, leaving the regulation of wages to the discretion of the market, in line with the economic liberalization undertaken by the government since the beginning of democracy. The peasant sector and its organizations also strengthened their organizations, as well as advancing in their collective action strategies. The organizations that emerged in the 1980s, during the last years of Stronism, such as the Paraguayan Peasant Movement (MCP) and the National Coordination of Agricultural Producers (CONAPA), among others, converged in the National Coordinating Table of Peasant Organizations (MCNOC), founded in 1994. Initially, their claims revolved around the demand for land, technical assistance, credits, and subsidies for production. However, as the unions lost strength after their internal crises during the second half of the 1990s, the peasant unions gained prominence with broader demands, incorporating issues such as the rejection of privatization, the denunciation of the criminalization of social struggles, among other broader slogans that transcended their sector (González Bozzolasco & Martínez Escobar, 2019b, p. 101). The peasant organizations also played a decisive role in confronting the privatizations underway during the second period of the government assault on the state beginning in 2000. The articulation of different social movements and unions led to the formation of the Democratic Congress del Pueblo (CDP) in 2002, as a space for joint action (Cantero, 2005, p.  175). This platform brought together peasant sectors, trade unions, and leftist organizations that managed to stop the privatization of the state telephone company by then President Luís A.  González Macchi (1999–2003). With the struggles that managed to stop the privatization of public companies, an apex of articulation and joint action among different social organizations and leftist forces in Paraguay was reached (Palau, 2014, p. 17). From then on, in a regional climate of rising progressive sectors in electoral politics, the great majority of the organizations of the Paraguayan left decided to participate in the general elections of 2003 (Sánchez et al., 2015, p. 383). Although the results they obtained were modest, an important process of articulation began there, which later led to the electoral triumph of former Bishop Fernando Lugo in the 2008 general elections (González Bozzolasco & Martínez Escobar, 2019a, p. 70).

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The Rise and Fall of Progressivism The resistance generated by different organized social sectors against the structural adjustment policies carried out throughout Latin America, led to different political expressions that, beyond their contrasts and nuances, were identified as projects that bet on a new post-neoliberal stage. Understood in the sense by Emir Sader, post-neoliberalism “is a descriptive category that designates different degrees of negation of that model, without presenting a new model, at the same time that a hybrid set of forces make up the alliances that are the basis of new projects” (Sader, 2008, p. 81). The initial steps on the path of post-neoliberalism were taken within the Colorado Party itself, starting in 2001. Being the largest political party in the country, with uninterrupted power since 1948, the internal confrontations and the emergence of currents with diametrically opposite positions are the rule, not the exception. President Nicanor Duarte Frutos was the main exponent of the reactions against the neoliberal measures in his party at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Duarte Frutos stood out as a very different politician from what the Colorado Party had presented as an electoral option since the beginning of the democracy period. In the midst of the erosion of structural adjustment policies in the region, he presented himself as a progressive figure, advocating within party ranks the recovery of the historical roots of humanist socialism (Tamayo, 2019, p. 99). First, he managed to position himself as president of the ANR in 2001, and as that party’s candidate for the presidency, in 2002. Later, he became president of the republic during the 2003–2008 period (Sánchez, 2019, pp. 40–41). Duarte Frutos was the first political president of the transition to democracy with a leadership disconnected from any of the groups of political and economic power that emerged throughout the 35  years of the Stronista regime (González Bozzolasco, 2013b, pp. 31–32). Characterized by his strong public critique of the neoliberal model, Duarte Frutos began his mandate with a clear anti-privatization orientation, pointing to the strengthening of the state and the development of social policies aimed at reducing inequalities in Paraguayan society. As a result, with a visible progressive orientation, he offered a change in direction to the course that the Colorado governments that preceded him had been taking since the overthrowing of General Alfredo Stroessner in 1989. With this new political perspective of government and the state, Duarte

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Frutos “inserted Paraguay into the progressive turn that was already taking place in South America” (Sánchez, 2019, p. 45). Undoubtedly, many of the actions carried out by Duarte Frutos outlined the public policies of social inclusion and state modernization carried out by subsequent governments. At the same time, it is very clear that his political imprint significantly shook the old structures of a predominantly conservative political party. In any case, as Gustavo Codas points out, it will be up to historians to “unravel the plots of that situation”, in which the interruption of the cycle of domination by the Colorado Party takes place, precisely, under the leadership of a politician who was in tune with the regional progressive wave of protest against neoliberalism (Codas, 2019, p. 43). The political confrontation, both inside and outside the ANR, created the necessary conditions for the Colorado defeat in the 2008 presidential elections. Lugo’s candidacy had the support of two large sectors: the Social and Popular Block (BSP), which brought together social movements and left-wing organizations; and the National Concertation (CN), which brought together the right-wing parties opposed to the ANR. From the union of both sectors derived the political-electoral platform of Lugo called Patriotic Alliance for Change (APC). The main general program of the alliance were: economic reactivation; agrarian reform; institutional recovery together with the fight against corruption; the establishment of independent justice; and the recovery of national sovereignty (González Bozzolasco, 2010, pp. 19–20). The great majority of the political-ideological spectrum of the Paraguayan left participated in the electoral campaign of Fernando Lugo. They were part of the progressive and left-wing APC rainbow: the Febrerista Revolutionary Party (PRF); the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP); the National Encounter Party (PEN); the Solidarity Country Party (PPS); the Broad Front Party (PFA), all center-left; and the Movimiento Popular Tekojoja (PPT) and the Partido del Movimiento al Socialismo (P-MAS), both with a pronounced socialist position (González Bozzolasco, 2010, p. 20). Despite this, the unity on the presidential ticket would not translate into an alliance of the progressive forces in the legislative elections, which had a negative impact on the number of seats obtained by them (of the 45 members of the Chamber of Senators, the left-wing parties won 3 seats and of the 80 members of the Chamber of Deputies they obtained 2). While the conservative sectors, both allies and opponents of the government, were

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left with a parliamentary majority, with a victory for the ANR in both chambers. Paraguay elected a government with a bold progressive orientation and a clearly conservative parliament (González Bozzolasco, 2013b, pp. 87–88). At the same time, social organizations and movements experienced a significant decline in their mobilizing capacity, starting with the last struggles against privatization in 2002. Certainly, one could speak of a displacement of progressive social and political sectors from grassroots struggles to a mostly institutional one (Sánchez et  al., 2020, pp.  287–288). This situation fragilized the offset that sectors linked to social organizations and progressive political forces could offer in the context of the preponderant liberal force present in all spheres of power. The Lugo government was a clear reflection of its contradictory composition, trying to expand the coverage of certain social programs initiated in the previous administration and making minimal changes in other policies, without a parliamentary base and with a cabinet that reflected the composition of a very broad alliance, which brought it to the presidency. On the one hand, a liberal majority that aspired to greater power in the structure of the State and used its veto power as a bargaining chip; and, on the other, fractionalized progressive sectors without a mobilized social base and weakened by a lack of significant parliamentary representation. The president’s frequent political zigzags, in addition to his tactical tendency to seek to place himself above the conflicts, further aggravated the difficulties of making any progress. And, in repeated cases, many of the government actions, undertaken in a lukewarm and hesitant manner, were undone in the face of the conservative reaction of groups with great economic and political power. Finally, the aforementioned lack of parliamentary force of its own, as well as the impossibility of consolidating a mobilized social and citizen force, cost Fernando Lugo his presidential mandate. His dismissal in June 2012, promoted by the most conservative sectors of Paraguayan society, took place after the tragic events that occurred in a land conflict with peasant organizations.

The Conservative Turn Despite the discursive and institutional attempts to make the abrupt termination of the Lugo government be seen as a constitutional process framed in state regulations, Paraguayan society felt the blow and exposed

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Paraguayan democracy’s vulnerability. Thus, both critics and supporters of the deposed government, in addition to the broad spectrum of citizens contemplated among them, witnessed the institutional weaknesses of Paraguayan democracy, the extremes to which political conflicts reached in the country and the excessive character of the reactions and attacks of the actors involved in the conflict. After the change of government, many of the moderate advances made in benefits and social services with a focus on rights were affected. In return, rapid measures were developed to favor powerful economic sectors of the country. After Lugo’s dismissal, his vice president, Federico Franco, one of the articulators of his impeachment, took over the government. With this move, the main sectors of the Liberal Party sought to guarantee a new victory against the Colorado Party in the 2013 presidential elections; this time, already in the hands of a liberal candidate at the head: the senator and former Minister of Public Works of the Lugo government, Efraín Alegre. They proceeded to reshuffle all government positions by placing Liberal leaders and candidates. At the same time, the brief Franco government, which lasted just 13  months, advanced in certain measures related to the interests of the dominant economic sectors in the country, such as those linked to agribusiness. As such, Franco approved the use of OGM seeds in different productive areas and relaxed the already lax regulations that controlled the use and fumigation of crops, especially soybeans (González Bozzolasco, 2013b, pp. 91–94). Within the scope of the Colorado Party, the wealthy tobacco businessman Horacio Cartes was consolidated as the main figure for the presidential elections. With a certain resemblance to the case of Fernando Lugo in the 2008 elections, the figure of the outsider resurfaced on the local political scene, although now from within the main political party in the country. Cartes’ victory in the presidential elections of April 2013 not only meant the return of the ANR to power after a brief interruption, but also constituted a conservative reaffirmation in Paraguayan politics, in tune with a technocratic conservative wave on the rise in Paraguay and much of Latin America (Nercesian, 2020). The agenda of the new president Cartes focused on reducing the fiscal deficit generated in the Franco government, modernizing public administration and attracting foreign investment. In this sense, he proposed a cabinet made up of mostly technocrats without party activism, before opting for the traditional political leaders of the party with which he came to

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power, and granted important positions to several of the main executives of his private companies. As soon as his government began, the new president achieved majority support among the parliamentarians and leaders of his party. In addition, he established a parliamentary alliance with sectors of the Liberal Party and the left, which allowed him to enact an ensemble of laws that would define his government. These included the Public–Private Partnership Law, which encourages the participation of private capital in public ventures, facilitating privatizations and concessions; the Fiscal Responsibility Law, which obliges the State to maintain a budget deficit of no more than 1.5%; and the National Defense and Internal Security Law, which allows the Executive Branch to use military personnel for domestic security without prior authorization from Congress (González Bozzolasco, 2017). These measures defined the roadmap of a new neoconservative brand in Paraguayan politics that drew the new lines and currents of the right throughout the region (Velasco et al., 2015, p. 10).

Conclusions The consolidation of a new neoconservative political context in Paraguay is the result of a long course of negotiations and social and political confrontations in different historical contexts. If Stronismo was developed as a proposal for conservative modernization insofar as it did not threaten to undermine the foundations on which the power of the dominant economic groups was built, it could not avoid being both the breeding ground for criticisms and opposition by social movements and new and renewed political actors. The fall of the Stronista regime and the beginning of the transition to democracy had as one of its central components a new political-economic context that reformulated conservatism in a neoliberal key. This meant a rearticulation of various organized actors in the face of the disastrous effects generated by the structural adjustment policies. In this sense, the resistance to the reconfiguration of the State (its reduction or downsizing through privatization) became the main battlefield. The post-neoliberal proposals, with a clear progressive imprint, were undoubtedly an innovative exercise to rethink Paraguayan politics, far from the traditional interests of the country’s economic elites. Such experiences were as innovative as they were problematic to the extent they were unable to overcome the difficulties their respective situations imposed

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on them. Thus, progressivism within the Colorado Party did not find the veins for its continuity, nor did the progressivism that emerged as an opposition alternative manage to achieve a government proposal that overcomes the disputes and threats arising from its own ranks. This tells us a lot about the difficulties of overcoming the ironclad conservative structures prevailing in Paraguayan society, but also about the potentialities and possibilities of challenging them. Finally, the rise of neoconservatism, with its technocratic imprint, rethinks the priorities of the State in order to redefine the rules of the political, economic, and social game based on the needs and demands of political and business sectors that gained prominence in recent years. Despite its strength, it remains to be seen if this new conservatism will manage (or not) to prevail, given that its opponents are not only the social and popular movement, but also fractions or sectors belonging to the same economic elites, although with their own particular interests.

References Arce, L., & Zárate, W. (2011). Auge Económico, Estancamiento y Caída de Stroessner 1973-1989. In F.  Masi & D.  Borda (Eds.), Estado y economía en Paraguay 1870–2010 (pp. 207–244). CADEP. Arditi, B., & Rodríguez, J. (1987). La Sociedad a pesar del Estado. Movimientos sociales y recuperación democrática en el Paraguay. Borda, D. (1987). La Estatización de la Economía y la privatización del Estado en el Paraguay. Revista Estudios Paraguayos, 17(1–2), 37–89. Bosoer, F., & Leiras, S. (1999). Posguerra fría, “neodecisionismo” y nueva fase del capitalismo: el alegato del Príncipe-gobernante en el escenario global de los ‘90. In A.  Boron, J.  Gambina, & N.  Minsburg (Eds.), Tiempos violentos. Neoliberalismo, globalización y desigualdad en América Latina (pp. 107–123). CLACSO-EUDEBA. Cantero, M. (2005). La izquierda o el fermento de los movimientos sociales en Paraguay. In M.  Palau & A.  Ortiz (Eds.), Movimientos sociales y expresión política (pp. 159–180). Base IS. Cavarozzi, M., & Casullo, E. (2002). Los partidos políticos en América Latina hoy: ¿consolidación o crisis? In M. Cavarozzi & J. M. Abal (Eds.), El asedio a la política. Los partidos latinoamericanos en la era neoliberal (pp. 9–32). Céspedes, R. (1993). Sindicalismo y transición. In D. Abente Brun (Ed.), Paraguay en transición (pp. 53–68). Nueva Sociedad. CDE. (1994). Informativo Laboral No 89. Asunción: CDE. Codas, G. (2019). Paraguai. Fundação Perseu Abramo.

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Flecha, V. J., Martini, C., & Silverio, J. (1993). Autoritarismo, transición y constitución en Paraguay. hacia una sociología del poder. BASE-ECTA. Galeano, L. (2016). Modernización conservadora, tardía y parcial. CPES. González Bozzolasco, I. (2010). Paraguay en la disyuntiva del cambio. Contexto Latinoamericano, 1(12), 36–46. González Bozzolasco, I. (2013a). El nuevo despertar. Breve historia del Movimiento Intersindical de Trabajadores del Paraguay (1985–1989). Arandura-Germinal. González Bozzolasco, I. (2013b). La encrucijada del cambio. Análisis sobre la realidad social y política del Paraguay contemporáneo. Arandura-Germinal. González Bozzolasco, I. (2017). Las claves del escenario paraguayo. Retrieved from http://panamarevista.com/las-­claves-­del-­escenario-­paraguayo/ González Bozzolasco, I., & Martínez Escobar, F. (2019a). Los procesos políticos-­ electorales de la izquierda paraguaya en los 30 años de democracia. Revista electrónica de estudios latinoamericanos e-l@tina, 17(68), 55–74. González Bozzolasco, I., & Martínez Escobar, F. (2019b). La gauche dans la transition démocratique au Paraguay. Analyser 30 ans de démocratie. Problèmes d'Amérique latine, 4(115), 87–110. Klein, N. (2011). La Doctrina del Shock. El auge del capitalismo del desastre. Paidós. Laterza, G. (1986). La experiencia autónoma del movimiento estudiantil paraguayo. In D.  Rivarola (Ed.), Los movimientos sociales en el Paraguay (pp. 253–358). Cpes. Nercesian, I. (2020). Presidentes empresarios y Estados capturados: América Latina en el siglo XXI. Teseo. Nickson, A. (2005). Reformando el Estado en Paraguay. In D. Abente Brun & F.  Masi (Eds.), Estado, economía y sociedad, Una Mirada Internacional a la democracia paraguaya (pp. 41–72). Cadep. Palau, M. (2014). Movimiento popular y democracia. Base IS. Rivarola, D. (1987). Alternativas de una transición democrática: el caso paraguayo. In F. Calderón & M. Dos Santos (Eds.), Los conflictos por la constitución de un nuevo orden (pp. 291–328). Clacso. Sader, E. (2008). Refundar el Estado. Posneoliberalismo en América Latina. Clacso. Sánchez, J. (2019). La nueva política paraguaya (2003–2018).. El Lector. Sánchez, J., González Bozzolasco, I., & Martínez Escobar, F. (2020). La izquierda paraguaya y sus estrategias. In S. Leiras (Ed.), ¿Giro a la izquierda o viraje al centro?: Argentina y el Cono Sur, entre la continuidad y el cambio (pp. 273–294). Teseo. Sánchez, J., González Bozzolasco, I., & Martínez Escobar, F. (2015). Paraguay y las trayectorias de la izquierda desde 1989. In D.  Kersffeld (Ed.), Desde sus cenizas. La caída del Muro de Berlín y sus efectos en las izquierdas latinoamericanas (pp. 371–392). FES. Tamayo, E. (2019). El Tercer Espacio Político en Paraguay (1989–2019). El Lector. Velasco, S., Kaysel, A., & Codas, G. (2015). Direita, volver!: o retorno da direita e o ciclo político brasileiro. Editora Fundação Perseu Abramo.

Peasant Movements in Paraguay Ramón Fogel

Introduction Paraguay has a poorly diversified economy, based on genetically modified soybean and cattle ranching. The expansion of soybean agribusiness in the last two decades has been very intense and has heavily GMOized the country (ISAAA, 2017). This growth occurred at the expense of indigenous and peasant community lands, with the active cooperation of the State and its repressive apparatus against resistance to the agribusiness model (Valdez, 2017). State support is also expressed in the quasi-total tax exemption for agribusiness, which places Paraguay as the country with the lowest tax burden in the region (Dangor, 2021). This chapter analyzes the peasant movement as it has become more visible in Paraguay in the last two decades, focusing on the National Peasant Federation (FNC), which was formed at the beginning of this century. Under extraordinary circumstances, the FNC coordinates its actions with other organizations and these alliances are built around specific objectives. In the first section, the peasant movement is discussed in relation to

R. Fogel (*) Department of Studies, Centro de Estudios Rurales Interdisciplinarios, Asunción, Paraguay © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. Levy et al. (eds.), Social Movements and the Struggles for Rights, Justice and Democracy in Paraguay, Social Movements and Transformation, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25883-1_3

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movements in other sectors. Attention is drawn to the peculiarity of the Paraguayan social structure, which did not, and does not have, the necessary urban industrial development to support a proletariat and a bourgeoisie, thereby allowing a more prominent role for the working class. The next section discusses how the mobilizations carried out by the FNC are related to a specific economic, social, and political context. The types and intensity of peasant collective action are strongly conditioned by the agrarian structure and its changes, and, thus, by capitalist development modalities in agriculture. Agricultural extractivism, part of the neoliberal agri-food regime, displaces the capital–labor contradiction and reconfigures peasant demands. In the final section, a prospective exercise is presented. This chapter analyzes demonstrators’ types of action, organization, and ideology, which are expressed in their political action. The period studied focuses on the last two decades. The methodological approach used is based on the structural historical perspective, despite the short time frame in question. This allows us to link the socio-economic structure with the circumstances, that is, the political actors’ own space. Secondary data, interviews with leaders, and notes from local, departmental and national workshops were used.

Social Movements and Struggles in Paraguay In recent years, new subjects of emancipation have emerged, such as the student movement “UNA no te calles”, the citizen movement “Somos anticorrupción“, and the feminist and women’s movements that have formulated diverse demands. The citizens’ movement Somos Anticorrupción, beyond the participation of an association of women lawyers, lacks a visible organizational structure, uses social networks, and its social composition is heterogeneous. In the context of the delegitimization of political parties, these mobilizations show great political potential with new forms of participation regardless of electoral representation. Demonstrators’ identity revolves around anti-corruption activities, and their opposition to impunity. Political actors are their antagonists and their demonstrations had an impact in the political arena, as they contributed to the resignation or dismissal of five congressmen in the current legislative period. During the pandemic, several solidarity organizations emerged, such as the network of soup kitchens, which were active in urban areas, with strong participation of organizations from the marshland areas of the capital, which experienced losses more acutely caused by large river floods.

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These were poor people showing solidarity for poor people; they demanded and obtained help from the government, and channeled donations of agricultural products from the FNC. These expressions of FNC solidarity then reinforced affinities with the flood victims. Unlike the aforementioned mobilizations, peasant social movements have a relatively stable organizational structure. Their antagonists are political actors who control the State and dominant economic actors. Their stability over time is much greater, as well as their contribution to the construction of citizenship. These characteristics have to do with the peculiarities of the socio-economic structure of Paraguay, a country where the struggle between bourgeois and proletarians was never crucial due to weak industrial development (Valdez et al., 2021). In this context, the role of the main subaltern actor is played by peasant organizations and movements, and, in some areas, they have managed to alter dominant practices, such as defense of and access to land. The peasantry, as a class and ethnocultural collective, suffers to a greater extent from agribusiness, the dominant actor in the economic sphere. Its organizational structure persists because it is the one that allows for the development of defensive and reactive actions. Among the predecessors are the “Ligas Agrarias Cristianas“(Christian Agrarian Leagues), established in the 1960s by peasant communities reacting against new forms of wire fencing of common goods, in this case communal fields in Misiones. After recovering the communal fields, the leagues began to preach the need to build a more fraternal world by changing the relations among peasants themselves. In a political phase, the leagues were already addressing class interests related to marketing, the provision of supplies and consumer goods, as well as the recovery of ill-gotten public lands. In the mid-1970s, the leagues were considered by the dictatorship to be a subversive organization and, consequently, they were annihilated with blood and fire (Valdez, 2017; Fogel, 1986). The leagues were transformed into new organizations during the transition to democracy starting in 1989, although the Movimiento Campesino Paraguayo (MCP) and the Coordinadora Nacional de Productores Agrícolas (CONAPA), were created in 1986. Among the organizations that have taken up the legacy of the leagues is the National Peasant Federation (FNC), which split off from CONAPA in 2000, and has persisted throughout the years, obtaining greater achievements in its claims for access to land. The mobilizations carried out by this organization are the focus of this chapter.

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Theoretical Discussion In these terms, social movements refer to collective actions—defensive or offensive—of organized subaltern classes and groups, mobilized in pursuit of the collective interest considered as common goods. These groups make demands on the State and/or other dominant actors who favor, and are favored by, a form of capital accumulation, such as the extractivist model. Changes in the socio-economic structure can exacerbate conflicts that are at the root of collective actions carried out by subaltern actors. Social struggles are more sporadic, and, therefore, short-lived in comparison to social movements. The scope of social struggles is local, and their adherents are demobilized once their demands are met. From a theoretical point of view, this chapter uses the theory of conflict between classes, groups and ethno-cultural collectivities, based on the inherent contradictions in capitalist development, and specifically in agrarian capitalism, while considering the historical experience of Paraguay (Kay, 2015; McKay et al., 2021). The extractivist economy of genetically modified soybeans, as in other cases in the region, uses labor-saving, capital-­ intensive technology with a high capacity to extract natural resources. This displaces the capital–labor tension with the capital–nature tension. The class conflict now confronts owners of agrarian capital, who monopolize natural resources and land against cornered peasants. Soybean extractivism is part of the neoliberal agri-food regime. In a highly polarized society, an alliance of agents representing large corporations, agribusiness entrepreneurs, and the political elite controlling the State, seeks to reproduce the current extractivist model that benefits them. This alliance was the basis of the parliamentary coup that removed then-­ President Fernando Lugo from office (Ezquerro-Cañete & Fogel, 2018; Fogel, 2013). The State, as one of the pillars of this alliance, guarantees the conditions for the reproduction of agrarian capital, including the appropriation of nature. These reproduction conditions involve physical coercion and appropriation of the lands belonging to peasant and indigenous communities. It means separating them from their means of subsistence, and expelling them from the countryside. In addition, the State guarantees the conditions for reproducing agrarian capital by tax exemptions granted to the sector, and by oppressing resistance hotbeds. In turn, this form of resource appropriation creates tensions that drive those affected to create social movements in order to avoid being annihilated. In this form of extractivism, the basic contradiction between capital and land

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is at the heart of peasant mobilizations. People who mobilize react as a class and as an ethnocultural collectivity, given that they share a culture and a history of grievances and struggles against aggression. We assume that, in certain circumstances, struggles and social movements that mobilize in search of greater equity can transform power relations and can produce material changes. In other words, the approach used takes into account conflicts and their socio-economic and political conditioning factors, placing social subjects within their objective relationships. In this respect, the historical-structural analysis used begins with the underlying causes of the conflicts that confront alternative models of society.

The Context of Mobilizations In the last decades, the social structure and social relations in the Paraguayan countryside have concomitantly changed in a substantial way as the conservative modernization of the agrarian structure was initiated under an authoritarian regime (Nagel, 1999; Fogel, 1986). At the height of the democratic transition, there was already a remarkable expansion of soy agribusiness (Nagel, 2005; Fogel & Valdez, 2022; Fogel, 2019), with significant support from the State (CODEHUPY, 2014; Ezquerro-Cañete & Fogel, 2018; FNC, 2017; Fogel, 2013). As mechanization was achieved, without having gone through industrialization, Paraguay continues to be a country with an economy relying on agrarian activities, now based on soy extractivism. Such intense transformations have an important impact on the demands of peasant movements. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, at the height of neoliberal policies, the expansion of genetically modified soybeans began. The expansion was partly based on the illegal appropriation by agribusiness agents of national lands, destined for Paraguayan peasants and indigenous communities. A particular feature of agrarian capitalism’s expansion on the country’s eastern border is the land appropriations by Brazilian soybean growers and cattle ranchers. The State sought to reproduce conditions for extractivism linked to genetic engineering and multinational corporations of the neoliberal agro-food regime. This involves turning a blind eye to violations of environmental laws, using physical coercion in the seizure of land belonging to indigenous and peasant communities, and tax exemptions. In 2002, Law 1863/02 was passed—and is still in force—amending the Agrarian Statute, which protects large estates by establishing ‘reserves’ or

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agriculturally useful soils; it was no longer possible to reallocate unused areas of large estates. The 1992 Constitution adopted during the unfinished democratic transition (1989–2021) already established that each expropriation required a specific legal process, and should be carried out after payment, according to market prices. This law also restricted plots of land allocated under the agrarian reform. At the same time, the government proposed the privatization of basic public resources, including electricity and communications with Law 1615/00. The law was repealed as a result of peasant mobilizations. At the time, Paraguay was already considered a very unequal country, in a highly unequal continent. The peasant response was, on the one hand, to defend their territory and, on the other, to occupy large estates. The National Peasant Federation (FNC) demanded agrarian reform and a national development program. With the strengthening of the extreme right-wing control of the State, the criminalization of peasant organizations has intensified since 2012, with massive criminal charges and arrests, more neoliberal policies, and the growth of socio-economic imbalances. As the construction of neoliberal hegemony by the oligarchy allied with soybean growers and large corporations failed, more state violence was used, culminating in the massacre of eleven peasants occupying public land. That tragic day, in June 2012, was followed by the dismissal of then President of the Republic, who sought to recover public lands. At this time, the traditional social structure was clearly evident, while political actors responded to the interests of dominant groups. Even months before the deposition of President Lugo, the business associations were talking about it (Ezquerro-Cañete & Fogel, 2018; Fogel, 2013). In the following decade, the expansion of agribusiness (basically soybean production) continued, under the protection of public policies. In addition to the large transnational corporations, the contractors, lessors, speculative investment funds (pooles de siembra) agents, and financial intermediaries increased their presence. While the expansion of genetically modified soybean stagnated as of 2016, corporate rice production continued to expand, causing serious environmental damage (FNC, 2017). The consolidated neoliberal agri-food regime reached everyone’s table, dictating what should be eaten. Television programs showed how to prepare meals based on agribusiness products. On the other hand, the peasants, expelled from their land, moved to the urban periphery, forming a community fragmented by precarious

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employment and unemployment. This process was legitimized by the dominant political narrative that normalized appropriation by dispossession, disseminated by monopolized media. Former president Horacio Cartes, for example, controlled print media, radio stations, and some TV channels. Agribusiness agents also exercised control over knowledge production spaces, and disseminated the idea of one form of production being superior: soybean agribusiness. In fact, the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) even censored the results of certain investigations. In an illustrative case, Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT), by means of Resolution 136/2020, withdrew support for more than 20 research projects, thereby ‘denouncing research linked to the left’ that would have negative effects on business sectors. Among them, a project that demonstrated that “exposure to pesticides causes genotoxic damage” (ABC, 2019). Another example of the regime’s control over the research agenda involves the Center for Analysis and Dissemination of the Paraguayan Economy (CADEP), which was forced to retract the results of a study on tobacco production (La Nación, 2021). These cases demonstrate the influences on how hegemonic knowledge is produced and disseminated within the context of large corporations’ control over research. In the dominant narrative, installed in people’s minds through the media controlled by capital owners, the central idea is that ‘the best’ lies in agribusiness and ‘the worst’ in the peasant sector. By continually repeating that genetically modified foods are the best, as well as harmless, this becomes true for people without alternative sources of information. In their opinion, mechanized genetically modified technology is synonymous with progress. In the context of this agribusiness logic, the idea that progress can only be made with soybean production is increasingly understood as common sense. In recent years, there has been an incipient but growing involvement of peasant farms in soybean production, the result of the search for a lucrative crop to replace cotton. The Ministry of Agriculture offers mechanization to support peasant organizations that accept this alternative. This trend is observed, especially in the San Pedro region. Soybean farming, however, responds to the logic behind economies of scale. Thus, certain research shows that there is a high debt risk for small farms that usually leads to the sale of plots of land (Fogel et al., 2021). For example, GMO crops require the use of mechanized technology that allows for

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profitability on relatively large plots, while small farms must lease these machines, thereby increasing costs. This is such a persuasive narrative that even parliamentary groups that consider themselves progressive have ceased to challenge the current extractivist model. Frente Guazú, for example, nominated a fervent defender of transgenic soy in Santa Rosa del Aguaray, the main district of the department of San Pedro, as a candidate for Mayor in the 2021 election. There are old prejudices toward the peasant sector that disqualify it and undervalue its work, despite its contribution to employment, food production, and the sustainable management of natural resources. In recent years, these prejudices against peasants as bearers of backwardness, unattached to work, and obstacles to development have intensified as agribusiness continued to appropriate land in publicly owned national colonies. It is important to underline the broader context, given that, in recent years, the crisis caused by the neoliberal model of capitalist development has intensified globally, illustrated by climatic catastrophes and the pandemic and its aftermath. In Paraguay, there is also a drop in GMO soybean harvests, over-indebtedness, the loss of legitimacy of the State, and the foreseeable end of tax exemptions for large corporations, as a result of G-20 decisions. This implies a decrease in the State’s ability to guarantee the replication of production conditions for genetically modified crops as a tax haven. These foreseeable changes favor peasant movements such as the FNC.

Mobilizations of the National Peasant Federation in Response to Illegal Agribusiness Expansion The FNC has an assembly structure and an executive committee. It was led in recent years by a peasant woman, with a national-level body and departmental councils, which, in turn, bring together local bodies. In the village community assemblies they discuss national and regional problems, as well as productive activities and key issues related to territorial control in order to prevent the intrusion of external agents. The organizational structure of the FNC is based on local groups and organization at the district, regional, and national levels. The villages that are part of the organization are structured in a cluster system of settlements that constitute small residential units with a grid system of productive plots. While some settlements have five units, others

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have up to eleven. The Crescencio González settlement illustrates how the organization is associated with territorial occupation. There are 200 peasant families settled in ten circular units with each family receiving 10 hectares. In addition, there are spaces shared by the entire settlement, which constitute common goods used and managed by the communities, and which certainly bring the communities together and create strong social relations that enable mobilizations. Nationwide events, such as marches to the capital, and claims made to public entities, rely on the active participation of the Executive Committee and the regional structures. Settlement units, including women and youth, are represented at the local level. The latter comprise landless people, whose aim is to create new settlements. Political Participation and the Paraguay Pyahurã Party From its beginnings, the FNC opposed the participation of its members in electoral processes. This position to guarantee the organization’s autonomy from the State remained unchanged throughout the subsequent presidential elections. The organization advocated for the blank vote; in the last election (2018), the proportion of invalid and blank votes exceeded 4% of the total votes. This position changed, however, as the repression intensified and the Paraguay Pyahurã Party (PPP) joined the struggles as a political tool for the movement that “arises from the historical struggles of the people, from the synthesis of the peasantry and the working class to currently advance towards a tactic, a path to build a National Political Project, with the aim of building a tool that can bring together a progressive and patriotic left-wing force in order to (…) promote their political participation…” (Poder Popular, 2021a). At the national level, the PPP proposed an alliance with parties considered progressive for the 2023 elections and launched a national political project, which deals with the basic issues of: agrarian reform, a public health care system, justice system reform, electoral reform, tax reform, and support for sustainable production. This productive model promoted by the PPP is an alternative to the soybean agribusiness that poisons the population by using pesticides and promoting the eviction of peasant and indigenous communities. The PPP is committed to supporting life through the practice of ecologically oriented agriculture and the rejection of biocides. An essential point of this proposal consists of recovering the State for all Paraguayans and not just for a few so that sovereignty can be effectively

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exercised within the territory and control over its lands and resources can be effectively fulfilled. The achievement of sovereignty implies the regulation of large oligopolistic corporations and extraterritorial powers. Currently, the most important public entities are privatized to the extent that they have councils made up of representatives of the business associations that issue binding resolutions. Sovereignty means that these councils should become purely consultative in scope, according to the PPP’s policy proposal. The reforms proposed in this political project include the reform of the judicial system, which is essential, given that its current configuration only favors the powerful and sketchy groups. In fact, one of the basic functions of the prosecutor’s office is to indict those who question the neoliberal order and give impunity to those who bleed the State. This judicial reform will only be feasible with a National Constituent Convention proposed by the PPP (Periódico Poder Popular, 2021a, 2021b). This proposal is the one that most questions neoliberal approaches, given its systematic rejection of coopted public policies. In this proposal, the free market protected by the State is restricted by environmental and public health standards. The launching of the FNC as a party into the political arena entails both possibilities and risks. On the one hand, at a time of a global crisis affecting Paraguayan society as a whole, it may represent the most serious alternative to neoliberalism, which it defies in both discourse and practice. The organization, however, had previously decided to remain outside the electoral system to preserve their autonomy. Entering the electoral political system might imply an alliance with more conservative political parties whose projects are aligned with the extractivist practices of neoliberalism. Access to the decision-making bodies of the State is inevitably mediated by the electoral institutions that are part of the status quo, which the FNC wants to replace.

Types of Action Marked by the expansion of soybean agribusiness driven by the commodity boom, pressure on land increased during the first decade of the twentieth century. The FNC’s diverse forms of action significantly respond to the changes undergone by the agrarian structure, spurred on by capitalist development, and new challenges to the peasant sector. In 2002, this organization reported 493 affiliated local groups, in addition to the zonal, district, and regional groups.

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The FNC mobilizes in pursuit of its members’ interests, including landless peasants, who do not qualify as rural wage earners, given that the soybean extractive model requires no labor force; they live and work with relatives, and join the organization along with them. In the annual marches with thousands of participants, in March of each year, the FNC reinforces its demands, which include access to land, agrarian development, freedom for imprisoned peasants, and national development. The demands emphasized the right of access to land, later enshrined in the 1992 National Constitution; they also proposed reverting misappropriated lands to the State. In their land struggles, peasants demanded both access to land and the recovery of territory that they had illegally lost. By 2000, the demands also included repealing Law 1615/2000 on the Privatization of Public Companies, economic policy changes, and ending aerial spraying and uncontrolled use of toxic agrochemicals by soy growers. Food sovereignty is another demand strongly put forward by the FNC in the last 10 years, which reached the global arena through CLOC Via Campesina; the mobilizing slogan is “the struggle for food sovereignty is the struggle for life”, which places native seeds in preference to large volumes of genetically modified soybeans and the production of safe food over commodities cultivated with toxic “kill it all” agro-chemicals. The actions developed within the framework of food sovereignty are part of peasants’ resistance to the neoliberal agro-food regime and include agrarian reform and the right of peasants to define their own food systems and production methods. The concept of food sovereignty is an alternative to food security as coined by FAO. The FNC mobilizations took many forms and included demonstrations in public places, marches, rallies, road blockades, and occupation of public places such as squares. These marches certainly made peasants’ demands visible, strengthened members’ sense of belonging, and built the organization’s identity. They sought to influence public opinion on the demands they proposed and, ultimately, to win public support. Most notable, members staged occupations of large land extensions, which will be discussed more below. Groups participating in these occupations would enter the farms by building precarious huts and starting small crops. Once evicted from the land, they would retreat and build camps on the side of targeted properties. They would then reoccupy the once the police forces left, in a sort of “cat-and-mouse” game. In some emblematic occupations, the settlements alongside the estates lasted more than 2 months.

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Shortly before the fall of dictator Stroessner (February 1989), the peasant mobilization intensified. In 10 months, thousands of families claimed more than 300,000 hectares—land considered to be public—which had been illegally obtained by close associates of the dictator, as well as large estates owned by foreigners. These were referred to as ‘ill-gotten’ land by the agrarian leagues. At first, large-scale occupations took place basically in the departments of Alto Paraná and Canindeyú. However, throughout the country, peasants mobilized to demand development policies for all, compensation for human rights abuses, and participation mechanisms in state decision-making processes (Nagel, 2005). Ultimately, demonstrators’ expectations of more public participation in decision making and greater democratization were dissipated, and they realized that they had to change their methods of struggle. The Occupation of Large Estates and the Fall of the Dictatorship Between 1990 and 2008, 413 occupations of large urban farms and large estates were recorded. An important feature of these occupations is the fact that the peasants mobilized more as a group than as a class; that is, they identified themselves basically as an ethnocultural collective of Paraguayan Guaraní-speaking peasants who share a history of many struggles and grievances that date back to the past. A case that demonstrates the high costs of occupations, is that of the settlements known as Crescencio González and Huber Duré, named after two of the four martyrs in the struggle for this land. This occupation, in the Department of San Pedro, involved 10,000 hectares carved out from a large estate belonging to a Brazilian owner, and represented part of the more than 200,000 hectares conquered by the FNC. The first occupation at the end of 1999 was quickly evicted, resulting in peasant casualties. Of the thousand peasants who occupied the estate and were evicted, 270 peasants remained in camps near the farm, accompanied by the emerging FNC. During this stage of the process, which lasted more than 2 months, the organization of future settlements came of age. When they re-entered the large estate, or latifundia, they negotiated with the agrarian law enforcement authority and the landowner, and conquered five thousand hectares for each settlement (Fogel et al., 2021; Rojas Villagra et al., 2017). In some cases, the occupations resulted in evictions, and the possibilities of obtaining the intended farm were frustrated. But these mobilizations enabled negotiations with the entity in charge of enforcing the

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Agrarian Law for allocation, through expropriation or purchase of other large farms in the region, as occurred with settlement 11 de mayo de San Juan Nepomuceno (Caazapá). In fact, land conquest sometimes takes years (Valdez, 2017). Recovery of National Colonies Appropriated by Foreigners Since its early mobilizations, the FNC has incorporated, as a basic feature, the sense of belonging to the Paraguayan nation. This was expressed in the recovery of territories. A remarkable case is that of Colonia San Juan del Yhovy, in the Department of Canindeyú, located on the eastern border with Brazil, and controlled by Brazilian soybean growers. The recovery of territory in Colonia San Juan illustrates cases of land restitution. The settlement had been created in 1989 with 17,000 hectares, which had been achieved after successive occupations. After the first years, however, through different mechanisms, Paraguayan peasants were displaced by Brazilian soybean farmers, who consolidated several plots of land. Many of these farmers were non-residents who joined the land fever triggered by the soybean boom. In this case, with the support of the FNC, claims were filed with the National Institute of Rural Development and Land (INDERT), the authority responsible for the enforcement of agrarian laws, to recover plots of a National Colony illegally acquired by Brazilian soybean farmers. Although some of INDERT’s resolutions were favorable, they were ignored by invaders who continued growing soybeans. Even with the progressive government of Lugo (2008–2012), peasants intensified their claims, camping for months in public places throughout the colony. New resolutions issued by INDERT during this period were overruled by judges, but the resistance camp took years until the land plots were recovered. This experience shows the obstacles that peasants must overcome to obtain a plot of land, since even during the government most open to their claims, the justice system simply ignored the agrarian legislation and its rulings.

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Criminalization of Peasants’ Demands and Decline of Occupations Between 2008 and 2019, 116 occupations were registered, but not all of them allowed access to land. More than half of the cases succumbed to violent evictions with peasants criminally charged and imprisoned (Palau, 2019). One of the emblematic cases was led by a neighborhood commission that settled on public property destined for agrarian reform in 2012 in Marina kué Curuguaty. After 8 years of unsuccessful efforts, the tragic outcome was 11 peasants killed, survivors imprisoned, and the aforementioned public land privatized (Ezquerro-Cañete & Fogel, 2018; Fogel, 2013). From then on, occupations became bloodier. In 2019, with the upsurge of repression, and, later on, with the pandemic, only 11 occupations were registered (Palau, 2019). Meanwhile, the soybean border continued to expand until around 2016, as did the conditions of soy production, including technology, and concentration of pesticide use, all with more harmful consequences on human and environmental health. Soybean extractivism responds to a logic of economies of scale and requires more and more land, but given that in its expansion it has come to occupy almost all arable land, in recent years agribusiness has intensified the usurpation of land from indigenous and peasant communities. This generates growing protests and demonstrations by settlements (Valdez et al., 2021; FNC, 2018). These demonstrations and complaints also occur in cases of deforestation; regarding wetland alteration, protestors enter the farms in question and demand that tractor drivers and other people involved stop what they are doing (Valdez, 2017). In September 2021, a law, known as the “Garrote Law,“ was passed criminalizing occupations with penalties of up to 10 years’ imprisonment. This law intensified the increasingly violent evictions promoted by businessmen who do not even present land titles. If they do hold titles, they are often forged and legally null and void. Since the enactment of this law, evictions have been as violent as they are explosive, affecting peasant communities that have been settled for more than 10 years. The FNC expressed its rejection to this law through mobilizations in the countryside and the capital, through rallies outside the Ministry of the Interior in Asunción, and in various departments of the country, calling for its repeal. This position is not limited to its rejection in public debate, but extends to active resistance, as was expressed in December 2021, in

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the face of the eviction of some 140 families from the 29 de Junio settlement, in San Vicente Pancholo, San Pedro. In this case, with the assistance of peasants from neighboring settlements, these peasants managed to resist the police eviction, which resulted in injuries and destroyed homes. In that same department of San Pedro, the FNC assisted in the re-entry of two communities evicted in a short period of time in December. In resisting the law, the FNC is part of an alliance with other peasant and indigenous organizations, grouped in the National Peasant and Indigenous Coordination. These alliances occur at certain junctures, such as in the mobilization to repeal the law for the privatization of public companies. The “Garrote Law’‘ and the intensification of political repression generated unrest. Violent outbreaks, which surpassed the reaction of the FNC, occurred in September 2021 when the Chamber of Deputies approved this law. In Yasy Cañy, Kanindeju, the uncontained fury of indigenous people and peasants reached the point of burning trucks that were blocking half the road in a separate demonstration of truck drivers who were demanding an increase in freight rates. These confrontations on the road go beyond disobedience to rules and procedures. What they have in common with more structured peasant mobilizations is rejecting the established order.

To Conclude: The Future of the Peasant Movement In considering the peasant movement’s potential for transforming society, it is relevant to consider the ever-changing national, regional, and global context. For example, the expansion of capitalism in agriculture destroys environmental conditions for reproduction (Fogel & Valdez, 2022). The most socially and environmentally damaging practice is associated with strong state-supported land grabbing, as is the case in Paraguay with the production of transgenic soybeans (Fogel & Valdez, 2022). This analysis considers a specific type of extractivism, linked to the production of genetically modified soybeans, highlighting the physical coercion required for its expansion, associated with the displacement of the peasant population, weakening their social struggle. Criminal charges, imprisonment, and the eviction of entire communities have an impact on the peasant movement, diminishing the number of members settled in rural areas, without eliminating them. The weakening of social struggles, however, is counteracted by several factors, among them the self-destruction of genetically modified crops,

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the crisis of the neoliberal development model, and the hegemonic thought inherent to it. This is already restricting the State’s possibilities to guarantee production conditions for such extractive activities. Neoliberal policies are implemented with significant intervention of extraterritorial actors, including hegemonic states that impose domination through global and regional power relations. Without significant external support, the State will lose one of its strengths, and biotechnology corporations themselves will lose profitability due to global taxes imposed on them. All this, in addition to the fall in productivity caused by a technology that carries the seed of its own destruction. With the reorganization of global power relations, China emerges as a power that substantially alters the unipolar world, opening the possibility of navigating in reconfigured global spaces of power, concurrently with the decay of neoliberal capitalism. Thus, the inevitable restructuring of extractivist soybean production conditions takes place in a sort of standoff between a certain weakening of social struggles and the exhaustion of the neoliberal agri-food model, to the extent that its production conditions can no longer be replicated. In this context, it is relevant to highlight not only the FNC’s proposals but also its socio-productive practices oriented toward a green economy, which are an alternative to those of soybean extractivism. Certainly, the FNC, through its mobilizations, resists the abuses of agribusiness by defending local territories against agroindustrial agents and the State, but also by developing alternatives. This standoff increases the transformative potential of the peasant movement, paradoxically the most progressive subaltern actor in a very conservative society. The discussion on how this potential will be fulfilled is more a matter of social practices than theoretical speculation.

References ABC Color. (2019, April 17). Crisis en comunidad científica por adjudicación de fondos. ABC Color https://www.abc.com.py/nacionales/feprinco-­corta-­ investigaciones-­con-­resultados-­deficientes-­1805512.html?outputType=amp CODEHUPY. (2014). Informe Chokokue 1989–2013: El plan sistemático de ejecuciones en la lucha por el territorio campesino. Coordinadora de Derechos Humanos del Paraguay. Dangor, G. (2021, July 11). G20 signs off on 15% global minimum corporate tax—here’s how it will work. FORBES. https://www.forbes.com/sites/grai-

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sondangor/2021/07/11/g20-­signs-­off-­on-­15-­global-­minimum-­corporatetax-­heres-­how-­it-­will-­work/?sh=339812fd1c7e Ezquerro-Cañete, A., & Fogel, R. (2018). Un golpe anunciado. In CLACSO (Ed.), La Cuestión Agraria y los Gobiernos de Izquierda en América Latina (pp. 89–118). https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvn96g0z.6 FNC–Federación Nacional Campesina. (2017). Programa de la Federación Nacional Campesina. Por la Reforma Agraria y la Producción Nacional. FNC–Federación Nacional Campesina. (2018). Programa Nacional para la Producción y Comercialización Hortícola. Fogel, R. (1986). Movimientos campesinos en el Paraguay. Estudio de dos casos históricos. Fogel, R. (2013). Las Tierras de Ñacunday Marina Kué y otras calamidades. CERI-Servilibro. Fogel, R. (2019). Desarraigo sin proletarización en el agro paraguayo. Revista Íconos, 63, 37–54. https://doi.org/10.17141/iconos.63.2019.3423 Fogel, R., & Valdez, S. (2022). Agronegocio, expansión y autodestrucción. CLACSO. (forthcoming). Fogel, R., Valdez, S., Paredes, R., López, M., Delgado, H., & Florentín, R. (2021). Situación y tendencias de la agricultura campesina en Paraguay. CERI-CONACYT-Prociencia. ISAAA–International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications. (2017). Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops in 2017. Biotech crop adoption surges as economic benefits accumulate in 22 years. Brief No. 53. Hopkins Studies in Development. Kay, C. (2015). The agrarian question and the neoliberal rural transformation in Latin America. European Review of Latin America and the Caribbean Studies, 100, 73–83. La Nación. (2021, May 28). Cadep reconoce datos falsos sobre industria tabacalera. La Nación. https://www.lanacion.com.py/investigacion/2021/05/28/ cadep-­reconoce-­datos-­falsos-­sobre-­industria-­tabacalera/ McKay, B., Alonso-Fradejas, A., & Ezquerro-Cañete, A. (2021). Agrarian Extractivism in Latin America. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/ 9780367822958 Nagel, B. (1999). Unleashing the fury: The cultural discourse of rural violence and land rights in Paraguay. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 40(1), 148–181. Nagel, B. (2005). El Movimiento Campesino confronta la crisis agraria. In D.  Abente Brun & M.  Fernando (Eds.), Estado, Economía y Sociedad: Una Mirada Internacional a la Democracia Paraguay (pp.  203–238). CADEP-­ Centro de Análisis y Difusión de la Economía Paraguay. Palau, M. (2019). Ocupaciones de tierra ante la inacción estatal. Con la soja al cuello 2019. Base Is.

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Periódico Poder Popular. (2021a, November). Gobierno Vendepatria de Abdo Benítez insiste una vez más en la entrega de la soberanía de Itaipú. 14. @ppyahura. Periódico Poder Popular. (2021b, November). Malditos* Patrones. 14. @ppyahura. Rojas Villagra, L.  H. Arrom, C., Ruoti, M., García, S., García, C. & Samudio, M. (2017). Perspectivas de sostenibilidad de Comunidades Campesinas en el Modelo de Desarrollo Actual. Technical Report. Arandurã. Valdez, S. (2017). Resistencia campesina ante la expansión sojera. CERI. Valdez, S., Pereira, E., Amarilla, R., Achar, J., Carrizo, M., Portillo, D. & Vargas, D. (2021). Continuidades cambios en movimientos campesinos de Paraguay. El caso de Ligas Agrarias Cristianas y la Federación Nacional Campesina. FLACSO. https://doi.org/10.1111/joac.12436

A Movement-in-Motion: CONAMURI and the Making of a Feminist Agroecology Jamie C. Gagliano

Introduction As the agri-food system has been neoliberalized and financialized since the 1990s, the terrain in which campesino social movements organize has also transformed. Within this shifting political and economic context, the need for an agroecological alternative has become more apparent (Nicholls & Altieri, 2018). Agroecology situates socioecological systems (Cadieux et al., 2019) and food production as a science, movement, and practice (Wezel et al., 2009). In its most capacious form, agroecology is at once a way of producing food in an ecologically viable way and a political framework (Molina, 2013) that contests the prevailing agricultural model that favors capital-intensive monocultures. It is within an antagonistic relationship to industrial agriculture and an embrace of agroecology that Paraguay’s CONAMURI articulates a feminist approach to agrarian social movement organizing. J. C. Gagliano (*) Department of Geography, Rutgers University–New Brunswick, New Brunswick, NJ, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. Levy et al. (eds.), Social Movements and the Struggles for Rights, Justice and Democracy in Paraguay, Social Movements and Transformation, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25883-1_4

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Since the founding of CONAMURI (National Organization of Rural and Indigenous Women Workers) in 1999, it has become one of Paraguay’s major peasant-led organizations in the post-Stroessner era, bringing together numerous women’s committees across the country through grassroots coordination and national campaigns. The feminist and anti-colonial politics articulated through CONAMURI are central to understanding its relevance in contemporary Paraguay (Ramos, 2018), a country often described as having a particularly insidious combination of capitalist expansion, religious conservativism, and political infighting (Galeano, 2016). I argue that CONAMURI is a creative entangling of identity and classbased politics that stems from translating the array of needs of its membership base into a coherent national agenda. Through coordinating local women’s committees in campesino and Indigenous communities, the iterant needs and knowledges—surrounding food production, family care, and health—of this membership base coalesce in both local and national politics advocating a feminist agroecology discursively and through material practice. CONAMURI is a rural women’s and Indigenous movement advocating for the extension of agroecology and a more just treatment of peasant and Indigenous women in Paraguay. Through organizing local committees, workshops, seed exchanges, and protests, CONAMURI works at both the local and national scale to promote agroecological practice, implement grassroots education initiatives, and pressure the Paraguayan state to enact policies that further these goals. The messiness of translating a movement across scales and spaces is what generates motion and change through the movement. From here, I argue that it is through these particular tensions that agroecology and awareness-raising (conscientizaçao) have become central to CONAMURI. As of 2019, there were CONAMURI-affiliated committees in twelve of Paraguay’s seventeen departments (administrative districts), that work with the national leadership to coordinate projects. In this sense, CONAMURI is a multi-scalar organization, in part compelled by the classed, gendered, and racialized positionalities of its membership. I draw on 3 months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted alongside CONAMURI, which entailed participant observation and twenty-five interviews with national organizers and local committee members in two different regions. The national leadership is elected from local committees but takes on additional roles in shaping the direction of the movement. Over these months, I participated in committee meetings and attended several of CONAMURI’s seed fairs. This work was

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supplemented with archival work in CONAMURI’s library, analyzing more than 10 years of pamphlets, newsletters, and booklets produced by the movement at various moments. Through an analysis of the movement through this multi-sited method, CONAMURI emerges as a ‘movement-in-motion’, formed through the tensions that arise between the grassroots daily and political needs and the strategic essentialisms that condense the diverse perspectives of the movement base into an articulate narrative (Wolford, 2010). Using spatial metaphors—affirming scalar production of social mobilization—emphasizes the reference points that shape a social movement while grounding mobilization in the social production of space (Smith & Katz, 2004). Scale, then, functions as a means of representing socially produced power relations, rather than an objective order of magnitude (Rangan & Kull, 2009). The ways a movement like CONAMURI envisions and enacts change, then, produces and flows across scalar understandings of politics. I make two interrelated arguments in this chapter. First, I argue that conscientizaçao constitutes a formative base from which CONAMURI is able to articulate a feminist agroecology across multiple scales of the movement. Relatedly, my second argument highlights that the tensions that emerge from and within social movements are generative moments that reshape movement dynamics spatially and over time, are not necessarily a detriment to be smoothed over. I examine CONAMURI as a movement that has shifted over time through its pedagogical approach, material changes, and a shifting political terrain to what today amounts to a feminist agroecology. This chapter begins with an overview of Latin America’s peasant social movements, with particular attention to how gendered and feminist peasant groups have been particularly instrumental in advocating agroecological agriculture. Next, the chapter examines how conscientizaçao operates within CONAMURI as an ideological consciousness-raising apparatus. Conscientizaçao also becomes a material practice of agroecology through CONAMURI’s seed-saving project, Semilla Róga, which is analyzed next. Finally, the chapter looks at how the changes within CONAMURI have become fraught through conservative efforts to eradicate discussions of gender. In Paraguay’s rich rural organizing landscape, CONAMURI highlights the nexus between feminist and agrarian politics.

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From Agrarian Reform to Agroecology Gendering Agrarian Change The proliferation of Latin America’s gender-specific and feminist rural movements demonstrates the importance of a capacious conceptualization of the complex impacts of neoliberal, capital-intensive agriculture. Popular and grassroots feminisms articulate the myriad ways working-class and racialized peoples of Latin America have articulated the gendered character of economic and psychological violence (Conway & Lebon, 2021). In other words, working-class feminisms are part of a long history of grassroots feminist organizing, even if the term ‘feminism’ wasn’t always explicitly invoked. Thus, the importance of social mobilization lies not just in the metrics of successfully implementing demands, but in the different ways meaning becomes envisioned and enacted among participants (Wolford & Keene, 2015; Oslender, 2016). Over the course of the twentieth century, many male-dominated campesino movements pushing for agrarian reform focused on land titling and redistribution as the primary mode for addressing the needs of rural workers and farmers (Borras & Franco, 2013; Edelman, 1999; Veltmeyer, 2019). The uneven and often unpaid labor and comparative lack of institutional access for rural women made it demonstrably clear that a different framework and organizing strategy was necessary (Fisher, 1993). Since in many contexts women were unable to solicit land titles, the outcomes of agrarian reform disproportionately assisted men and male-headed households (Deere & Leon, 2001). Even in progressive contexts where women have been granted access to land titles and inheritance, the outcomes have been limited (Deere, 2017). While women have long participated in campesino movements advocating agrarian reform (Tinsman, 2002), gender discrimination among movement participants and the limited ways in which gendered issues were addressed created many women-specific splinter organizations (Corvalan, 2013). The existence of gender-specific campesino movements points to the socio-historical forces that make the gender binary a legible dimension of colonial-capitalism (Lugones, 2007). Concerns over how knowledge is constructed and connected to experience have been a touchstone for many women’s and feminist rural movements, allowing for new agendas to be set and analytical frameworks to be promoted. For instance, women’s campesina movements have deepened the politics around land to highlight the problems of extractivist

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economies and the importance of food production methods (Leguizamón, 2020; Peschard & Randeria, 2020; Desmarais, 2007). In addition, Indigenous movements have often pointed to the ways that the systematic elimination of Indigenous knowledges ensconced capitalist land relations (de la Cadena, 2010). Ultimately, this lends credence to the notion that knowledges are multiple, often connected to place and positionality (Agarwal, 2000; Carney, 2021; Haraway, 1988). This acknowledgment is often at the center of feminist rural movements, both campesina and Indigenous. Feminist and gendered rural movements have been insistent that state policy is not the only battlefield on which to combat interlocking systems of oppression. Women have experienced gendered oppression in the home, in movement spaces, and via the state, so confronting all of these has been at the forefront of many of these movements (Gioia, 2019). Drawing out the connections between land, health, and ecology has brought to the foreground the rural women’s movements importance of organizing at the household scale, not just through the state or official policy (Soto-Alarcón & González-Gómez, 2021; Turner et al., 2020). For instance, several rural women’s movements have pointed out that obtaining land but using the same agricultural production methods promoted by capitalist agriculture has negative consequences for providing food and caring for family members (Masson et  al., 2017). By integrating the household itself as a scale for enacting change (Potter & Zurita, 2018), it becomes clear that feminist and gendered campesina and Indigenous movements are contoured through internal dynamics and external relations (Masson & Beaulieu Bastien, 2021). I parse a distinction between gender-specific and feminist campesina movements, not to belabor the point of identifying a movement as one or the other, but to acknowledge the variety of political projects at play that are at times in tension (Ossome, 2021; Alvarez, 2014). Conflating feminism and gender runs the risk of essentializing gendered environmental knowledges (Jewitt, 2000), by detaching feminism from its contextual specificity and presuming a universal gender subject. This conflation also bypasses the role of colonialism in shaping feminist politics and mobilization (Deere & Royce, 2018; Mohanty, 2003). Analytically moving feminism away from an explicit (usually female) subject (Gökariksel et  al., 2021) opens up feminism as a political project of coalition-building across multiple positionalities (Sultana, 2021). A feminist politics concerned with contesting unequal power relations and knowledges has opened up

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an explicitly Indigenous feminist current in Latin America that entails parallel struggles over land, nature, and the implications of the colonial gender system (Hernández Castillo, 2010; Zaragocin, 2019). Gender-specific and feminist campesina and Indigenous movements exist within this tension of this coalitional work, particularly in relation to the ways that land and the rural household are conceptualized by state actors and other rural movements. This matter of translating feminist politics across scales and issues (Phillips & Cole, 2009) connects feminist concerns to agroecology. A feminist approach to agroecology entrenches the attention to local knowledge systems while maintaining an analysis of power that permits confronting multiple systems of oppression (Donato et  al., 2007). Since campesina and Indigenous movements often connect household practices with national and transnational politics, they have also become key advocates of agroecology as a political practice and movement frame. Toward a Feminist Agroecology The emphasis on the multiplicity and situatedness of knowledge has made agroecology an appealing platform for gender-specific and feminist peasant movements, who, in turn, have been instrumental in extending this analysis (Feminist Agro-Ecology Network, 2020). While land and land redistribution remain core strategic demands, agroecology extends from the land question into questions of agrobiodiversity, resource distribution, and local ecological conditions (Altieri & Toledo, 2011; Guzmán Luna et al., 2019). While there are common features of agroecological methods, such as mixed-planting (poly-cropping) and on-farm input use, the political project behind agroecology emphasizes the centrality of local epistemologies in achieving food sovereignty (Holt-Giménez & Altieri, 2013), where food sovereignty entails the capacity for local populations to shape foodways (Wittman, 2009). By centering the importance of local ecological knowledges, advocates of agroecology tie in neatly with a feminist politics where one’s positionality is a key factor in shaping perceptions and needs. From this juncture, it is useful to conceptualize agroecology as a theory of socioecological relations and the practices that enact it. That is, agroecology functions through praxis, the iterative movement of theory and action (Gramsci, 1971). While contemporary debates assess how to make agroecology viable by scaling up (connecting agroecology to state and

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supra-state policy) or scaling out (by increasing the number of individual farms involved) (Ferguson et al., 2019), a return to praxis emphasizes the ways that social movements are already enacting agroecology across multiple scales (Méndez et al., 2013). Here, the influence of Brazilian philosopher Paulo Freire becomes instructive, particularly his concept of conscientizaçao. In the seminal Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1968), Freire articulates that a dialectical education rooted in situating oppressed people’s lived experiences within a broader system of oppression was a central process toward building an anti-capitalist, anti-colonial movement. Conscientizaçao is a key tenant of peasant to peasant (campesino a campesino) networks that exchange agricultural expertise (Val et al., 2019; Karriem, 2013). By connecting such expertise to analyze systems of oppression, conscientizaçao resonates well with feminist politics that connect knowledge and uneven power relations. Meanwhile, the transnational reach of networks like Via Campesina connects local experiences of economic dislocation and ecological change in relation to global processes of capital accumulation (Mesner, 2008). Where agroecology already turns the land question toward ecological relations shaped by agrarian capital, feminist agroecologies figure the body itself as integral to land relations (Morales, 2021). An explicit feminist approach to agroecology has gained traction in Latin America over the past few years (Morales, 2021; Donato et al., 2007). Feminist agroecologies stitch together the relationship between body, land, and knowledge as they relate to food production practices in the household and the role of the state in facilitating agrarian capital. Within feminist agroecology networks, “to think of a feminist (agro)political ecology requires thinking of the intersectionalities of inequalities, the gendered division of labor, the rights to ‘resources’ (land, water, seeds, market, etc.) and decision-making power” (Feminist Agro-Ecology Network, 2020, p. 3). Here, the project for land redistribution encounters a liberatory horizon that marks the gendered, sexed, and raced legacies of colonial capitalism. The commonality of struggle emphasized by feminist agroecology becomes articulated through conscientizaçao, which often emerges through agroecological workshops and practices. Over time, CONAMURI has shifted into a feminist agroecology rooted in consciousness-raising and drawing on long histories of peasant and Indigenous knowledges that emerge from a popular base that is at once classed, racialized, and gendered.

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The Shaping of CONAMURI In a region already noted for high land concentration among elites, Paraguay ranks among the worst in terms of land distribution (EzquerroCañete & Fogel, 2016). In response to such inequities, Paraguay’s emergent campesino movements of the twentieth century tied land access to socially just outcomes (Galeano, 2016). While peasant movements had succeeded to a certain degree in formalizing land rights and land titling practices under Stroessner’s 1963 Agrarian Reform Law, land titles could only be acquired or inherited by male family members. This left generations of female-headed households in precarious situations regarding land access (Alicia, interview, June 2019). Women could claim their own land titles beginning in 2004 without the need for an eldest son or other male relation to be on the deed (Duré & Palau, 2018). In practice, however, even today less than 14% of campesino land titles are in a woman’s name (Guereña, 2017). It is apparent that distributing land through private property alone is insufficient to deal with the multifaceted complexity of campesino life across genders. Further, entrenching individual property rights undermines the claims to communal land at the foundation of many Indigenous territorial claims in the country (Blaser, 2009). While the peasantry and Indigeneity in many Latin American contexts are often collapsed as part of an ongoing political project (Gotkowitz, 2007), in Paraguay, a particular history of racialization and migration schemas make it such that the campesinado and Indigeneity are politically held somewhat apart. As a result, the antagonisms between the campesinado and Indigenous movements are at times fraught with discrimination and mistrust (Correia, 2019a, 2019b).  For instance, while land is an issue for many disadvantaged producers, Indigenous communal land claims are often stymied or lack adequate road access and other infrastructure necessary to utilize the land (Correia 2019a). On the other hand, as the stronghold of the Stroessner dictatorship began to slowly erode during the 1980s, Paraguay’s feminist movement began taking shape, which began emphasizing reproductive rights and domestic labor rights (Corvalan, 2013). The nascent Paraguayan feminist movement encouraged women’s committees within existing peasant movements, acknowledging that: “our reality as campesinas is very grave and difficult. Because we are made to feel inferior in society, doubly exploited, we have no rights in the family, nor in society” (Coordinación

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de Mujeres Campesinas 1987, cited in Roig, 2008). Indigenous claims for communal lands and autonomy were often bypassed in these early movements altogether. However, even within movements with specialized women’s committees, frustration grew out of the sidelining of this committee work within the wider organization (Roig, 2008). Amidst a growing recognition that specialized committees alone were not sufficient to contend with this double exploitation, CONAMURI was founded. In October 1999, approximately eight hundred campesina and Indigenous women, many who were participating in other campesino groups or local committees, gathered in Asunción (Riquelme, Toralez & Guzman, 2017). This meeting is attributed to CONAMURI’s founding moment. Since then, the organization has established grassroots committees in twelve of Paraguay’s seventeen departments. CONAMURI emerges at once at the intersection of a feminist, Indigenous, and peasant organizing landscape. Agroecology’s dual emphasis on human and socio-environmental conditions has made it central to CONAMURI, both in local committees and staging a discourse to challenge state support for capitalist agriculture. A key moment tying CONAMURI to agroecology occurred with the death of eleven-year-old Silvino Talavera, who was sprayed with glyphosate while walking past a soy field on his way home for lunch in 2003. He died after he was unable to receive adequate medical attention. His mother, a member of CONAMURI, turned to the organization for support in a court case litigating the landowners responsible for the spraying. This event is often cited as an integral moment forming the trajectory of CONAMURI’s political agenda and educational dimensions of CONAMURI (Hetherington, 2020). Silvino’s death and the ensuing court case concretized the connections between land distribution, agricultural inputs, and the widespread effects of capitalist agriculture for CONAMURI. Bodily exposure to agrochemicals, and their attendant health issues, intertwines the body with the land question. Agroecology, with its focus on the use of the ecosystem and soil health to protect production long term, offered a viable alternative for what agriculture might look like. As a set of practices, agroecology hones a longstanding set of peasant and Indigenous production methods while simultaneously emphasizing land as an integrated human-environment system. This means that agroecology offers a framework for legitimating land redistribution and more holistic production practices that account for familial structure and domestic labor.

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Although the connection between CONAMURI and agroecology was not always direct, it has resonated at multiple scales of the movement because: Women, we’ve always practiced agroecology. Or well, it wasn’t called that, but it is what we did in practice… What interests us is how patriarchy is sustained. A large part of capitalism depends on the non-renumerated work of women, really. This is why every family that joins us in this practice [of agroecology] is already an advance. It is an act of rebellion. (Alicia, interview, June 2019)

On the one hand, agroecology cements and extends a set of agricultural practices at the household level. At the same time, agroecology has offered CONAMURI a discourse to launch critiques against state support for capitalist agriculture. In the following section, I examine how the turn toward agroecology, Freirean pedagogy, and traditional peasant production practice have become key articulations for CONAMURI as a movement.

CONAMURI and the Shifting Political Terrain Both the material conditions and political landscape have shaped the ways CONAMURI has shifted since its founding. Whereas the case of Silvino Talavera’s death was instrumental in highlighting the need to challenge the entire system of capitalist agriculture, collaborative conscientizaçao has shaped the particular ways agroecology has become a practice for CONAMURI members. At the same time, the contradictions of organizing along gendered lines have entailed a shift from the CONAMURI leadership toward a more explicitly feminist, rather than solely women’s, organization. The following section traces the ways conscientizaçao has shaped CONAMURI’s shift toward a feminist agroecology by looking at the ways workshops and CONAMURI’s seed-saving project, Semilla Róga, become ways of scaling an anti-capitalist agrarian landscape. Conscientizaçao and Agroecology When left-leaning Fernando Lugo was elected in 2008, his Ministry of Health began circulating information about the negative health impacts of certain commonly used pesticides, legitimating CONAMURI’s position

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that the inputs for capitalist agriculture are also harmful to campesino life and livelihoods (Nina, interview, June 2019). Amidst a changing political, economic, and ecological landscape, CONAMURI committees proliferated. These committees form the basis of CONAMURI’s processes of conscientizaçao, a point of connection between the leadership and its popular base. Here, local knowledges of subsistence production are brought into conversation with agroecology as a political position and way of governing human-environment interactions. Local committee workshops and meetings are key moments for political consciousness-raising. Conscientizaçao as a pedagogical practice creates space for experiences to be situated within a critical analytical lens. Within CONAMURI, the positionalities of its participant base as racialized, as gendered, as classed, are stitched together to form an analysis locating the root of the problem: the extractive, value-driven logic of capitalist agriculture which has taken root in Paraguay’s political apparatus. As economic policies have increasingly pushed even campesino households to produce cash crops for the global market, fewer resources have been dedicated to producing subsistence foods. As the labor of cultivating food for the household has principally been shouldered by women, the challenges of straining resources for direct consumption have been particularly apparent to them. As Paraguay’s landscape has become less biodiverse, soil erodes, and waters contaminated with pesticides, the shifting ecological conditions under which subsistence production occurs have also been particularly apparent to Indigenous peoples and rural women. These positions, emerging in relation to particular household labor, inform the perspectives that have brought many women into CONAMURI committees. Workshops center on the exchange of knowledge between participants and facilitators, and agroecology offers a common language through which such exchange can occur. Agroecology has been used to re-orient the relationship between the household as a site of labor and production, specifically around food. This often means that there is an attention to human and ecological health as well as reworking uneven power relations between peasant producers and the much more powerful agribusiness firms. As such, agroecology resonates with a feminist politics. For some within CONAMURI, the articulation between: “agroecology and feminism can be there together… because across this division [of gendered labor] women, in particular, possess this type of knowledge” (interview, Celia, June 10, 2019). While originally CONAMURI formed with an explicitly gendered focus, this emphasis has

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over time shifted into a feminist politics centered on restructuring existing power relations through expanding agroecological practice. Here, feminism takes on a particular materialist and anti-colonial formation informed by the positionality of CONAMURI’s membership base (see also Ramos, 2018). Through conscientizaçao, both feminism and agroecology come together in ways that are informed by contextualized experiences. For example, a 2012 workshop was instrumental in constituting a collectivized (but still contested) iteration of CONAMURI’s agroecological feminism. One outcome of this workshop, which involved participation from many local CONAMURI committees, was a pamphlet that set forth a feminist analytical framework to be utilized by the organization. By combining insights from French feminism and Latin American feminists alike with the knowledges from workshop participants, the pamphlet defines feminism as “a current of thought and a social and political justice movement that aims to overcome the subordination and submission of women” (CONAMURI, 2012). While moving through definitions such as patriarchy, gender, and gendered violence, an argument around the class-based issues of exploitation, oppression, and inequality ends the pamphlet. The pamphelt  particularly emphasizes the institutionalization of women’s oppression through the family, the Church, and the State to deal with the multifaceted issues already invoked by the class-based project of liberation. The final few pages of the pamphlet turn toward the ways, through a working-class agroecology feminism, the movement aims to ensure others “value our [women and Indigenous] work and participation in production, as well as our role in the fight for the defense of land, territory, seeds and all of nature” (CONAMURI, 2012). Such moments draw out the connective tissue between hierarchy in the home and the role that multiple positionalities play in relation to farm work. Such pamphlets are distributed among local committees to stimulate further discussion and debate while trying to contend with the specific issues of productive and reproductive labor that women, children, and the elderly often face in their homes and in the political sphere. Pamphlets like these often end with reflection activities that can be utilized by local committees to engage their interpretations with the presented framework. They are, in a way, open-ended documents to be reworked by committees. At the same time, translating the messy experiences of members who partake in a movement for a wide array of reasons provokes complexities as national leaders distill such messiness into a somewhat coherent

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movement, which is often seen as a strategic necessity of social mobilization. It is often, however, this type of friction that generates motion and change within the movement. Seed Exchanges and conscientizaçao as Praxis Conscientizaçao is not merely about an exchange of ideas, but also about shaping and building upon lived practice through analysis. The shifting form of CONAMURI’s national seed-saving project, Semilla Róga, which translates to Seed House, exemplifies the iterative and creative ways agroecology becomes a shifting practice within the movement space. As agribusiness has increasingly pushed its commodified seeds onto peasant and smallholder producers through legal and market pressure, the importance of sustaining native and creole (hybrid) seeds has come to the foreground. Commodified seeds are purchased, often spurring a cycle of debt for smallscale and peasant producers who are encouraged to shift away from subsistence production to instead generate income through cash crops. Since many of its members are largely responsible for growing and procuring food, the tension between commodified and native/creole seeds became an important one within CONAMURI (Viveros, 2012). The movement’s National Seed Campaign has a legalistic dimension trying to pressure the state to enact legislation that supports the use of native seeds, but the seed-saving house, Semilla Róga, emerges from the material practices of CONAMURI participants. The idea for the project bloomed in 2010 as an intentional effort to scale out or expand native/creole seed recovery, conservation, and saving. The name Semilla Róga was intentionally used to depart from larger, often inaccessible seed banks. In contrast, Semilla Róga is entirely open access for the “exchange, planting, and rescuing seeds and plants” (CONAMURI, n.d., p. 7). Semilla Róga was initially housed in a brick building in the Repatriación district, placing it in one of the areas with some of the longest-standing CONAMURI committees. While seed saving happens within the household annually, particularly for the subsistence crops that constitute the foundation of rural diets, Semilla Róga created a place where seed saving could happen alongside exchanges on a scale that would allow committees to exchange across regions. In turn, this amplifies local biodiversity and plant genetic diversity. Seed exchanges also become moments to share information and practice conscientizaçao through extending the material practice of agroecology (see also Silva Garzón & Gutiérrez Escobar, 2020).

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Initially, within Semilla Róga there were silos and silos of seeds lined up against the brick walls. One of the committee members who lived close by was the primary caretaker. However, over time it became apparent that CONAMURI was quickly losing most of their saved seeds to early germination or molding spurred on by humidity. Without the resources for a dedicated caretaker, a scaled-up seed-saving operation was proving difficult. Despite such challenges, the overall intent behind Semilla Róga has maintained staying power. Rather than a single locale to conserve, recover, and exchange seeds, now several households across many departments perform this work and share their seeds. Although Semilla Róga is no longer centralized, the creative work done to rearrange Semilla Róga to fit with the movement structure continues to extend the material practice of agroecology among CONAMURI participants. Through local and regional committees, workshops, and seed exchanges, CONAMURI coalesces as a multi-scalar movement, by shaping the multiple ideological and material registers to shape a feminist agroecology. These practices are understood at once as classed, gendered, and part of a racialized matrix of mestizaje that shape the multiple positionalities of CONAMURI participants. The material and ideological registers promoted through CONAMURI emerge through the complex interrelationship of positionalities that are lived through daily life. And yet, such organizing necessarily involves tension and sites of contestation. As CONAMURI has shifted over time, the gradual move from organizing along gendered lines toward a more explicitly feminist project has brought new challenges, which I turn to next. Contradictions of Feminist Organizing The tension created by organizing along gendered lines reveals the contradictions that sustain the gender binary (Scott, 1996). To assert gender differences between women and men can re-entrench such differentiation rather than circumvent them (Mesner, 2008). Rather than a mere byline or note of interest, lived consequences emerge. While the gendered division of labor has shaped multiple knowledge systems that emerge as important life and livelihood strategies for rural families, a hefty reliance on women’s labor to exist in tandem with agroecological production can stem from the problematic assumption that women’s time in continuously expandable (Wilson, 2015), often involving the triple burden of productive, reproductive and community work (Moser, 1993). Prejudices and

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discrimination against Indigenous women intensify the uneven distribution of labor (Bernarda, interview, August 2019).  The redistribution of labor within the household and community is not always a feature in official agroecology agendas (Mesner, 2008). As mentioned earlier, CONAMURI arose from a perceived need to create a movement for campesina and Indigenous women to be able to organize independently from male-dominated campesino movements. Over time, however, the problem of only organizing women around agroecological goals became apparent. According to Alicia, they have worked to include men in some aspects of the movement because: We had many contradictions in the early days because the women would go about doing their [agroecology] practices and their sons and husbands had another conception of agriculture. So, there were many contradictions. (Alicia, interview, June 2019)

There were still pesticide contaminations happening in people’s farms since the men were still getting targeted by and using technical assistance packages which included genetically modified seeds and pesticides. On the other hand, shifting labor distribution in the household and community has required the involvement of all household members. Over time, CONAMURI has opened new spaces for all household members to participate in various activities and supportive efforts. While still directed principally at women, opening space in the organization on committees and in workshops has helped enhance the main goals of supporting rural and Indigenous women in their agriculture and promoting agroecological production methods. The creative efforts of a movement-in-motion, demonstrated here through CONAMURI, reveal how a ‘feminist’ organizing project is not the same as organizing along gendered difference. Over time, CONAMURI has shifted its orientation toward restructuring power relations rather than organizing women alone. Additionally, over the past several years CONAMURI’s national leadership has redoubled efforts at addressing gender-based and domestic violence and its tolerance through state apparatuses. As demonstrated above, CONAMURI has brought the household itself into the fold of spaces to enact change. While much focus in workshops and practices has been centered around productive and reproductive labors in the household, the conditions under which such work occurs also involve the multiple forms of violence—physical, psychological, and economic—that women,

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children, and the elderly experience (Rubin & Bovino, 2014). As a result, conscientizaçao also becomes a way of naming the ways that class formation can be reliant upon gendered violence and seeking to redress such issues within the home. Rooted in the experiences of participants, such organizing work entails acknowledging the intersection of multiple forms of violence from the state and the household that are at once economic and social. Shifting agricultural production practices alone is a necessary but insufficient condition for redressing such harms (Marina, interview, June 2019). The global rise of the right has also brought new attention to what is often termed “gender ideology,” and its effects have been felt in Paraguay.1 With the support of then-president Horacio Cartes, in 2017 the Ministry of Education and Sciences banned the use of any educational materials referring to “gender theory and/or ideology.” Gender ideology is a term coined in the 1990s by Catholic and Evangelical groups to challenge efforts at legalizing abortion, sex education, and the acknowledgment of gender-sex diversity (Faur & Viveros Vigoya, 2020). Gender ideology affirms a biological conception of sexual binary, and in recent years has become a central feature of conservative movements in Latin America. The Catholic Church, as a powerful social institution in rural Paraguay, has been instrumental in drumming up support for the ban on discussing gender, sex, and sexual orientation (Marina, interview, June 2019). For CONAMURI, the rise of gender ideology discourse is worrisome as lines of communication become even more fraught in a shifting political terrain that has doubled down on a conservative approach to gender, sexuality, and the family. As even acknowledging the historical and social dimensions of gender and sex becomes increasingly taboo, the capacity to redress issues within the family through CONAMURI becomes more difficult (Alicia, interview, August 2019). As it is time spent away from the home, participating in CONAMURI committee meetings is at times interpreted as laziness by 1  The surge around gender ideology is not unique to Paraguay. President Bolsonaro has been instrumental in attacking feminist and LGBTQ movements in Brazil. In the United States, 2022–2023 has seen a massive wave of states attempting to ban gender-affirming care for trans children, barring the discussion of LGBTQIA issues in public schools, and attacks against abortion access. This breaks with the idea that somehow the United States and other Western countries are supposedly more progressive than countries in the Global South like Paraguay, which are frequently cast as backward and conservative. Plainly, the wave of attacks against ‘gender ideology’ are a globalized issue not bound by nation-state borders.

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other household members (Viviana, interview, July 2019). The reassertion of a gender ideology that intractably affirms a biological sex binary is ultimately a question of control and therefore presents a challenge for CONAMURI’s organizing structure and aims. Through CONAMURI, issues of labor, land, agriculture, and patriarchal hierarchies come together in fraught ways that are not always easily resolvable. However, it is through this precise tension that generates shifts in the shape CONAMURI takes, the strategies undertaken, and the relationship between its leadership and base.

Conclusion I have argued in this chapter that the creativity demonstrated by feminist campesina movements highlights the limits of explaining social movements through either an identity or a class-based lens. CONAMURI, in articulating anti-capitalist and feminist agroecology, contests the hegemony of Paraguay’s agro-export development model by highlighting the gendered and racialized burdens of such an economic model. Meanwhile, CONAMURI both draws on the traditions of gendered food production practices of its members while also adjusting it through transnational articulations of agroecology. The slipperiness of translating the diverse needs and responses of participants into a national agenda produces tensions, which, I have argued, produce changes in tactics and strategies which can be viewed as motion. The particularities of a feminist peasant movement have made conscientizaçao and agroecology relevant symbolic approaches that shape everyday practices among its membership, albeit in varying ways and to different degrees. These articulations emerge out of a social location where the gendered and racialized modalities of class construct the horizon of possibility.

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Phillips, L., & Cole, S. (2009). Feminist flows, feminist fault lines: women’s machineries and women’s movements in Latin America. Signs, 35(1), 185–211. Potter, G. A., & Zurita, L. (2018). The peasant women’s movement in Bolivia: ‘Bartolina Sisa’ and COCAMTROP.  In Rural social movements in Latin America: organizing for sustainable livelihoods (pp. 185–197). University Press of Florida. Ramos, M. E. G. (2018). La CONAMURI: resistencia de mujeres rurales e indígenas en Paraguay. Sociologias Plurais, 4(3) https://revistas.ufpr.br/sclplr/ article/view/62822 Rangan, K., & Kull, C. A. (2009). What makes ecology ‘political’? Rethinking ‘scale’ in political ecology. Progress in Human Geography, 33(1), 28–45. Riquelme, Q., Toralez, M., & Guzman, S. (2017). Rearticulación del movimiento campesino en Paraguay durante el período 1980–2016. Instituto de Trabajo Social. Universidad Nacional de Asunción. Roig, E. (2008). Magui Balbuena: Semilla Para Una Nueva Siembra. Trompo Ediciones. Rubin, G., & Bovino, A. (2014). El Señor Es Contigo: Femnicidio En Paraguay. ServiLibro. Scott, J. W. (1996). Only paradoxes to offer: French feminists and the rights of man. Harvard University Press. Silva Garzón, D., & Gutiérrez Escobar, L. (2020). Revolturas: Resisting multinational seed corporations and legal seed regimes through seed-saving practices and activism in Colombia. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 47(4), 674–699. Smith, N., & Katz, C. (2004). Grounding metaphor: Towards a spatialized politics. Place and the Politics of Identity, 66, 76–83. Soto-Alarcón, J. M., & González-Gómez, D. X. (2021). Collective rural women access use, and control over communcal land in Mexico: A post-capitalist feminist political ecology approach. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 5, 1–15. Sultana, F. (2021). Political ecology I: From margins to center. Progress in Human Geography, 45(1), 156–165. Tinsman, H. (2002). Partners in conflict: the politics of gender, sexuality and albor in the Chilean agrarian reform, 1950–1963. Duke University Press. Turner, K. L., Idrobo, C. J., Desmarais, A. A., & Peredo, A. M. (2020). Food sovereignty, gender and everyday practice: The role of afro-Colombian women in sustaining localised food systems. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 49(2), 402–428. Val, V., Rosset, P. M., Zamora, C. Z., Giraldo, O. F., & Rocheleau, D. (2019). Agroecology and La Via Campesina I. The symbolic and material construction of agroecology through the dispositive of ‘peasant-to-peasant processes. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 43(7–8), 872–894. Veltmeyer, H. (2019). Resistance, class struggle and social movements in Latin America: Contemporary dynamics. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 46(6), 1264–1285.

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Viveros, D. (2012). CONAMURI: Developments and challenges in the struggle against agrochemicals in Paraguay. Environmental Justice, 5(2), 98–99. Wezel, A., et al. (2009). Agroecology as a science, a movement and a practice. A review. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 29(4), 503–515. Wilson, K. (2015). Towards a radical re-appropriation: Gender, development and neoliberal feminism: Debate: Gender, development and neoliberal feminism. Development and Change, 46(4), 803–832. Wittman, H. (2009). Reworking the metabolic rift: La Via Campesina, agrarian citizenship and food sovereignty. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 36(4), 805–826. Wolford, W. (2010). This land is ours now: Social mobilization and the meanings of land in Brazil. Duke University Press. Wolford, W., & Keene, S. (2015). Social movements. In The Routledge handbook of political ecology (pp. 573–584). Routledge. Zaragocin, S. (2019). Gendered geographies of elimination: Decolonial feminist geographies in Latin American settler contexts. Antipode, 51(1), 737–392.

Understanding Indigenous Movements in Paraguay: The Case of the Xákmok Kásek Community and the Scales of Resistance Andréanne Brunet-Bélanger

On February 23, 2022, the indigenous community Xákmok Kásek of the Sanapaná Nation forced the closure of the Transchaco highway at kilometer 351. This is not the first protest action employed by the community. Located in the municipality of Irala Fernández in the Presidente Hayes department, the blockade is part of a series of actions taken by the community to demand that the Paraguayan state implement their rights, as stipulated in national and international legislation. In order to demand the implementation of their rights, the community has mobilized at the local level, but also at the national and international levels. In 2015, the community blocked traffic on this road (El País, 2015). This action lasted four days and was carried out in conjunction with a reoccupation of their

A. Brunet-Bélanger (*) Department of Science Politique, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. Levy et al. (eds.), Social Movements and the Struggles for Rights, Justice and Democracy in Paraguay, Social Movements and Transformation, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25883-1_5

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ancestral territory in an “illegal”1 way. The community walked 18 km to get to their ancestral territory and settle there with their belongings (EFE, 2015). While occupying it physically, they appropriated the space symbolically by putting up a sign that said, “this is our ancestral land.” This action resulted in an agreement and signing of the deed of acceptance of the transfer of title of the land between the community and the state, consistent with the demands of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR).2 All these actions aim at recovering the ancestral territory, as well as demonstrating a strong identity with the territory to which they belong. The members of the Xákmok Kásek community were expelled from their ancestral territory more than 30 years ago when the state privatized their land.3 Since then, the community has survived on borrowed territory, which is unproductive, making for precarious access to food and water. Basic public services such as water, electricity, education, and health are absent. The Xákmok Kásek community claims, through the recovery of its ancestral lands, the right to dignity, food, and water. This interweaving of rights can only be understood through the territorial identity of the community. Indeed, by being deprived of their ancestral land, communities are deprived not only of their ancestral heritage, but also of the possibility of having their hunting, fishing, and gathering rights, which would secure their food and water access. Without security and access to their lands, indigenous peoples cannot exercise their economic, social, and cultural rights and freedoms. The claims of the indigenous people of the Chaco region, like those of the Xákmok Kásek community, have a long history in Paraguay.4 Already during the colonization of the Chaco region in the 1930s, indigenous territories were dismantled and appropriated. The colonization of the 1  Illegal is used in quote marks because the action is illegal in the eyes of the state and the law. 2  Indeed, the community won in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights against the State of Paraguay. I will come back to this episode later in the chapter. 3  The Xákmok Kásek had been expelled from this territory in the 1980s by a Salazar ranch owner, Roberto Carlos Eaton Kent. Source: IACHR: Inter-American court of human rights case of the Xákmok Kásek indigenous community vs Paraguay. Case 12,420, 24 August 2010, para 16. 4  The Paraguayan Chaco or Región Occidental (Western Region) is a semi-arid region of Paraguay, with a very low population density, but where most of the indigenous population is located.

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Chaco meant the fragmentation, privatization, and encirclement of indigenous lands, and this process is still present today. In terms of land distribution, Paraguay is one of the most unequal in the world, with 85.5% of all agricultural land in the hands of just 2.6% of farmers (Rudolph, 2020, p.  25). The privatization of land has brought many physical barriers to ancestral territories—such as fences and gates put up by rancheros to demarcate their “properties” (Correia, 2021; Rudolph, 2020). Privatization has also led to the exclusion of indigenous interests in the national political agenda. Due to the absence of the state in the region, the community decided to take their case to the IACHR. In 2010, the court demanded that the State return to the members of the Xákmok Kásek community the 10,700 hectares that belonged to them under their ancestral territorial rights. Despite this legal victory, the State refuses to implement the demands of the IACHR. Faced with this refusal, the members of the community decided to mobilize collectively to demand immediate action from the state to return the land.5

Scales of Resistance In the absence of channels for dialogue with the state, indigenous actions must be seen as legitimate spaces for the expression of rights within the national space. Indigenous mobilizations, as well as non-indigenous support, can thus be seen as an attempt to force the application of national and international law (Hanna et al., 2016, p. 491). Tarrow (1994) puts forward the idea that the timing of a mobilization largely explains why and how it occurs. This case suggests that this does not apply to indigenous protests, which are also marked by levels of everyday resistance that explain the protests subsequently directed at the state, or the actions taken in the international arena. The change of repertoire and the scale of collective action does not occur at specific moments of great conjuncture. Rather, it is the product of mutually influencing actions: changes occur in response to previous events, from one campaign to another, from one protest episode to another. As Tilly (1975) argues, understanding the dynamics of action

5  The community is asking the State to return the 10,700 hectares claimed, to ensure that the territory is not damaged, and to remove the obstacles to the transfer of the land. Source: IACHR. op. cit., paras. 11–29.

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repertoires and their evolution requires attention to all levels of scale and sequence since changes in one will have repercussions on others. It is therefore through the interweaving of different levels of spaces and registers of collective action that it is possible to paint a portrait that does justice to the complexity of the relationships. The space of resistance also influences the strategic and discursive choices depending on where the struggles are located. The local space refers here to the geographical place of belonging, that is, the Chaco. The national space refers to the claims made in relation to state institutions. Finally, the transnational space refers to the mobilization of supranational institutions, but also the implementation of international human rights standards. According to Dufour and Goyer (2009, p. 120), building transnational solidarities involves the production of multiple and interconnected scales of action. Thus, the play of scale is the result of sociopolitical and historical struggles, but also the responses between the different actors involved in these power relations. This is why actors move back and forth between these different levels of collective action (Dufour & Goyer, 2009; Masson, 2009). Through these different levels of scale (local, national and international), I will also put forward the concept of windows of opportunity (Tarrow et  al., 1998). This concept allows me to show the interactions between these different levels and how they influence each other. This concept also assumes that when a window closes and the event ends, it leaves the policy environment and actors transformed, as they build on the previous sequence of actions and decisions (Sewell, 1996). Actors do not simply react to institutional changes, but rather use their acquired political position and mobilization resources to create subsequent openings (Dembinska, 2012). Nevertheless, despite the actors’ agency, they operate within a defined sociopolitical context: structures continue to matter but are not entirely determinative. In order to be recognized and to put forward tools of struggle, actors adapt to existing laws, institutions, and discourses, while shaping them in turn. However, the domino effect between different types of protest spaces is not enough to explain the uniqueness of indigenous movements in Paraguay. For example, the creation of protest spaces is not only explained by the closure of institutional spaces. While it is clear that this influences actions, it is not enough to understand its connection to the territory of indigenous people. I therefore add a fourth level of understanding to the analysis: the ontological context. According to Wilkes (2006, p.  518), social movements are made up of disparate individuals and groups that

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come together. In doing so, these groups perceive themselves, and are perceived by others, as sharing a collective identity (Wilkes, 2006; Diani, 1992). A collective identity is a shared definition of a group that arises from the common interests, experiences, and solidarity of the members (Taylor & Whittier, 1999). Yet indigenous claims, while identity-based, are primarily derived from a particular ontology. Blaser (2010, p. 2) argues that ontological conflicts are central to our time both because they reveal alternatives to modernity and because they force modernity to reform itself to deal with radical differences. Even with the inclusion of alternative rights in international apparatuses, the modernist vision remains present in these instruments (De La Cadena, 2015). These tools, as well as the theories that support them, are insufficient to understand indigenous interpretations of territories not fitting into their narrative framework. Ontological conflict(s) occurs when there is incommensurability (total or partial) of ontological frameworks. The ensuing attempts to match them are sites of political struggle and conflict. In the case of indigenous communities, their claims express a different way of seeing and understanding the world: their own ontology (Blaser, 2010; Latour, 1991). A vision focused on political openings is therefore insufficient to understand the effects of these different ontologies on trajectories of struggle (Berman, 2013). The political ontology literature provides a broader understanding of territorial significance for indigenous communities required to explain their collective action and contention.

Case of Xákmok Kásek Community Claims My case study will focus on the claims of the Xákmok Kásek community. Although I am focusing on the current period, it is important to situate the claims. This case describes the sociopolitical history of the community, while also placing their claims in a larger context to gain greater clarity about indigenous movements in Paraguay. The chapter is divided into four parts. The first part focuses on the local scale of Xákmok Kásek community members’ claims. The second part presents the national level of the context of the struggles, focusing on institutional openings of the state during the democratic transition period and how the Xákmok Kásek community appropriated these by taking their claims to Paraguayan courts of justice. The third part focuses on the international scale of their struggles. The development of indigenous rights in the international arena has

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allowed the community to address the IACHR, following the exhaustion of recourse to the national courts. The fourth part focuses on the indigenous ontology in order to understand the indigenous claims of the Xákmok Kásek community. I will conclude with the importance of the intertwining of spaces and scales in understanding indigenous movements.

Data Sources and Methods My research methodology is based on three types of sources. First, I rely on the legal documents available to me, including affidavits, written representations from community members, and applications made during the proceedings before the IACHR. Secondly, I refer to books, academic articles, and newspaper articles written on the subject. Finally, I rely on reports from international and local indigenous rights organizations. Through these different sources, I use two methods of analysis. The first is based on the semantic triplet method which allows me to produce formalized descriptions of the interactions taking place during protest events. Each space of contestation is detailed by retaining the addressee (whom the community is addressing), the type of action (the gesture), and its target (the object of the demands). The second is based on a performative analysis. This analysis relates the claims to their broader socio-cultural and political-economic context (Bauman & Briggs, 1990, as cited in Hanna et al., 2016). This allows for an examination of the connections between the specific event and the larger context, both global and local, through the processes of contextualization that emerge in the event (Hanna et al., 2016, p. 491). Discourse is not produced in isolation or without reference to other previous or parallel situations. For this reason, I focus on the interplay between different scales to understand the originality of Paraguayan indigenous movements, using the Xákmok Kásek community as a case study. The different contextual scales offer an opportunity for rupture in discourse, but also for movement and interweaving through the continuous interaction between discourses.

Indigenous Claims The Local Context: The Chaco It is against the large landowners (and their defenders in the Paraguayan government) that the indigenous people of the Chaco are currently

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struggling in their efforts to recover their land. To understand why and how the Xákmok Kásek community has sought to assert its property rights since 1990, it is necessary to go back to the history of the Chaco region, and link it to the territorial dispossession of the indigenous peoples. The important place occupied by these actors stems from the agrarian reforms initiated by the State during the years of the 1970s and 1980s6 (Hetherington, 2009). These reforms are an integral part of the country’s history and contribute to the unequal relationship between the state and the indigenous people. Although the relationship between the State and indigenous populations has always been framed by laws and systems,7 the latter remain highly asymmetrical and inequitable since they are enshrined in the domination of economic development over indigenous territorial rights. The origin of the unequal distribution of land is rooted in the perpetuation of colonial models, dictatorships, and wars. As early as 1825, the Paraguayan state required, through a decree, that all citizens present title deeds for the lands they occupied. Untitled lands, i.e., those held and used by indigenous people, were declared state property. By doing so, the State was able to take “legal” possession of the Chaco, although it did not lead to immediate occupation or use of these lands (USAID, 2017; Cultural Survival, 1995). Two wars reversed this trend: the Triple Alliance and the Chaco War.8 Following the Triple Alliance War in 1870, and eager to attract foreign 6  In the late 1950s, the dictator Stroessner began to develop rural areas and increase agricultural production. The government passed a law in 1963 that authorized the acceleration of land privatization and deprived indigenous communities of what little ancestral lands they possessed. Stroessner reconfigured national space in the Chaco, declaring the territory “land without people,” which allowed him to appropriate indigenous forest space and redistribute it to landowners (Horst, 2007). This process of colonization of the Chaco affected all indigenous peoples who, like the Xákmok Kásek community, have seen their ancestral territory disappear amidst the cattle fences of the new Paraguayan and foreign landowners. 7  During colonization, the system in place was that of the encomidenda. From 1860, the government of Paraguay formed a dictatorship in which the liberal political party held the dominant position. In 1907, they established the Ley de reducciones de Tribus Indigenas (Law on the Reduction of Indigenous Tribes), which was intended to promote the colonization of indigenous peoples by promising their territories to any religious organization that succeeded in reducing the indigenous population. This process is similar to the one used by the former Jesuit missionaries who invited the missions to settle the indigenous people under the tutelage of the state (Horst, 2007, p. 16). 8  The War of the Triple Alliance (1864–1870) established the national borders and initiated the process of privatization of lands. The Chaco War (1932–1935) reshaped the relationship between the indigenous peoples of the Chaco and the state, as it forced encounters between the indigenous peoples of the Chaco with the Paraguayans and Bolivians.

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investment, a heavily indebted Paraguayan state sold its western territories to foreign companies (Horst, 2007).9 The Chaco War accelerated the process of land sales. In 1935, although Paraguay emerged victorious from the conflict, the economic losses were considerable. The confrontation gave many Chaco indigenous people their first contact with outsiders and greater exposure to Western disease and militarism (Horst, 2007, p. 18). In order to finance the war, the Paraguayan state sold off indigenous lands (Duckworth, 2011; Lambert & Nickson, 1997). At the same time, the Paraguayan government encouraged the establishment of businesses and landowners in the Chaco region in order to ensure the economic development of the region, while also affirming the state’s authority over the region (Rudolph, 2020, p. 25). Mennonites also began to move into the Chaco in the 1920s and 1930s to bolster the population and develop the local economy (Caldas et al., 2015). This population movement resulted in the displacement of many indigenous communities in the Chaco. These settlements of non-indigenous people have destroyed many of the cultural and traditional ties to the territories of which indigenous peoples have been custodians for generations (Cultural Survival, 2020). This displacement of indigenous peoples from their ancestral lands was also accompanied by systemic racism that places them on the margins of society. Only 54% of indigenous communities own their own land and have land title. This lack of recognition of ancestral rights is part of a broader national context of structural discrimination against indigenous peoples by the Paraguayan state. It is in the context of this long history of dispossession that the members of the Xákmok Kásek were forced to leave their ancestral territory and settle near private properties until 2008 (IACHR, 2010, p.  64). The Salazar ranch now occupies the community’s territory. Before that, the Anglican Church established the Campo Flores mission not far from the territory to continue the “Christianization” of the Enxet.10 This forced displacement has highlighted the important issue of access to land. While the preservation of indigenous territories is essential to the maintenance of spiritual, cultural, and community well-being, it is equally important to their daily activities of subsistence. The fact that the  Large portions of land were sold to 79 companies or individuals (Horst, 2007, p. 14).  In 1939, the mission founded a missionary post in the place where the community had settled. 9

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community is concentrated in such a small area means that they have not been able to sustain themselves through traditional methods such as hunting, gathering, and fishing. This is why the local claims of the Xákmok Kásek community for the return of their ancestral territories can only be understood through a historical description of the material dispossession of the territories. The National Context: The Institutionalization of Indigenous Protections Prior to the third wave of democratization (Huntington, 1991), indigenous groups traditionally mobilized along class, partisan, religious, and revolutionary lines rather than ethnic identities (Yashar, 1998). Alongside democratization movements, indigenous mobilizations have emerged by challenging national governance structures (Rice, 2021). This period of mobilization of several indigenous movements is often explained in terms of domestic institutional changes (Yashar, 2005; Van Cott, 2009). For the Paraguayan indigenous movements, two moments are important at the national level for understanding the link between indigenous claims and court mobilization at the national level. These are the passage of Law 904 and the creation of a new Constitution in 1992. Law 904 In 1981, legislators passed Law 904 at the national level, which describes the status of indigenous communities. This law outlines specific rights for indigenous communities; it also led to the creation of the Instituto Paraguayo del Indígena (INDI) to rule on indigenous affairs, and the creation of a legal mechanism to recognize indigenous communities and eventually return land to them (Correia, 2019). While the law is, in theory, a very important step forward for indigenous communities, as it allows them to obtain legal status in order to acquire title to property, it does not overcome the structural discrimination against indigenous people in Paraguay. While the State has established a series of constitutional

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and legal norms recognizing the rights of indigenous peoples and its obligations,11 they are largely ineffective in providing substantive solutions. Thus, Law 904 allows indigenous people, grouped in communities, to be legally recognized by the State to initiate the bureaucratic procedures for the restitution of part of their territories. Nevertheless, as mentioned above, the indigenous territories have been exploited and deforested to make way for monoculture and cattle-ranching. The claimed territories have been partially emptied of their resources due to agricultural exploitation, which is at the heart of the development model of the time. In addition, the communities have been able to recover only a small part of what they demanded12 (Melià & Telesca, 1997). The law was also part of the Stroessner regime’s efforts to exclude the indigenous population from rural development. In order to exclude indigenous people from national growth, the regime systematically granted less land to their communities than the new legislation provided for, thus gradually freeing up territory for ranching or agriculture, while slowly but effectively isolating the indigenous population from society and national development (Horst, 2007, p. 100). In this context, on December 28, 1990, the leaders of the Xákmok Kásek community13 filed an administrative action before the Institute of Rural Welfare,14 to recover their traditional lands.15 Law 904 allowed, for the first time, the recognition of a legal and official status for the communities. The opportunities available at the state level were used to legitimize 11  For example, during the construction of the Itaipú dam, the State, under pressure from the Avá-Chiripá communities, used the pretext of implementing Law 904/81 and Law 63/68 (ratifying Convention 107), in order to find financing for the implementation of the project when, in fact, these laws were not implemented. 12  On average, the redistributed land corresponds to 20% of the true territory claimed (Cultural Survival, 2020). 13  In November 1986, the Paraguayan Indigenous Peoples’ Institute (hereinafter the “INDI”) recognized the leaders of the Sanapaná Indigenous Community, settled in the place known as Zalazar. Subsequently, in November of 1987, the President of Paraguay granted legal standing to the Zglamo Kacet Community, recognizing that it belonged to the Maskoy ethnic group. This name was a translation of the version used nowadays, Xákmok Kásek, with a different spelling. Finally, in April of 1994, the INDI recognized the current leaders of the Community as leaders of the ‘Zalazar’ indigenous community, belonging to the Sanapaná ethnic group, and expressly annulled the previous recognition of the leaders (IACHR, op. cit., para. 44). 14  The Institute is now called the Institute of Land and Rural Development. 15  IACHR, op. cit., para. 67.

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the land-related claims of the Xákmok Kásek community. Law 904 represented an institutional context in which community members were able to adjust their discourse and strategies in order to gain recognition of their status. These institutional opportunities are coherent dimensions of the political environment that encourage individuals to undertake collective action (Tarrow, 1994, p. 85). While these opportunities are stable, because they are institutionalized, they are limited in action. Indeed, since Law 904 is defined in strictly legal terms, claims cannot go beyond the meaning that the law allows. The claim of December 28, 1990 was not successful, as the State refused to recognize the community’s ancestral link.16 Paraguayan law does not allow property rights to be claimed simply by asserting that the land was occupied in the past. If the executive branch recognized that the traditional territory of the indigenous community was in the Chaco, this does not mean that the state would be willing to dispossess the landowners recognized by national law. The land in question, at the time the application was filed, was part of an agricultural operation owned by a private company.17 The New Constitution (1992) At the same time, the end of Stroessner’s reign in 1989 brought about constitutional reforms in Paraguay that strengthened indigenous land rights, as did the country’s ratification in 1993 of the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169 on the Rights of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples. In the new Constitution, Article 62 recognizes the pre-existence of indigenous peoples, defined as “groups of previous cultures” at the time of the country’s founding. Article 63 recognizes and guarantees the right of indigenous peoples to preserve and maintain their ethnic identity, to follow their own political, social, economic, cultural, and religious norms, and to be bound voluntarily by their customary laws in internal affairs. Other constitutional provisions recognize the right to communal land ownership (art. 64) and indigenous participation (art. 65) and establish special measures to protect indigenous peoples from depopulation,

 IACHR, op. cit., p. 25 (footnote 780).  IACHR, op. cit., para. 69.

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habitat degradation, environmental pollution, economic exploitation, and cultural alienation (art. 66). To understand the impact of the Constitution on indigenous claims, it is necessary to place it in the context of the democratic transition that began in 1989.18 In 1988, indigenous communities held a dozen demonstrations in connection with obtaining semi-autonomous status on their ancestral lands. These demonstrations were integrated into the broader demands against the regime by peasants, the Catholic Church, trade unions, and the political opposition. Nevertheless, this participation in the protests did not necessarily ensure that their rights were represented in the post-Stroessner government. The communities had to work within the political structures of the state to establish themselves on the national scene. Indigenous leaders strategically used the new political language of the constitution, overlaying it with their culturally distinct discourses, to pressure the government. In this way, they have created space for themselves within the state. This expansion of space can be seen in the actions of members of the Xákmok Kásek community. When the application was filed in 1990, the land in question was part of a farm owned by a commercial company.19 Following the constitutional changes, the community went to Congress on June 23, 1999, to demand the reclamation of this land.20 In response to these demands, the commercial owner suggested that the community be given replacement land near the property. On November 16, 2000, the Senate rejected the bill to expropriate the land claimed by the Community.21 In 2002, another part of the territory claimed by the community was acquired by the Mennonite cooperative Chortitzer Komitee.22 As a result, the use of land for the community was reduced. Indeed, community members were forbidden to cultivate or own

18  After 35 years in power, on February 3, 1989, Stroessner was overthrown by a military coup led by General Andrés Rodríguez (also Stroessner’s in-law). While the reasons for this coup are attributed to the generals’ discontent, the rise of civil society demands may also partly explain the dictator’s fall (Horst, 2007). 19  When the claim was filed, the land in question formed part of a farm owned by Eaton y Cía. S.A. IACHR, op. cit., para. 69. 20  IACHR, op. cit., para. 69. 21  IACHR, op. cit., para. 70. 22  IACHR, op. Cit., paras. 69 and 70.

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livestock. In addition, the community had to settle on a small part of the claimed territory, restricting certain activities such as hunting and fishing.23 On April 16, 2005, due to the difficulties experienced by the Xákmok Kásek community, the leaders of the neighboring communities24 agreed to cede 1500 hectares to them.25 On February 25, 2008, the members of the community settled on the territory ceded by the neighboring communities. This new settlement is called “25 de Febrero“ and is located outside the lands claimed by the community.26 In 2010, the title to the land of “25 de Febrero”, where the community is staying, has still not been granted.27 At the same time, on January 31, 2008, the State declared the 12,450 hectares of the Salazar Ranch property as a protected nature reserve.28 Of the land included, approximately 4175 hectares are part of the 10,700 hectares claimed by the community since 1990.29 This declaration of a nature reserve was made without consulting the members of the community or considering their land claim. The law also establishes restrictions on the use and ownership of land, including prohibitions on occupying land and on the exercise of traditional activities by community members such as hunting, fishing, and gathering. The law penalizes non-compliance with these prohibitions and legalizes the establishment of a guard, who can be armed and make arrests.30 On July 31, 2008, the community filed an appeal for unconstitutionality before the Supreme Court of Justice against the aforementioned declaration of a nature reserve.31 However, although the community presented an authenticated copy of the administrative file on December 14, 2009, within the time limit prescribed by law, the application was suspended.32 Thus, while the creation of legal reforms and the creation of a new constitution have provided new space for contestation, national norms  IACHR, op. cit., para. 74.  The Nepoxen, Saria, Tajamar Kabayu and Kenaten communities. 25  These communities succeeded in having 15,113 hectares returned to them in 1997 by INDI. 26  IACHR, op. cit., para. 77. 27  IACHR, op. cit., para 78. 28  The law establishes the duration in force for five years. 29  IACHR, op. cit., Para 80. 30  IACHR, op. cit., para. 82 31  IACHR, op. cit., para. 83. 32  IACHR, op. cit., para. 84. 23 24

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continue to fall short of what is needed to ensure the implementation of indigenous peoples’ rights. Faced with the closure of its opportunities at the national level, the Xákmok Kásek community seized another opportunity, this time at the international level. Unlike the concept of classical political opportunity structures (Meyer & Minkoff, 2004), the metaphor of windows of opportunity seems more applicable to the Paraguayan indigenous movement. This is because it allows for an understanding of the emergence of claims as a more dynamic and relational process and the possibility of having a plurality of windows open at the same time (Dembinska, 2012). For this reason, the international context of the emergence of indigenous rights is just as important as the national context of the creation of indigenous rights (Rice, 2021). The global context allows us to think not about political opportunities, but about multiple windows of opportunity. Global Context: The Emergence of Indigenous Rights in the International Arena According to Meyer and Tarrow (1997), a social movement is distinguished from a single event by the presence of multiple instances of action in a sustained series. The mobilization of supra-regional courts by the community, as well as the continuation of actions at the local and national levels, is an example. In response to the State’s refusal, the organization Tierraviva a los Pueblos Indígenas, acting as the representative of the community, filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACoHR). On July 2, 2009, after reviewing the case, the IACoHR submitted the case to the jurisdiction of the IACHR. The petition concerns the alleged responsibility of the State for the failure to guarantee the right of the indigenous community Xákmok Kásek to access its ancestral lands since 1999. The case was heard in 2010 and the judgment, favorable to the Community, was issued on August 24, 2010. How do we explain this decision? In the employment of campaigns by social movements, various types of interactions affect mobilization and outcomes. These include interactions with allies, counter-movements and other opponents, the media, and government officials and other authorities (Béland, 2005). Within and between movements, participants may form coalitions and engage in cooperative actions, compete, or conflict with each other (Staggenborg, 2008, p. 34). The problem of bridging the

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framings of these different struggles has been a common source of tension and fragmentation in social movements (Bennett, 2005). This is not the first time that an indigenous Paraguayan community has mobilized the IACHR: the Yakye Axa community (2005), as well as the Sawhoyamaxa community (2006), have brought similar cases before the Inter-American courts. Both communities also won their cases. Studies of past protest movements have suggested that coordination was difficult, in part because core positions were not shared (Bennett, 2005; Tilly et  al., 2001). Yet the political possibilities for transnational protests have been expanded by internationalism, which Tarrow (2005, p. 25) defines as the structure of relations between states, non-state actors, and international institutions. These perspectives allow actors to engage in collective action at different levels (Staggenborg, 2008, p. 127). To successfully connect actors from different movements and at different levels, movements need effective mesomobilizing of actors and frameworks that link movement concerns with local, national, and international issues (Staggenborg, 2008, p.  129). These mesomobilizations allow in some respects to think of the identity of social movements outside the national framework, to conceptualize them as organized in more or less intangible and flexible networks, sometimes even detachable from territorial identities (Appadurai, 1996, Yanagisako & Delaney, 1994, Seidman, 2000, pp. 340–341). For local actors, the transnational public sphere takes on new importance both as a site of contestation and as a source of new resources, ideas, and support (Seidman, 2000, p. 341). This phenomenon of transnational protest helps to understand the actions of indigenous communities in Paraguay. Indeed, the systematic refusal to implement indigenous rights in Paraguay—despite the 1992 constitutional reforms—coincides with the rise of international actions by indigenous communities. Indigenous communities in Paraguay have organized to claim their rights, particularly with respect to access to their ancestral lands, through intermediary indigenous organizations such as Tierraviva. They use a variety of strategies and tools, such as a march for dignity, partnerships with non-governmental organizations, the use of social media, and alliances between communities and transnational movements. Social protest phenomena are linked to broader global processes; social movements invariably involve the construction of collective identities and the mobilization of broad constituencies (Seidman, 2000, p. 343). This new global perspective on identities, networks, and communities— one that emphasizes the interconnectedness between different localities

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and parts of the world and how international processes shape, constrain, and redefine local processes—allows for a broader and less localized understanding of struggles (Seidman, 2000, p. 344). In this regard, Blaser et al. (2004) point out that there is a relationship between the degree of indigenous control and participation in the political-­ judicial processes of a state and the dominant orientation of struggle patterns in the international or domestic arena. In the Americas, the orientation of struggles toward domestic politics is most evident in contexts where indigenous participation in the political process is not severely or specifically blocked. The choice to claim rights in the domestic arena is also linked to a certain degree of sovereignty and self-determination for indigenous nations, recognized through treaty rights and other binding agreements. The “boomerang strategy“(Keck & Sikkink, 1998, pp. 12–13) of using international political arenas to influence domestic decision-­ making is more common in contexts where indigenous control and participation in political and judicial processes is more limited (Blaser et al., 2004, pp. 15–17). This applies to the situation of indigenous communities in Paraguay. Blocked by the lack of implementation of legislation favorable to indigenous rights, they mobilized the IACHR to make themselves heard by the Paraguayan state. However, the transnational actions of indigenous communities, such as that of Xákmok Kásek, can only be understood in light of the development of indigenous rights in the international arena. Indeed, the emergence and naturalization of indigenous rights in the tools and discourses offered by international law is a recent phenomenon (Anaya, 1991). The establishment of an international legal framework to protect indigenous rights was part of earlier struggles by indigenous peoples around the world and eventually led to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007 (Martí-i-Puig, 2010; Stavenhagen, 2011; Engle, 2010). To understand how international law developed its normative basis regarding indigenous rights, one must return to the construction of international indigenous law: its evolution reflects a shift from an invisible or subordinate status to inclusion in the human rights system (Otis, 2009, p. 240). In addition, local indigenous claims have made international law permeable to indigenous issues. The emergence of indigenous organizations, the politicization of indigenous identities, and indigenous rights claims are rooted in the change that took place during the 1980s in what Huntington (1991) has called the “third wave” of democratization, which took place

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mostly in Latin America. Prior to this movement of political liberalization, indigenous organizations politicized their land claims through peasant, union, or religious movements (Yashar, 1998). Through its disengagement as a rural development actor in the 1980s and 1990s, the state accentuated the already extensive relegation of these politically marginalized peoples as citizens, rendered powerless as peasant actors, and faced challenges that threatened their local, political, and material autonomy (Yashar, 1998, p. 31). By denying them opportunities for participation and inclusion at the national level, states have pushed indigenous people to turn to local forms of political identity and participation. This particular conjuncture of struggles, the interplay between national and international law, and the expansion of the scope of human rights has thus justified the emergence of instruments protecting indigenous rights at the international and regional levels. Thus, concerning the situation in Paraguay, the systematic refusal to implement the new legislation coincides with the rise of actions on the international scene. According to Passy (1999, p. 149), by taking a struggle to the transnational level, it is possible to develop the normative advancement of certain rights. International institutions offer structures of opportunity, which interact with movements of contestation at the national level (Khagram et al., 2002; Tarrow, 2002). Then, actors, both national and international, aware of the possibilities created by this dynamic interaction, choose strategies in accordance with the opportunities developed by their passage on the transnational scene (Sikkink, 2005, p. 171).

A Fourth Space: The Ontological Context Tarrow et al. (1998) argue that while individuals who participate in social movements are making demands on official authorities, they are also asserting their collective identity. Actors in social movements always combine the promotion of a social group identity with the defense of their interests. Their contention forms similar cycles: “after ‘precursors’ have provoked the beginning of the cycle, more and more actors join the cycle to demand recognition and answers to their demands” (Tarrow et  al., 1998, p. 15). This phenomenon builds to a peak and then declines, which must be seen in relation to the various tools deployed in collective action (Tarrow et al., 1998). The concept of a cycle views these movements as dynamic and relational: decline does not mean finality. Protests do not ultimately disappear, but some periods of crisis are more visible than others.

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Yet the idea of cycles has little application to indigenous claims. They emanate from the relationship to the territory, which is in tension between the state and indigenous people. These competing visions of territory are part of the historical and contemporary reality of settlement colonialism (Doucet, 2021, p.  3). Paraguay, and colonial states more broadly, posit their authority on the premise of legitimization over whose territory they have exclusive control of sovereignty (Doucet, 2021; Veracini, 2010; Wolfe, 2006). This control of sovereignty poses “the condition of monopoly over territory requires the disavowal of prior sovereignties, in this case indigenous, as a prerequisite to the legitimacy of the state” (Doucet, 2021, p. 3). Indigenous claims have always existed and take many forms and are rooted in a particular ontology. In addition, if the concept of windows of opportunity allows us to grasp certain aspects of the political contexts of social movements, such as the relative openness or closure of the political-institutional system or the stability or instability of political alignments (Giugni, 2002, p. 76), it does not allow us to grasp the meaning of indigenous claims, since they are inscribed in a context of colonialism. Thus, the territorial claims of the Xákmok Kásek community—and, more broadly, of indigenous communities in Paraguay—must be approached in their close and indisputable link with cultural identity. A key feature of Indigenous ontology is the permanent attachment of a group of people to a fixed area of land in a way that marks them as culturally distinct (Murray Li, 2010). It might be easy to explain communities’ connection to the land with lifestyle—and subsistence practices. Yet for members of indigenous communities, cultural identity is closely tied to their ancestral lands. If they are deprived of their ancestral lands, as a result of forced displacement, their cultural identity is severely affected and their right to life is undermined.33 The members of the Xákmok Kásek community affirm that the relationship with the land is a component of the right to life in its broadest sense. By being deprived of their ancestral lands and traditional habitat, the Xákmok Kásek community has been unable to hunt, fish, and gather, which has not only undermined their right to food, but also affected their identity, culture, and religiosity. A full explanation of the dynamics of indigenous social protest must therefore also include an ontological analysis.  IACHR, op. cit., para. 72 and paras. 183 to 193.

33

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The issue at stake in indigenous claims is not one of different perspectives on the same phenomenon, but rather of a divide between distinct worldviews. Yet, while the state sees land as a productive resource, the state argues that community members do not have the privileged relationship with the claimed territory that they claim to have.34 The State claims to offer similar treatment to its citizens, which means that it is not possible to deprive the landowners of the Chaco region of the possibility of exercising their legal rights of individual ownership.35 The Xákmok Kásek community claims that their ancestral territory should be linked to the collective memory of the members, since the land is systematically connected and associated with events, places, memories, and traditional practices.36 Without their territory, the community faces a collective cultural erosion, since, in the absence of the land, it is deprived of its cosmology, its spirituality, and, consequently, of its identity.37 In sum, the Xákmok Kásek community’s claims to land rights are understood both by the history of the region, by national and international circumstances, but also by their own vision of the land. Without the restitution of their land, the community cannot exercise their economic, social, and cultural rights. Understanding the claims of indigenous communities, therefore, means shedding light on the link to territory and ancestral rights, which are inherent to the pursuit of other fundamental rights. Ontology allows us to go beyond the political context in understanding indigenous claims. It is key to explaining the claims and the forms of mobilizations.

Conclusion In conclusion, in order to understand the actions of the Xákmok Kásek community, it is necessary to highlight the different scales of protest, all of which are interrelated. We must also add the ontological scale, to identify the importance of the land for the indigenous people. Thus, the actions initiated at the local level aim to recover their territories in the face of the accelerated colonization of the Chaco. Then, with the creation of legal tools, the claims moved to the national arena. Due to  IACHR, op. cit., para. 91.  IACHR, op. cit., para. 53. 36  IACHR, op. cit., para. 92. 37  IACHR, op. cit., para. 171. 34 35

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the State’s refusal to implement indigenous rights, the community mobilizes at the supranational level. If they win their claims, the community members still face a refusal by the State to implement the IACHR decisions. Actions are currently resuming at the local level, with the blocking of the TransChaco highway. While it is possible to explain these different spaces of contestation through the concept of a political window of opportunity, it does not explain the indigenous positionality behind the actions of contestation and resistance since the beginning of colonization. Obviously, indigenous ontologies are varied. Echoing Blaser’s (2009) idea, however, I argue that indigenous and non-indigenous worlds are more different. Engaging meaningfully with Indigenous ontologies is an immense political, intellectual, and epistemological challenge, but it allows us to frame claims according to a context that would otherwise elude us as non-indigenous scholars (Cruikshank, 2012).

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The Paraguayan Labor Movement at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century Ignacio González Bozzolasco and Raquel Rojas

Introduction To fully understand the main characteristics of Paraguayan society at the beginning of the twenty-first century, it is first necessary to understand the turbulent period at the end of the twentieth century. International situations and events, such as the debt crisis (1980), the Washington Consensus (1989), the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989), and the dissolution of the Soviet Union (1991), are combined with a national context marked by the deterioration and fall of the authoritarian regime led by General Alfredo Stroessner, and the beginning of a process of transition to democracy. Thus, the new democratic regime developed in an international context

I. G. Bozzolasco (*) Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigación Social (CIIS), Asunción, Paraguay R. Rojas Institute for Latin American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. Levy et al. (eds.), Social Movements and the Struggles for Rights, Justice and Democracy in Paraguay, Social Movements and Transformation, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25883-1_6

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marked by the consolidation of a unipolar world and the expansion of neoliberal ideas. This context is also relevant in order to contemplate the features that define the Paraguayan trade union field, its actors, and its challenges. As we have already observed in other publications (González Bozzolasco, 2013a, 2013b, 2013c, 2014, 2020a, 2021), the Stroessner period was characterized by the consolidation of a particular model that we call sui generis corporatism; a regulatory device of labor relations that, despite having a strong corporatist imprint, did not strictly coincide with the typical ideal-type constructions elaborated in the literature (González Bozzolasco, 2020a). We refer here to the formulations of Samuel Valenzuela (1990), who identifies two ideal types of containment strategies applied by authoritarian regimes to labor organizations: the corporatist strategy and the labor market strategy. The first is defined by the creation of workers’ organizations by the State itself, with official financing, mandatory affiliation, and the establishment of strict limits regarding the labor sectors that can join unions. This model presents a rigid state control of the leadership, with limited margins for union action (Valenzuela, 1990, p.  303). The labor market strategy is characterized as “trying to reduce their [unions’] power as bargaining agents to a minimum,” by promoting highly decentralized collective bargaining, voluntary union membership, and uncomplicated creation of new unions. In this respect, this organization model encourages the fragmentation and weakening of the union field (p. 304). As already mentioned, it is our interpretation that the Stroessner regime carried out a corporatist strategy in order to contain the labor movement, guaranteeing the constitution of one official trade union center as the only legal field for union action. However, this situation abruptly changed after the sudden fall of the regime, the immediate political opening, and the gradual configuration of new norms and democratic institutions. The characteristics of the transition to democracy in Paraguay promoted the foundation for new forms of containment of the labor movement, with features similar to the labor market strategy proposed by Valenzuela. Thus, the proliferation of centers and unions increased, while the power for collective bargaining was gradually reduced. At the same time, a sustained weakening of trade unionism in the private sector was observed, along with a substantive predominance of trade unionism in the public sector. This chapter is structured into six sections. Following this introduction, we summarize the main antecedents of Paraguayan trade unionism and its

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relations with the State, focusing mainly on the Stroessner period and the establishment of the aforementioned sui generis corporatism. Then we discuss the main sociopolitical, institutional, and legal changes taking place at the beginning of the democratic transition and their impact on trade unionism. These changes allowed an important growth in unionization, but also laid the foundations for a new model to contain the labor movement. The fourth section discusses the political watershed in 2008, embodied in the rise of Fernando Lugo to the presidency, and its implications for the union camp. We argue here that, although the Lugo government opened an important window of opportunity for social movements, the labor market strategy could not be overcome. Furthermore, despite the numerous spaces for dialogue promoted by the government, the bargaining power of the unions remained weak, and fragmentation remained a defining feature of Paraguayan unionism. Section five describes the current scenario of the trade union movement, marked by chronic fragmentation and the preponderance of public sector unions. These problems are compounded by challenges arising from the very structure of the Paraguayan labor market, as well as certain traditional features of the labor movement that make it difficult for a significant proportion of the working class to participate. Finally, section six summarizes the chapter, pointing out how the strategies adopted by the State to contain the trade union movement have been changing, shaping a trade union camp that has not yet found a way to overcome the fragmentation and atomization which has plagued it since the return of democracy.

Background: Stronismo and Sui Generis Corporatism Although the first experiences of labor organization in Paraguay date back to the end of the nineteenth century, the Paraguayan trade union movement took its first steps toward a decisive constitution at the beginning of the twentieth century. In 1906, the first Paraguayan workers’ federation was founded under the name of Federación Obrera Regional Paraguaya (FORP), possessing a strong anarchist orientation. Subsequently, the dispute between anarchists and socialists within the labor movement in 1912 generated a split in this central and the constitution of a new space with a socialist tendency, called the Union Gremial del Paraguay (UGP). The internal disputes, and the fragility of many of the organizations in the Paraguayan trade union camp, generated reorganizations in both spaces of ideological articulation. Thus, in 1916 the Centro Obrero Regional del

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Paraguay (CORP) was established as a successor of the FORP. Meanwhile, the Paraguayan Workers’ Federation (FOP) was created in 1916 as a successor to the UGP, and the following year saw the creation of the Paraguayan Workers’ Union (UOP). Accordingly, the first third of the twentieth century in Paraguay was shaped by the articulation of a fragmented trade union movement, primarily organized around political and ideological positions (Gaona, 2008, pp.  89–95; Rivarola, 2010, pp. 207–209). The Paraguayan laws of that period did not contemplate greater rights and guarantees for the working class, as was the case in much of Latin America throughout the first two decades of the twentieth century (Hall & Spalding, 1991, p. 287). Without specific codes to regulate labor relations, everything related to the relationship between capital and labor was governed by the National Constitution of 1870, in addition to the Commercial, Civil and Penal Codes adopted later for such purposes. Therefore, there were no specialized institutions in the regulation of labor relations (Gaona, 2007, p. 297; Rivarola, 2010, pp. 64–65). This context changed dramatically after the Chaco War with Bolivia (1932–1935). With the end of the war, the trade union movement, which had been dismantled as a result of conscription measures and the toughening stance of the government toward the workers’ guilds, embarked on a new period of organization. In this new context, socialists and communists led the union reorganization efforts, leading to the creation of the National Confederation of Workers (CNT) in 1936. Three years later, the CNT changed its name to the Confederation of Workers of Paraguay (CTP) (Nickson, 1987, p. 10). Changes also occurred in the institutional and regulatory arena. In the context of the so-called Revolution of February 17, 1936, we find the establishment of institutional and regulatory frameworks, specializing in the regulation between capital and labor. With the establishment of the National Department of Labor (DNT) that same year, so too began the development of different regulations governing labor relations (González Bozzolasco, 2020a, pp. 78–87). In the trade union camp, the hegemony built by socialists and communists between 1936 and 1945 became challenged by internal sectors of the National Republican Association (ANR). This party, unlike its traditional adversary, the Liberal Party (PL), carried out permanent overtures to organized labor sectors from the beginning of the twentieth century. Starting in 1946, the ANR redoubled its efforts, forming its own workers’ organization: the Republican Workers’ Organization (ORO). After the

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civil war of 1947 and its disastrous repressive consequences, this organization was consolidated as the main space for trade union articulation in the country and, in 1951, led to the creation of the Paraguayan Confederation of Workers (CPT). Since its foundation, the CPT had a leadership mostly affiliated with the ANR and, although it also incorporated workers from other party affiliations into its ranks, the ANR presence was predominant (González Bozzolasco, 2020a, p. 154, 2021, p. 106). With the rise to power of General Alfredo Stroessner in 1954, the trade union arena was made up of a single workers’ central, heavily dominated by the ruling party presence in its ranks. Consequently, the CPT gave its support to Stroessner from the beginning of his regime and even promoted his “re-election”, once his first term ended in 1958. Regarding the institutional and regulatory field, the DNT continued to act as the sole governing body of labor relations, including its role as the labor court. At the same time, the emergence of opportune and isolated laws ended up creating a very messy regulatory framework for labor relations, with scattered and often incoherent and doctrinally divergent provisions (Caroni, 1954; Frescura, 1975; Barboza, 1987). The first years of consolidation of the Stroessner regime were not exempt from internal disputes, new alliances, and the neutralization of adversaries. Using measures such as persecution, arrest, and exile, Stroessner managed little by little to stabilize his political command between various internal feuds and purges. This process also affected the labor movement. In the face of repeated unfulfilled promises of a wage readjustment, the CPT called for a general strike a few days after the start of Stroessner’s second presidential term in 1958. The result was a repressive and sweeping response by the government and state security agencies that ended with the trade union central being taken over, its leadership completely restructured, and a large part of its leadership imprisoned or exiled (González Bozzolasco, 2013a, pp.  33–34, 2014, p.  74, 2020a, p. 154, 2021, p. 106). Shortly after the general strike and the intervention of the CPT, in 1961, the first Labor Code in the history of Paraguay was enacted. This institutional move was oriented toward a two-pronged objective: firstly, to overcome the aforementioned situation of disordered dispersed, incoherent and doctrinally divergent regulatory frameworks; and secondly, to constitute a legal-institutional cloak under which political and police control structures were concealed. Accordingly, the new system of trade union control entailed the establishment of formal and informal mechanisms

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that operated in a concerted manner in the trade union field, with the goal of consolidating state and ruling party control over the unions (González Bozzolasco, 2021, p. 108). As such, all decisions concerning the creation and running of trade unions—formal recognition of each guild, approval of their executive committees, endorsement of their leadership, meeting their demands, as well as reactions or responses to their protest actions—were part of a two-­ tiered process. The first of them, managed by the ruling party, was implemented through informal validation processes and considered the party membership of those involved, the interests defended, the interests threatened by their claims and measures, among other political evaluation parameters. At the second level, government authorities carried out validations of the formal processes related to the unions—union accreditation, certification of authorities, attention to demands and resolution of labor conflicts, among others—in accordance with the guidelines received by the of the authorities or partisan referents. The first of these, controlled by the ruling party, was implemented through an informal validation process and took into account the party affiliation of those involved, the interests defended or threatened by their demands and measures, among other criteria used for political assessment. The second, carried out by government authorities, was in charge of validating the formal procedures related to trade unions—union accreditation, certification of authorities, attention to demands and resolution of labor disputes, among others—in accordance with the orders received from the authorities or party leaders. This was the framework that shaped the functioning of labor relations in Paraguay until the beginning of the transition to democracy (González Bozzolasco, 2020a, p. 146). Within this new landscape, a trade union movement that was highly enmeshed with power and the government party began to expand its institutional presence and representation. As the only labor union, the CPT’s presence in state bodies was enhanced. In addition to existing trade union representation in the Social Security Institute (IPS), since 1943, and those of the Salary Council, since 1944, there were also those in the Permanent Board of Conciliation and Arbitration, established under the new Labour Procedure Code; in the National Electricity Administration Council (ANDE); in the State Council, modified in the 1967 constitution; in the National Professional Promotion Service Council (SNPP); and in the National Workers Bank (BNT) (González Bozzolasco, 2021, p. 109).

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This demonstrates the corporatist strategies to contain the labor movement during this period of Paraguayan history, recovering the meaning proposed by Valenzuela (1990, p.  303). However, given the particular and unorthodox forms of its application, carried out through both formal and informal mechanisms, we refer to a sui generis corporatism rather than to a model that strictly coincides with the ideal-type constructions elaborated by the Valenzuela and others. Although we cannot identify all the characteristics of the most classic corporatist relationship models between the State and the unions in the 1961 Labor Code—such as mandatory unionization and the organization of unions according to production branch—, we do find evidence of practices that emulate them. The obstruction or restriction of the trade union camp was imposed by means of repressive mechanisms in practice and not in law, guaranteeing the existence of a limited group of guilds, organized in categories that were not in competition with each other. It is in this respect that we have opted for the term sui generis to refer to a corporatism with clearly identifiable features which, although not explicitly enforced and officially institutionalized, manages to limit the trade union camp with practices similar to those of corporatism (González Bozzolasco, 2020a, p. 194). This strategy of containment would remain in place until the final years of the Stroessner regime when new actors began to emerge in the trade union arena who, unable to participate within the official trade union confederation, would undertake a strategy of articulation outside it, forming the Inter-Union Movement of Workers (MIT) in 1985. Among its main actions, this new independent union space raised both union and political demands, denouncing a political regime that restricted public spaces for union action. It was recognized as an expression of resistance to trade union corporatism promoted by the State, articulating trade union organizations that maintained a critical position and claimed the right to independent organization and mobilization (González Bozzolasco, 2013a, p. 143).

Democratic Transition and Institutional Reforms: Union Boom and a New Containment Model The regime built by Alfredo Stroessner fell at the beginning of 1989, after 35 uninterrupted years of government, beginning an erratic but sustained transition to democracy. This brought with it a comprehensive

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institutional overhaul of the Paraguayan State, with the promulgation of a new Constitution in 1992, from which the new normative frameworks of the budding democratic order were established. At the same time, as in a good part of the region in that period, an extensive and conflictual process of redrafting the existing labor laws then occurred. As Barboza and Racciati (1995, p. 48) point out, the “work of drafting the new Labour Code was arduous and contentious and required several legislative periods to achieve its approval, making it one of the most hotly debated laws in Paraguay’s legislative history.” Generally speaking, the discussions revolved around central guidelines dictated by structural adjustment policies then in vogue: proposals for labor flexibility, elimination of the minimum wage and job stability, and privatization of social security, among others. In the end, the promulgated version of the new labor law managed to resist many of the attacks made by the defenders of flexibility. The most important changes made by the new Labor Code concerned collective rights, in matters such as freedom of association, collective bargaining, and the right to strike. The mechanisms of mandatory arbitration of labor disputes were abolished, preventing coercive practices that were common in the past. Regarding freedom of association, the most important step was the reform of the union recognition processes, establishing immediate provisional registration, and eliminating the institutional obstacles that were imposed on union organizations that did not agree with government policy (Barboza & Racciati, 1995, p. 51). As far as the unionization system is concerned, the traditional literature acknowledges three main principles: complete freedom of association, in which workers can choose whether or not to participate in a union; mandatory unionization by union choice, which is determined by the workers themselves; and mandatory unionization dictated by the State. After the experiences already described throughout the second half of the twentieth century in Paraguay, both the new Constitution and the Democratically reformed Labor Code established the idea of freedom ​​ of association, guaranteeing workers the power to either join or leave a union organization (Barboza & Racciati, 1995, pp. 87–88). The new regulatory framework for labor relations preserved the existing categories of unions, company unions, and trade unions, to which it added industry unions. For the creation of the first type, a minimum number of 20 members is required, for the second, 30 members, while for the third, 300 members. Another innovation was the inclusion of the right for public workers to unionize, recognized first in the new Constitution of

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1992 and then in the Labor Code of 1993. In these cases, the union being created must have a minimum of 20% of the civil servants when the institution has up to five hundred dependents, a minimum of 10% when it has up to a thousand dependents, and a minimum of 5% when it has more than a thousand employees (Labor Code, 1961, art. 287, 289, 1993, art. 289, 292; National Constitution, 1992, art. 96). Moreover, all of these changes generated important transformations in the country’s organized labor movement. This can notably be seen in the creation of new trade union organizations, as well as in the multiplication of spaces for interaction between them. In this new period, as a reaction to the obstruction of the trade unions and to the corporatist dynamics in the relationship between the State and the labor unions during the Stroessner regime, this new era saw a shift toward a containment strategy based on the labor market. As a result, in the new democratic setting, the dynamic established by the State in relation to the unions focused on an attempt to reduce the latter’s power as collective agents to a minimum, decentralizing collective bargaining through the fragmentation of the union camp. The loosening of the procedures for the accreditation of new trade union organizations came immediately after the coup d’état that ended the Stroessner regime and resulted in a swift increase of centrals, unions, and affiliations. In 1989, the National Central of Workers (CNT), with a social-Christian orientation, and the Single Central of Workers (CUT), founded by the groups founded within the MIT, joined the historic CPT (González Bozzolasco, 2013a, pp. 131–132). At the same time, there was an unprecedented growth of 187% in the number of organizations and 361% in the number of affiliations, as shown by comparing data from 1987 and 1990 (Céspedes Ruffinelli, 2009, p. 161). Moreover, following the political opening and the promulgation of the 1990 Electoral Code that enabled citizens to stand as independent candidates, part of the union movement decided to participate actively in the political arena; first, in the municipal elections and, later, in the constituents (Céspedes Ruffinelli, 2009; Gómez Romero, 2013; González Bozzolasco & Martínez Escobar, 2019). The election of a union leader as mayor of Asunción in May 1991 is one striking example of this phenomenon. Another important electoral experience of the trade union movement was the elections for the National Constituent Assembly, held in December 1991. The alliance identified as “Constitution for All”, made up of trade union representatives, independent political groups, the peasant movement, and the cooperative sector managed to establish itself as

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the third political force, behind the traditional political parties, the ANR and the PLRA (Authentic Radical Liberal Party, successor to the aforementioned PL). A key concern of trade unions in this process was that the new National Constitution should guarantee labor rights and trade union freedoms, a goal that was achieved and then strengthened with the approval of the aforementioned Labour Code of 1993, which trade union representatives also took part in drafting. Along with this process, the new union centrals founded at the beginning of the democratic transition sought to establish themselves with a heterogeneous membership, including in their ranks salaried people from the private and public sectors, self-employed workers, cooperative members, retirees, as well as peasant organizations, thus becoming a space of convergence of different popular sectors. However, fractures soon emerged between the new allies. On the one hand, the electoral experiences were problematic, with important internal disputes emerging first within the Municipality of Asunción and later conflicts arising from the less than expected auspicious results in the constituent elections (Gómez Romero, 2013). On the other hand, although the new legal framework brought undeniable victories for the union movement, recognizing rights and guarantees, it was also a catalyst for further fragmentation. We see then how the model structuring the trade union field during the transition moved away from the sui generis corporatism fostered by the authoritarian government, giving way to a strategy based on the labor market, in which trade union pluralism was promoted, favoring atomization. Consequently, from 1990 onward, company unions were consolidated as the hegemonic type of organization, which led Céspedes to compare the trade union centers to “archipelagos” containing an infinite number of “islands-unions-micro-organizations” (Céspedes Ruffinelli, 2000, p. 18). This situation can be read as a direct result of the government’s trade union policy that, “although it recognizes the subject, weakens it through pluralism and atomization” (Céspedes Ruffinelli, 2009, p.  94). For example, in the context of the proliferation of trade union centrals, we highlight that many of them originated as breakaways from one of the three main existing organizations at the beginning of the transition to democracy: CPT, CNT, and CUT (Table 1). At the same time, the spaces for union representation in state bodies were reduced and, since the assignments of the workers’ representatives in these spaces depend directly on the executive branch, the different union groups intensified their bids to obtain said nominations. This encouraged

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Table 1  Union centrals created by decade (1851–2020) Central Obrera y Transporte del Paraguay (COTP) 2019

11

Central Nacional de Trabajadores Legítima (CNT-L) 2018 Confederación de la Clase Trabajadora (CCT) 2011

10

9

Confederación Nacional de Trabajadores (CONAT) 2008 Confederación Nacional de Funcionarios, Empleados Estatales (CONFEE) 2002 Central Unitaria de Trabajadores Auténtica (CUT-A) 2000 Central Sindical de Trabajadores del Paraguay (CESITEP) 1999

8

Quantity

7

6

5

Central General de Trabajadores (CGT) 1998

4 3

Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT) 1989

2

Central Nacional de Trabajadores (CNT) 1989

Confederación Paraguaya de 1 Trabajadores (CPT) 1951 1951-1960

1961-1970

1971-1980

1981-1990

1991-2000

2001-2010

2011-2020

Year

The figure depicts the timeline of the foundation of union centrals in Paraguay from 1851 to 2020

the proliferation of trade union centers which doubled between 1991 and 2000 alone (González Bozzolasco, 2020b; MTESS, 2020). With the right of public workers to unionize and strike in 1995 the Trade Union Central of Workers of the Paraguayan State (CESITEP) was created, which in 1999 became the Trade Union Central of Workers of Paraguay (CESITP), broadening its membership base. In addition, the two main independent centrals founded at the beginning of the democratic transition, the CNT and the CUT, suffered some splits. In 1998 the Central General de Trabajadores (CGT) was created by former members of the CNT. Meanwhile, after disputes within the CUT, the Unitary Central of Authentic Workers (CUT-A) was created in 2000. This entire process coincides with a context of important transformations at the regional level, marked by the transition from a state-centric

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model to a free market one, in which the privatization of state-owned companies appears as a fundamental issue in state agendas (Cook, 2007; Zapata, 2013). Faced with this context, the union movement was actively involved in the debate through the general strikes of 1994, 1995, and 1996, in which the demands to put an end to privatization projects of state companies were central, along with wage claims and opposition to labor flexibility. Furthermore, since the mid-1990s, a new framework for social dialogue between social actors and the State has been put into practice, through the installation of various national tripartite tables, representing spaces for dialogue among trade unions, business, and government. This framework was the result of a declaration signed after the 1994 strike, in a meeting held between unions, business associations, government representatives, and the International Labor Organization (ILO) in order to institutionalize solutions to labor conflicts. As we have concluded in previous publications (Lachi & Rojas Scheffer, 2017), these spaces have had different levels of success, although rarely concrete results. In fact, the analysis of the various dialogue experiences carried out between 1994 and 2000 highlights that the various councils, commissions, and roundtables created during this period lacked continuity since they were convened by the government basically as a strategy to defuse imminent conflict. Thus, once an agreement was signed, the importance given to dialogue gradually diminished, leading to the disappearance of negotiation spaces even without having achieved any concrete results. This dynamic continued, without major changes, during the first years of the 2000s, with the use of dialogue spaces declining during Duarte Frutos’ government (2003–2008). Another bargaining tool, collective bargaining agreements concerning working conditions, also lost ground during this period. Moreover, not only did the number of collective agreements signed continue to decline, but the few companies that managed to obtain a collective agreement were always the same ones, which translates into an even lower rate of impact when considering the working population as a whole (Lachi & Rojas Scheffer, 2017). This erosion of the trade union movement’s bargaining power is explained in part by the fragmentation we already described, which has only worsened since this period. In 2008, there were two more added to the already existing six trade union centers in the country: the National Confederation of State Officials and Employees (CONFEE) and the National Confederation of Workers (CONAT), the latter with leaders

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formerly belonging to the CUT. As we have pointed out, the pluralism of trade union centrals ended up weakening their bargaining power, while this multiplicity of interlocutors constituted one of the greatest difficulties in consolidating the position of the Paraguayan trade union movement. The government, for example, has come to the conclusion that it is very difficult for union representatives from all the centrals to be present at the meetings and, even more so, for them to reach a consensual agreement. For this reason, the union movement of the first decade of the 2000s has not always been considered a valid interlocutor (Lachi & Rojas Scheffer, 2017, p. 45).

Unionism Before the Change of Government in 2008 and the Return of the ANR Fernando Lugo’s victory in 2008 was seen as a window of opportunity for the vast majority of social movements in Paraguay. This change of government not only meant the end of more than 60 years of the hegemony of the ANR political party that supported and sustained the authoritarian government of Stroessner, but also saw the ascension to power of a public figure close to popular sectors. In fact, part of the trade union movement had participated in the electoral alliance that brought Lugo to the presidency, through the Social and Popular Block which, among other groups, included the CUT-A and the CNT (González Bozzolasco, 2009, 2013d). In this context, the social movements gained more direct communication channels with the government and better opportunities to participate in the elaboration of public policy proposals (Levy, 2013). For the trade union movement, this situation translated into the reopening of dialogue tables and tripartite negotiation experiences. Thus, with the new government, the spaces for dialogue were once again broadly established on various issues after a period without formal instances of discussion between unions, government, and business representatives (Lachi & Rojas Scheffer, 2017). With the government’s greater receptiveness toward the trade unions, different experiences arose from the workers’ organizations themselves that sought to join efforts, although this really did not lead to a decrease in the fragmentation of the union field. On the contrary, in 2011 a new organization was formed: the Confederation of the Working Class (CCT). In any case, the situation prompted the creation of coordinating bodies

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that brought together existing groups. A noteworthy case occurred in public trade unionism which, before the change of government, was concerned about the possibility of the non-renewal of contracts for partisan reasons. In this regard, it is worth remembering that, although the practice of requiring affiliation to the government party was legally prohibited with the return of democracy, a high percentage of public officials continued to be affiliated with the ANR, and many unions had relations with the state through partisan exchanges (Céspedes Ruffinelli, 2009; Quevedo, 2021). As a protective measure, shortly after Lugo’s election, public sector unions began campaigns for the signing of collective bargaining agreements, while leading international trade unionists found it necessary to make declarations against “affiliation-based dismissals.” Against this backdrop, a significant proportion of the civil service came together in the Public Sector Inter-Union Table (MISP) which, between 2008 and 2009, brought together around 80% of unionized public workers to demand changes to the Civil Service Law (Lachi, 2016). However, despite having made progress in a joint program and collectively drafted a document with the guidelines for a new law for the sector, this experience ended up falling apart without any tangible results. This was due to the impossibility of reaching an agreement within the MISP around who would act as coordinator in a permanent dialogue table set up by the government (Lachi, 2016). In fact, and as we had already pointed out regarding the previous period, there were very few lasting or significant results obtained through the dialogue tables. In addition, the abrupt end of the Lugo government in 2012 did not allow for the closure of the processes underway. With the victory of the ANR candidate in 2013, the tobacco businessman Horacio Cartes, the window of opportunity that the Lugo government had opened for social movements—albeit its limitations—was definitely closed. It would soon become clear that the “new direction” proposed by Cartes in his campaign was, more than a political marketing slogan, a restructuring program for the Paraguayan socioeconomic model, in which the reduction of labor costs to attract foreign investment to the country was a main point (Lachi & Rojas Scheffer, 2015). It is not surprising, then, that shortly after the assumption of this government in March 2014, the union movement decided to call a general strike, almost 20 years after the country’s last one. The main demands included a salary adjustment of 25%, decent job creation, freedom of association and collective bargaining, the repeal of the Public–Private

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Partnership Law, and the repudiation of the government’s neoliberal model. The strike ended with the signing of a binding document that provided for the opening of ten thematic dialogue tables, arising from the claims that had led to the strike. But once again, these did not produce the expected results. Thus, by mid-2015, a group of union centrals CUT-A, CCT, CECSITP, CONAT, CPT, and a dissident faction of the CNT, which in 2018 would go on to form a new central, the CNT-Legítima (Parra, 2019, p. 7) united under the Plenary of Trade Union Centrals, and called for another general strike. The strike, which took place in December 2015, did not have the support of the CNT, the CUT, and the CGT, which remained in the dialogue process that they had already begun with the government. The 2015 strike made two matters clear. The first was that the dialogue tables installed in 2014 did not produce any results, since, a year later, the demands were still the same. The second was the split into two blocks of the trade union movement: on the one hand, the Plenary of Trade Union Centrals that called for the 2015 strike, made up of the centrals that maintained a critical position towards the Cartes government; and, on the other, the centrals that decided to maintain their “dialogue” posture. This made it even more difficult for the dialogue process to have any real impact, since, despite the creation of coordinating bodies which sought to defend the sector’s demands, the dynamics of fragmentation continued to define this actor.

Current Challenges By the third decade of the twenty-first century, little has changed in the Paraguayan trade union field. With the creation of the Central Obrera y Transporte del Paraguay (COTP) in 2019, the number of union confederations reached eleven, while there was little change in the numbers concerning the rate of unionization and the number of unions. Although there is no hard data on the rate of unionization during the entire democratic period, the numbers available , although not comparable statistically speaking, offer us an idea of the evolution of this rate throughout the period in question. Thus, Ramiro Barboza (1987, p. 158) speaks of a rate of 2.7% in 1987. Dania Pilz (2005, p. 298), on the other hand, mentions a unionization rate of 7.7% in 1992, which drops to 6 .4% in 2002. Fernando Ovando Rivarola (2020, p. 9) estimates a rate of 5.2% in 2012

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and 5.7% in 2019, with a maximum of 6.2% in 2013 and a drop to 3.8% in 2017. A significant feature of this analysis is the composition of the rate, which shows a reduction in unionization in the private sector, which ranges from 1.6% in 2012 to 0.6% in 2019, and an increase in the public sector from 20.2% in 2012 to 28% in 2019. Therefore, we are faced with a dual model in which public sector unionism exhibits a growing trend and represents 28% of civil servants, while the unionization rate in the private sector remains at an almost nonexistent level, that is, less than 1% (Ovando Rivarola, 2020, p. 9). Another important aspect to analyze is the formation of unions during the democratic period. Although there is no hard data, the available figures show a significant growth of organizations during the first years after the fall of the authoritarian regime. Thus, of the 202 active organizations in 1987, the number of registered unions increased to 402 in 1990, rising to 736 in 1994. Of this last number, 108 organizations belonged to the public sector (Céspedes Ruffinelli, 2009, p.  160; Barboza & Racciati, 1995, pp. 207–215). However, when presented with more recent data, it can be seen that in 2020 the number of active unions remained relatively stable, with 715 unions (González Bozzolasco, 2020b, p. 7). In line with the data on unionization already mentioned, the most important variation is observed in the composition of organizations in the private and public sectors, which went from 628 in the former and 108 in the latter in 1994, to 388 and 306, respectively, in 2020 (Barboza & Racciati, 1995, pp. 207–215; González Bozzolasco, 2020b, p. 7), that is, there is a reduction in private sector unions, which also have lost members, while there is an increase in public sector organizations where membership is higher. The strong preponderance of the public sector is largely due to the greater the job stability enjoyed by its civil servants. In other words, reports of union persecution, obstacles to creating new unions, or delaying registration processes for new organizations continue to be cited as the main barriers to unionization in the private sector (Lachi & Rojas Scheffer, 2020), particularly in sectors such as maquiladora companies, the meat packing industry or supermarkets (González Bozzolasco, 2020b). In addition, in line with the economic model promoted by the government from 2013 onward, although the authorities claim to maintain a position of mediation and conciliation between the union and business actors, they end up favoring the latter, given that the main purpose of the labor authority is to guarantee favorable conditions for foreign investment (Lachi & Rojas Scheffer, 2020). Thus, as Graciela Bensusán (2016, p. 132) points

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out, the State leaves aside its role as referee in charge of ensuring a balance in the relationship between capital and work, prioritizing the insertion of the economy at the international level. On the other hand, in addition to the institutional limitations already mentioned, the very structure of the Paraguayan labor market makes it difficult to strengthen trade unionism. Although in recent decades the levels of salaried jobs in the country have increased, the rate of self-­ employment and informal jobs continues to be very high, while new forms of employment and atypical work modalities, where the responsibilities of the employer are not made visible clearly are on the rise (Ovando Rivarola, 2020). Given this context, the trade union movement faces the challenge of rethinking its organizational strategies in order to be able to include groups that do not fit into traditional participation frameworks. An example of this is the new forms of employment that have emerged in the field of the digital economy and digital platforms jobs that are clearly on the rise (González Bozzolasco et al., 2021). Analyses of the sector in Paraguay show results similar to elsewhere in the region, with high levels of job insecurity: low income, insecurity, and job stress, as well as the permanent fear of dismissal, which is the new way layoffs happen in the platform economy. In addition, the prevalence of men over women seems to suggest that gender barriers are not overcome by these new forms of employment, in the same way that other types of discrimination are not eliminated. Until now, the degree of unionization of workers in this sector is extremely low, making them even more vulnerable (González Bozzolasco & Montalto, 2021). Finally, it should be noted that, beyond technological changes and new forms of employment, there are other longer-standing structural barriers that still exist within Paraguayan trade unionism, hindering its diversification. In this regard, the participation of women and new generations, mainly at the level of leadership and decision-making, continues to be well below what is taking place in other countries in the region (Rojas Scheffer & Ferraro, 2020). And although in recent years the trade union centrals have taken important steps in recognizing this situation as an issue that must be addressed, creating spaces such as Secretariats for Women and Youth, there is still some resistance towards the installation of a transversal gender perspective, which goes hand in hand with generational differences (Rojas Scheffer & Ferraro, 2020). In this sense, the institutional framework and the containment strategy executed by the State, and the

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traditional ways of understanding unionism that limit the participation of important segments of the labor market work against the strengthening of the union as a key actor in Paraguay.

Final Comments The relations between the trade union movement and the State have gone through different stages in Paraguay, as demonstrated through this brief historical journey. As in many other aspects of the State and Paraguayan society, the end of the Stroessner regime became a turning point in the relations between the trade union movement and the State. This regime fostered a long process of consolidation of corporatist dynamics; after its fall new and different forms emerged and developed. After decades of blocking trade unionism carried out through formal and informal mechanisms that established corporatist dynamics between the State and the labor unions, the beginning of the transition to democracy marked a break with this model. The new period registered profound institutional changes that outlined new rules and saw the emergence of new actors. In short, both the authoritarian and democratic regimes provided continuity to an effective containment of the Paraguayan trade union movement. In the wake of the democratic opening and the renewed options for sociopolitical participation, the labor movement experienced a period of growth that could, at first glance, be characterized as expansion and boom. But, as we have argued throughout this chapter, the greater ease in the creation of new unions has resulted in an organizational model that encourages proliferation and fragmentation, gradually reducing the bargaining power of unions. It is in this vein that we argue that the sociopolitical opening and the institutional changes established with the return of democracy promoted the basis for a new model of containment of the labor movement, similar to the labor market strategy described by Valenzuela (1990). These new rules, by and large, shaped the future of Paraguayan trade unionism throughout the first decades of the twenty-first century. Despite numerous political ups and downs and institutional changes, trade unionism continues to be contained by the current model. The existence of eleven labor union centrals in a country with little unionization and levels of job informality that exceed half of the employed workforce, as well as the hegemony of company-based unions, the reduced power of collective bargaining, and the considerable weight of the sector within the

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movement, indicate that further discussion is still needed on the institutional frameworks that shape the leeway for maneuver in the trade union field. At the same time, beyond the regulatory and policy debates, it is necessary to consider that within trade unionism itself there are still structural barriers that hinder the inclusion of various and broad sectors of the working class. It remains to be seen if an opening toward more diverse groups will be possible, as well as if coalitions and consensus among the many currently existing factions will be able to address the atomization that has characterized this actor over the last four decades.

References Barboza, R. (1987). Los sindicatos en el Paraguay. Evolución y estructura actual. Barboza, R., & Racciati, O. (1995). Relaciones laborales en Paraguay: informe relasur. Ministerio de Trabajo y Seguridad Social/Organización Internacional del Trabajo. Bensusán, G. (2016). Organizing workers in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico: The authoritarian-corporativist legacy and Old institutional designs in a new context. Theoretical Inquiries in Law, 16(131), 131–162. Caroni, C. (1954). Derecho del Trabajo. Estudio de su desarrollo en el Paraguay. Editorial 14 de mayo. Céspedes Ruffinell, R. (2000). Negociación colectiva, diálogo social y participación en la formación profesional en Paraguay. CINTERFOR. Céspedes Ruffinelli, R. (2009). Autoritarismo, Sindicalismo y Transición en el Paraguay (1986–1992). Arandurã/Germinal. Cook, Maria Lorena. (2007). The Politics of Labor Reform in Latin America. Between Flexibility and Rights. Pennsylvania: The Penn State University Press. Frescura, L. (1975). Derecho Administrativo del Trabajo y de la Seguridad Social (Estudio de doctrina y legislación). Editorial Heliasta S.R.L. Gaona, F. (2007). Introducción a la historia gremial y social del Paraguay (Vol. 1). Arandurã/Germinal. Gaona, F. (2008). Introducción a la historia gremial y social del Paraguay (Vol. 2). Arandurã/Germinal. Gómez Romero, C. (2013). El movimiento sindical como actor político de la transición. Revista Novapolis, 6, 73–96. González Bozzolasco, I. (2009). Paraguay en la disyuntiva del cambio. El primer año de gobierno del ex obispo Fernando Lugo. Revista Contexto Latinoamericano, 12, 17–26. González Bozzolasco, I. (2013a). El Nuevo Despertar. Breve historia del Movimiento Intersindical de Trabajadores del Paraguay (1985–1989). Arandurã/Germinal.

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Lachi, M., & Rojas Scheffer, R. (2017). Diálogo Social, Contratación Colectiva y Tripartismo en Paraguay. Arandurã/Germinal. Lachi, M., & Rojas Scheffer, R. (2020). Desencuentros y conflictos entre actores colectivos en la industria paraguaya. Revista de la Facultad de Ciencias Económicas UNNE Argentina, 25, 117–137. Levy, C. (2013). Working Towards Tekojojá: The Political Struggles of the Paraguayan Left. Studies in Political Economy, 92(1), 29–56. Nickson, A. (1987). Breve historia del Movimiento Obrero paraguayo, 1880–1984. CDE. Ovando Rivarola, F. G. (2020). Nuevas formas de empleo en Paraguay. Cambios en el mercado de trabajo y desafíos en el campo sindical. In Trabajo y Justicia Social. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. Parra, P. (2019). Sindicalismo Paraguayo en la Actualidad. Retrieved from http:// www.relats.org/documentos/ORG.Parra.pdf Pilz, D. (2005). Pérdida de protagonismo del movimiento sindical y deterioro de las condiciones laborales marcan el final de una década. In Coordinadora de Derechos Humanos del Paraguay, Derechos humanos en Paraguay 2005 (pp. 295–303). CODEHUPY. Quevedo, Charles (2021). La relación Estado-Sindicatos del sector público en Paraguay. Buenos Aires: FES. Republic of Paraguay, Labor Code. (1961). Republic of Paraguay, Labor Code. (1993). Republic of Paraguay, National Constitution. (1992). Rivarola, M. (2010). Obreros, utopía y revolución. La formación de las clases trabajadoras en el Paraguay liberal 1870/1931. Servilibro. Rojas Scheffer, R., & Ferraro, P. (2020). Sindicalismo paraguayo y participación de mujeres. Avances y Desafíos. In Trabajo y Justicia Social. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. Valenzuela, S. J. (1990). El movimiento obrero en la transición hacia la democracia: un marco conceptual para su análisis. Revista de Desarrollo Económico, 30(119), 299–332. Zapata, Francisco. (2013). El sindicalismo latinoamericano, México, El Colegio de México.

Work, Gender, and Labor Organizing: Paid Domestic Workers’ Unions in Paraguay Raquel Rojas

Introduction In the early 1990s, shortly after the end of Stroessner’s authoritarian regime, the trade union movement was a dynamic actor taking part in Paraguay’s sociopolitical processes. As discussed in the previous chapter, labor representatives actively collaborated in the development of laws that would be fundamental for the country’s newly opened democratic path, and some also took part in  local and national elections, even obtaining important victories. Yet a lot has changed since then. Labor’s strength started to decline already at the end of the 1990s, and, currently, Paraguay’s trade unions’ density rate is among the lowest in the region (see ILO, n.d.). Furthermore, there is a stark contrast when comparing the progression and rates of trade unions in the private and public sectors, since up to 90% of trade union memberships belong to the latter (Ovando Rivarola,

R. Rojas (*) Institute for Latin American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. Levy et al. (eds.), Social Movements and the Struggles for Rights, Justice and Democracy in Paraguay, Social Movements and Transformation, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25883-1_7

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2020). In such a context, it is far from surprising that public trade unions are more active in terms of collective bargaining and action. That said, there have been some important developments in the private sector over the last decade, with new groups organizing and attaining crucial advances. In this chapter, I will focus on the case of domestic workers’ trade unions, an atypical actor within the Paraguayan labor movement in terms of gender composition, isolation in the workplace, and lack of access to resources available to traditional labor, such as collective bargaining and strikes. Despite these limitations, paid domestic workers were able to overcome the legal discrimination they were historically subjected to, changing the law and obtaining the same labor rights as any other wage worker. Furthermore, they are a recognized political actor taking part, for instance, in discussions for the adoption of a National Policy on Care. In this regard, I argue that domestic workers’ atypical character within the Paraguayan workers’ movement might be more of an advantage than a drawback. In analyzing the collective action of domestic workers in Paraguay, this chapter establishes a dialogue between the literature on industrial relations, social movements, and social inequalities. Drawing on qualitative data collected during fieldwork in 2016 and secondary literature on later developments, I discuss how structural and contextual particularities shape the organizational experiences of domestic workers. Using an intersectional analysis, I seek to highlight that the confluence of inequalities in the experience of domestic workers has a twofold effect on them. While it is true that it can trigger discrimination and make their organizational process more difficult, it can also lead to political agency, allowing the creation of alliances with other actors that have similar interests and struggles, and opening space for their political intervention. The chapter is organized into five parts. Following this introduction, the next section discusses why domestic workers have historically had such a hard time organizing and achieving better working conditions, calling attention to the importance of coalition building for this occupational sector. The third section focuses on the Paraguayan workers’ movement, presenting a brief story of its development and its current challenges. Afterward, I focus on the organizational experiences of domestic workers in Paraguay and their relationship with other collective actors, at both the national and international levels, paying particular attention to their struggles, negotiations with the state, and their achievements. The last section presents the concluding remarks, not only highlighting the importance of

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the creation of networks to advance the rights of historically discriminated sectors, but also identifying the necessity of an intersectional approach within trade unions to achieve greater sociopolitical outcomes.

An Atypical Actor: Paid Domestic Workers’ Trade Unions In many Latin American countries, domestic work is the most important occupation for women (ILO, 2019). Yet despite their prevalence in labor markets, domestic workers have been historically discriminated against, both in law and in practice (Barbagelata, 1978; Valiente, 2010, 2016). This discrimination stems from an understanding of paid domestic work as “something other than employment” (Hondagneu-Sotelo, 2001, p. 9). In fact, domestic labor has been naturalized as an activity that women can do because of their “innate caring faculties” (Gutiérrez-Rodríguez & Brites, 2014, p. 1) and, therefore, as an occupation not producing any value and, thus, not deserving of labor rights. Precisely because of this undervaluing of domestic labor, many people choose to outsource it, hiring someone that assumes the responsibility of cleaning the household and caring for its members. But even when both partners are inserted in the labor market and a third person takes over the domestic duties, the woman of the household is still in charge of organizing, managing, and supervising these tasks, which are, in turn, performed by another woman (Gutiérrez-Rodríguez, 2010; Hondagneu-Sotelo, 2001; Rollins, 1985; Romero, 2002). Consequently, to this day, domestic work is an almost entirely female occupation. Regional data show that over 90% of domestic workers are women and that they tend to be the most affected by informality and low wages (ILO, 2018). Moreover, not only women are overrepresented in the domestic service labor force, but so are other groups such as migrants, Indigenous people, or Afro-­ descendants (ILO, 2015). This means that the inequality in the distribution of responsibilities regarding domestic tasks and care work in the household is not resolved through negotiation between its members—for instance, a more equitable distribution between women and men—but is settled with an arrangement based not only on gender differences but also on class, racial/ethnic and even citizenship divides. Concurrently, this highlights that domestic workers tend to be situated at the point where the most vulnerable ends of the axes of gender, class,

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and race/ethnicity converge. In this regard, an intersectional approach is necessary to better understand the position that domestic workers occupy in the social structure, paying attention to the fact that the axes of stratification mutually construct one another, in the sense that class relations are also shaped by gender and ethnic dynamics and vice versa. The term intersectionality was popularized by Kimberlé Crenshaw, who used it to describe the way in which racism, class oppression, and patriarchal relations interact with each other, generating discrimination and inequalities. In her influential text published in 1991, Crenshaw proposed an approach that considers the experience of women of color as the product of intersecting patterns of racism and sexism, highlighting “the need to account for multiple grounds of identity when considering how the social world is constructed” (Crenshaw, 1994, p. 1245). That said, it is important to point out that, despite the reference to identity, “intersectionality is not an account of personal identity but one of power” (Cooper, 2016, p. 385). In this regard, and following Helma Lutz (2015, p. 39), I find this approach useful insofar as it “enables to take variety in power contexts into account”. Thus, analyzing domestic work from this perspective makes visible how class-, gender- and race/ethnicity-based discrimination is crystallized within this group, affecting the position domestic workers assume in society and making fighting for better working conditions a difficult task. In addition, the very workplace of domestic workers complicates their capacity to organize. This occupation involves working within a household, in an otherwise private and isolated setting that does not offer the possibility to meet with other workers. Furthermore, employers do not consider their households as a site of employment (Hondagneu-Sotelo, 2001) and usually claim that the worker is “just like one of the family” (Anderson, 2000; Hondagneu-Sotelo, 2001; Parreñas, 2015; Young, 1987), making it highly difficult for domestic workers to be seen and see themselves as subjects of labor rights. This situation, coupled with the already mentioned reluctance to consider domestic activities as work, has hindered the inclusion of household workers in trade unions. Unions have historically framed their claims in terms of class and from a gender-blind perspective, prioritizing the interests of male workers and/or those working in the formal sector (Britwum et  al., 2012; Gottfried, 2013) and thus practicing what Sharon Kurtz (2002) calls “lowest-common-denominator politics”. This means that, in the name of unity, labor has tended to organize around the common

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injustice that everyone is said to share—i.e., class-based inequalities—disregarding the experiences and needs of those affected by multiple and intersecting inequalities. Despite their many difficulties, domestic workers’ organizations have experienced an unprecedented surge worldwide, building networks with other actors and constructing transnational coalitions to increase their strength and chances of achieving their goals (cf. Boris & Fish, 2014, 2015; Goldsmith, 2013; Mather, 2013; Pape, 2016). Because of the characteristics of domestic workers—their position in the social structure, mediated by different axes of inequality—labor, feminist, ethnicity-based, or migrants’ organizations are potential allies of the sector. In other words, the intersection of inequalities not only triggers disempowerment but also makes it possible to turn categories of discrimination into vectors of political agency, allowing for activism and organizing (Collins, 2000; Lutz, 2015) and giving rise to a common language that opens channels of communication with potential allies (cf. Bernardino-Costa, 2014). The support of these organizations, however, does not arise spontaneously and is affected by the structure of opportunities and constraints (Tarrow, 2011), both at a national and an international level. Although most domestic workers’ unions are nation-based organizations and address their demands to the State—insofar as labor relations are regulated by laws that are discussed and voted upon within national borders—the transnational context can have a great effect on their success. As I will discuss in the following sections, the adoption of the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 189 on decent work for domestic workers, together with the implementation of a series of multilateral programs and projects to demand more rights for this sector, provided a strong impetus in the struggle of domestic workers at the national and regional levels. To better understand this interplay, I draw on Kathryn Sikkink’s (2005) “dynamic multilevel governance pattern”, according to which international institutions offer opportunity structures that interact with the domestic political structures, producing a particular context for transnational collective action. Activists, aware of the possibilities created by this dynamic context, select their strategies according to the available—and perceived—opportunities at both the international and domestic levels (Sikkink, 2005, p.  171). The “boomerang pattern”, a figure Sikkink coined earlier together with political scholar Margaret Keck, illustrates a possible scenario of the dynamic between the different scales. In their

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book Activist Beyond Borders, in which they introduce the term Transnational Advocacy Networks to analyze international collaboration among activists across nations, Keck and Sikkink (1998) describe the boomerang pattern as the one that typically develops in contexts in which domestic structures are perceived as closed, while international structures are perceived as open. In other words, it describes what happens when, at the national level, the government is unresponsive to the demands of a certain group, but at the international level, there are structures, institutions, and/or regulations that are highly receptive to the same demands. Activists then seek international allies in their quest to put pressure on their government from above to achieve the desired change, operating both at the international and domestic levels. The coalition of domestic workers not only operates internationally but also relies on different types of actors. To describe them, I draw on the concept of Networks of Labor Activism (NOLA), which refers to activist groups that “are neither solely connected to the position of labor in production processes, nor wholly reliant on the soft and discursive power of advocacy coalitions” (Zajak et al., 2017, p. 899). In this sense, this type of network could open spaces of convergence for actors that operate in different spheres and tend to ignore each other, such as trade unions and social movements organizations (Zajak et  al., 2018).1 In fact, NOLA involves cross-border strategizing, having activists from different countries working together, and cross-organizational networking that brings together different types of actors. While addressing labor-based struggles, the NOLA concept also considers other ways of organizing, different from traditional trade unions. Thus, it includes other types of organizations—such as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)—that have supported the claims of women workers in the informal economy for decades (Kabeer, 2015). This means considering the action of organizations of domestic workers (i.e., their own associations and trade unions), organizations working with domestic workers (e.g., local NGOs, governmental branches, and trade union 1  According to Zajak et al. (2018, pp. 167–168), trade unions and social movements not only represent distinct organizational forms and operate in different spheres (the industrial sphere versus the public sphere), but also “differ in their organizational structure (bureaucratic and hierarchical versus networks based on informal and decentralized participation), underlying democratic principles (representative democracy versus undertakings in direct democracy), or motives of collective action (material and employment related concerns versus postmaterialist values).”

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confederations), and organizations that make claims on behalf of domestic workers (e.g., multilateral organizations). Rather than analyzing them separately, the aim is to focus on their joint work, their interactions, and their relationship with each other. As I will seek to illustrate in the next sections, domestic workers in Paraguay have faced many of the difficulties previously mentioned, and their atypical characteristics made their inclusion in the trade union movement a rather difficult task. Before focusing on the organization of domestic workers, however, I will now turn to the Paraguayan workers’ movement to offer a brief history of its developments and an insight into its current challenges.

Paraguayan Workers’ Movement: From the Authoritarian Regime to Its Current Challenges Stroessner’s authoritarian regime (1954–1989) had a profound effect on the Paraguayan workers’ movement. For sure, preconditions existed that did not contribute to unions becoming the main actors in the Paraguayan sociopolitical context, such as the predominantly agricultural character of the economy and the scarce industrialization. But the limited growth and restricted prominence of trade unions during the thirty-five years of Stroessner’s government can be explained rather by the systematic persecution and co-opting that not only debilitated the Paraguayan workers’ movement but also imprinted a corporatist2 character on it (González Bozzolasco, 2014). It was only in the final phase of this period, in the face of the breakdown of the political unity that supported the regime and amidst an international context no longer willing to support authoritarian governments in the region, that the trade union movement found the necessary space to reorganize and re-emerge as part of the resistance to Stroessner’s 2  According to Enrique de la Garza Toledo (2001), corporatist unionism refers to unions that are subordinated to the state and that appear in opposition to classist unionism. While the definition of corporatism presented by authors like J. Samuel Valenzuela (1989) links this concept directly to authoritarian regimes that create some form of worker organization and exert control over collective bargaining, Garza Toledo’s approach also considers corporatist relations between trade unions and the neoliberal state, or even with the private sector (cf. Garza Toledo, 2001).

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government. Shortly after, with the return of democracy, the labor movement began a process of restructuring, reaching an unusual expansion in terms of membership: Between 1987 and 1990 there was a growth of 187% in terms of unions and 361% in membership (Céspedes Ruffinelli, 2009, p. 161). However, since the unionization rate has always been markedly low, this did not translate into a substantial increase in absolute numbers at the national level (Céspedes Ruffinelli, 2009). Consequently, beyond quantitative growth, the relevance of the union movement in the first years of the democratic transition was expressed through the participation of its representatives in important sociopolitical processes. Examples of this include the victory of a main union leader in the municipal elections of Asunción— the capital city—in 1991, the election of union representatives as members of the drafting committee for the new Constitution in the same year, and the participation of trade unionists in the drafting of the new Labor Code. The new National Constitution approved in 1992 allowed the unionization of public employees, causing a further increase in the number of unions and union members in the country. Yet the structure changed little from the model based mainly on company-level unions. In fact, the new Labor Code approved in 1993 did not introduce major changes in terms of requirements for the creation of new unions.3 Consequently, to this day, trade unionism in Paraguay is composed of “archipelagos of islands-unions micro-organizations” (Céspedes Ruffinelli, 2000, p.  18). This brings to light that despite important advances during the 1990s, from the beginning of the transition to democratic rule there were elements that revealed the weakness of the trade union movement. Although in the final stage of the authoritarian regime the trade union movement had acted as a unitary force, this did not last long enough to see the new democratic period and, ultimately, the creation of a single union confederation failed. Thus, once union freedom was officially restored in the country, in addition to the CPT (Confederación Paraguaya de Trabajadores)—the trade union confederation that had been active during the dictatorship—two new confederations were created: the CNT 3  In this regard, according to the new Labor Code, company-level unions can be created with a minimum of 20 workers and trade-based unions with 30, while the requisite for industrial branch unions was set at a much higher level, with a minimum of 300 workers (see Law 213/93, Art. 292). The requirements for the public sector are somewhat more demanding, but still fail to avoid the reproduction of the atomization that characterizes the Paraguayan union movement. For more details, see the previous chapter.

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(Central Nacional de Trabajadores) and the CUT (Central Única de Trabajadores). This process of fragmentation has only been exacerbated since then, and different national and transnational factors have played a role in this development. For example, the establishment of neoliberal governments and the adoption of structural adjustment measures in the region created a hostile context for labor demands in the 1990s (Eckstein, 2013) while at the national level internal conflicts and accusations of corruption involving union leaders4 contributed to the loss of credibility and prominence of trade unionism as a sociopolitical actor. Against this backdrop, it is not surprising that the workers’ movement has not been able to establish itself as a consolidated actor capable of contesting the power balance when negotiating with the government and the employers (cf. Lachi & Rojas Scheffer, 2017). All this has led to a paradoxical situation in which, while the level of unionization in the country decreases—standing at around 6.7% in 20155—the number of national trade union confederations has been increasing, rising to eleven in 2020. Moreover, according to more recent national data, the percentage of unionized workers in Paraguay has decreased further (to 5.7%), with a large difference between the unionization rate in the public sector (28%) and that of the private sector, which does not even reach to 1% (Ovando Rivarola, 2020). In other words, 9 out of 10 unionized workers in Paraguay are public employees, although those employed in this sector correspond to only 18% of the salaried population [according to data from DGEEC (2019)]. This translates into a large proportion of the working class without union membership. The very country’s occupational structure explains part of this phenomenon. Self-employment and informality continue to be outstanding characteristics of the Paraguayan labor market, accounting, respectively, for 30.6% and 64.3% of the employed population (DGEEC, 2019). At the 4  Paradigmatic examples include the case of the National Workers’ Bank (see http://www. abc.com.py/edicion-impresa/politica/el-vaciamiento-del-bnt-y-la-impunidad-para-los-­ peces-gordos-1092648.html and https://www.pj.gov.py/notas/4794-confirman-­condenas­en-caso-por-vaciamiento-del-bnt), as well as the diversion and misuse of funds provided by an European union for a community support project that was never carried out (see Lachi, 2008). 5  According to ILO data, the unionization rate in Paraguay (6.7%) is much lower than in other countries in the region, such as Uruguay (30.1%), Argentina (27.7%), Chile (19.6%) and Brazil (18.9%). Data available at https://ilostat.ilo.org/topics/union-membership/ (last accessed 14.02.2022).

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same time, sectors where unionization has traditionally been higher, such as the industrial sector, have seen a reduction in union membership within the last decades. According to union leaders, this is related to the extreme difficulty in creating new organizations, due to the delay in bureaucratic processes and to employers’ anti-union practices, paired with the government’s connivance (Lachi & Rojas Scheffer, 2020; González Bozzolasco, 2020). Thus, there are certain industrial branches where unionization is practically non-existent, such as in maquila or large supermarkets, sectors where women’s participation is also dominant. It is also worth noting that, despite the characteristics of the Paraguayan labor market previously mentioned (i.e., high informality and elevated rates of self-employment) and new developments such as the increase of employment mediated by virtual platforms and based on disguised employment relationships, the union leadership continues to focus on a traditional union subject (Ovando Rivarola, 2020). For sure, there have been some experiences of articulation with the peasant, student, or informal economy sectors, yet this has not led to a modification of the union base, which is still mostly supported by public employees. When reviewing data on labor conflicts the prominence of this sector is clear: not only is there a higher proportion of strikes carried out by public employees in recent years, but this is also the sector that has attained more gains (González Bozzolasco, 2020). Overall, while the public sector can negotiate better conditions through political exchanges (Quevedo, 2020), private sector unionism is still unable to emerge from its position of weakness and fragmentation. Opening to a broader conception of work and including new members in the labor movement, thus, seems to be a pending issue for Paraguayan trade unionism. Another major challenge continues to be the inclusion of younger generations and women, particularly in decision-making positions. In fact, although women currently represent more than half of union memberships in Paraguay, this does not translate into the incorporation of demands that address their specific needs in the union agenda, nor into greater access to leadership positions (Rojas Scheffer & Ferraro, 2020). Against this background, I would now like to focus on the emergence of an actor which, against all odds, was able to make significant progress in its negotiations with employers and the state.

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Organizing from the Margins: Paraguay’s Domestic Workers Unions Paraguay is the country with the highest proportion of women employed in domestic service in Latin America (17.2%), surpassing the region’s average of 14.3% (ILO, 2019). According to national data, over 93% of domestic workers in the country are women (DGEEC, 2019), a high proportion of which have migrated from rural to urban areas, are Guarani speakers, are under the poverty line, had reduced access to formal education, and started to work at young ages (Soto, 2014). This is also the occupation most affected by informality since 94.1% of domestic workers do not have access to the retirement system (INE, 2021). The high incidence of this sector in the Paraguayan labor market is related to the country’s markedly unequal social structure. According to Merike Blofield (2012, p.  1), paid domestic work is a “by-product of highly unequal societies which produce a demand for the outsourcing of domestic activities as well as a ready supply of inexpensive labor”. In other words, paid domestic work is prevalent in societies where some households have enough resources to outsource domestic chores, while people from lower social classes are willing to accept this job despite scarce labor rights and low pay. In addition, the lack of other options to alleviate deficits in the care regime exacerbates the incidence of paid domestic work in countries like Paraguay where care continues to be provided mainly by families, and the incorporation of women in the labor market was not coupled with a restructuring of their role as the family’s main caregiver (Dobrée et al., 2021). Thus, faced with a scarcity of state-offered options, middle- and upper-class families have historically chosen to hire domestic workers. Although this situation could be described as an absence of the state, the truth is that by passing laws that mandate longer working hours and fewer benefits for this sector, governments have historically subsidized the cheap labor force for privileged social classes (Blofield, 2012; Rodgers, 2009). In other words, putting the interests of higher-income families over those of domestic workers—by denying the latter rights granted to other workers—the state has helped perpetuate the unequal relations that characterize this occupation. Until 2015, paid domestic work was regulated, as all other private employment in Paraguay, by Law 213/93. Yet this law categorized domestic employment as a special work contract, withholding most of the

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warranties and rights granted to other workers. To change this, domestic workers started a long process of debates, organization, and mobilization, involving different actors and leading campaigns carried out at different scales (national, regional, global). For a society such as Paraguay, in which the exploitative conditions of paid domestic work were naturalized (Soto & Ruiz Díaz Medina, 2014, p.  26; González & Soto, 2009, p.  142), attaining better working conditions for this sector was not an easy task, requiring the joint effort of various allies for longer than a decade. Paraguay had a domestic workers’ trade union in the 1990s, SINTRADOP (Sindicato de Trabajadoras Domésticas del Paraguay ), but its incidence among domestic workers and in the labor movement was minimal until it finally disbanded in the 2000s (Conradi, 2000, p.  36; Soto, 2005, p. 208). Only in 2008, with the creation of ADESP (Asociación de Empleadas del Servicio Doméstico del Paraguay), did this sector organize again. It is noteworthy that the ADESP emerged as an association and not as a trade union, even if its main objective was gaining labor rights. This relates to the fact that its creation was linked to the work of a feminist organization, CDE (Centro de Documentación y Estudios), an NGO that has carried out numerous projects on paid domestic work since the early 2000s. It was precisely within the framework of one of these projects that domestic workers from impoverished areas of Asunción began to meet, creating collective spaces where they could share their experiences and recognize that their problems were similar, thus deciding to organize and claim for rights. These projects on domestic work were funded by organizations such as the ILO and UN Women, in an international context increasingly concerned with improving the working conditions of this sector. In this vein, while the role of the CDE was essential in kick-starting the organizational process of domestic workers in Paraguay, the CDE itself became involved in this issue through transnational networks in which debates concerning paid domestic work were prominent since the early 2000s. Such is the case of the AFM (Articulación Feminista Mercosur), a regional feminist network that has played a major role in Latin America in promoting domestic workers’ rights and creating transnational spaces for their organizations to meet, discuss and plan joint actions (Soto, 2017, p. 30). The involvement of the trade union movement took longer. In fact, it was only when this issue became prominent on the national public agenda that union confederations started to decisively support domestic workers. Bearing in mind the situation described in the previous section, it is far

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from surprising that national unions were focused on other issues, not giving priority to the situation of domestic workers, who were perceived as a minority sector without any influence in the sociopolitical arena. In this vein, according to CDE activists, the search for allies to promote this sector’s rights in the first years of the 2000s met with a scarce and unenthusiastic response from union confederations (González & Soto, 2009, p. 146). Furthermore, domestic workers’ representatives remark that their organizing was seen as a threat by some female trade union members since granting higher wages to this sector would have an impact on their capacity to outsource domestic chores. This position reflects the arguments presented by political and economic elites, as well as other collective actors, such as the housewives’ organization (Rojas Scheffer, 2021a, 2021b).6 Moreover, this not only highlights the high dependency of upper- and middle-class families on the underpaid labor of domestic workers, but also points to the importance of an intersectional approach. In this sense, sharing the historical responsibility of care work does not always unite women in their struggles, but many times divide them, insofar as some are freed from this burden not through negotiating for a more egalitarian distribution of care responsibilities, but by transferring them to a woman from a less privileged background. International Dynamics and Its Domestic Effects In a context in which the opposition of the elites was fierce, the circulation of favorable discourses and frames of reference at the international level provided much-needed support for domestic workers to be heard at the national level. The discussion and subsequent adoption of ILO Convention 189 marked a turning point in this regard. Although the convention was 6  Founded as a non-profit organization in 2007, the Liga de Amas de Casa del Paraguay has actually been active for over 25 years (according to information provided by one of its founders in an interview). Its main objective is to obtain retirement and social security rights for women that perform unpaid domestic work for their families. While their claims are similar to the ones of domestic workers, insofar as they share the interest in the valorization of domestic work, they identify rather as their employers and counterpart, and have publicly opposed to the access of domestic workers to the minimum wage (cf. https://www.paraguay.com/nacionales/presidenta-de-amas-de-casa-pide-a-empleadas-un-espanol-decente-­­187245). For a detailed analysis of the complex relationships between housewives’ and domestic workers’ organizations, see Rojas Scheffer (2021a).

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not approved until 2011, since the mid-2000s different multilateral organizations (ILO, UN Women), as well as international trade union confederations and NGOs had already embarked on campaigns to improve the working conditions of domestic employees, a momentum that soon reached Paraguay as well. Thus, in 2009 SINTRADOP—the domestic workers’ union that had been active in the 1990s—was reactivated, and shortly after one of the many Paraguayan union confederations (CUT-A) decided to become involved in the issue through a joint project with the ILO.  As there were already two domestic workers’ organizations in the capital city, a departmental-based grouping was founded, SINTRADI (Sindicato de Trabajadoras Domésticas de Itapúa). The main objective of these unions was, from the beginning, the passing of a new law guaranteeing domestic workers the same rights enjoyed by all other wage earners in the country. All three organizations—ADESP, SINTRADOP, and SINTRADI— worked together toward this goal. They organized joint demonstrations and public hearings and worked on the draft of the domestic workers’ law, which was approved in 2015. The passing of this law was experienced as a huge victory for the sector, even if the main demand of domestic workers—to have the right to a minimum wage on the same terms as any other worker in the country—was not heard. For sure, their situation improved— the minimum wage for the sector increased, going from 40% of the legal minimum wage to 60—but domestic workers were not satisfied with the result. That said, far from interpreting this as a defeat, this experience showed them that their efforts were producing tangible results, and they continued working together on different campaigns, lobbying activities, and demonstrations. In 2016, domestic workers’ organizations submitted to Congress a project to equalize their salary to that of other waged workers, urging them to modify the article in the new law that set the minimum wage for the sector. After repeated suspensions and delays, the bill was approved by the Senate in June 2018. The proposal was sent to the Review Chamber, where a new setback was experienced, since the lawmakers modified the bill again, determining that domestic workers should earn 70% of the minimum wage. Nevertheless, by the beginning of 2019, the Senate approved the original bill, mandating that domestic workers should be paid 100% of the minimum wage, just as any worker in any other branch and trade. Finally, in June 2019, and after almost a decade of struggle, their right to the minimum wage was legally recognized.

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Now, without downplaying the importance of the legal changes obtained, it is worth mentioning that enforcing the law remains a major challenge. According to official data, domestic workers still earn, on average, much less than the minimum wage, and only 5.3% of them are registered in the social security system (Zub Centeno, 2021). The vulnerable situation of those working in the domestic sector became even more evident during the COVID-19 health crisis that pushed around 55,000 domestic workers in Paraguay to unemployment (Zub Centeno, 2021). This situation, combined with little or no social protection, has caused many domestic workers to be left with insufficient or no income to support themselves and their families. It has also been made clear that despite having won legal protection, domestic workers must still actively fight to guarantee their enforcement. 2008 as a Window of Opportunity It is worth noticing that the positive developments previously mentioned overlap with important changes in the Paraguayan political arena, which materialized in the election of Fernando Lugo, an ex-Catholic bishop and political outsider who was the presidential candidate of a coalition of opposition parties and left-oriented social movements. The victory of this coalition in 2008 marked a break from over 60 years of rule by a conservative political party, opening spaces for social movements to participate in the elaboration of public policy proposals and broaden their agendas in more fluid communication with the policymakers (Levy, 2013). Thus, it is no coincidence that domestic workers found open channels of communication with and responsiveness from some governmental branches, such as the Women’s Secretary (nowadays the Women’s Ministry), the Vice-­ ministry of Labor (nowadays the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security) and the social security institute (IPS, Instituto de Previsión Social) that, with the support of the ILO and the participation of feminist activists and trade union representatives, created a driving group in charge of moving forward the drafting of the new law for the sector (cf. González & Soto, 2009). That said, the governmental support domestic workers received was less decisive compared to other countries in the region7 that also took part 7  Uruguay can be considered a paradigmatic case. From its beginnings, the Frente Amplio government (2005–2020) encouraged the collective organization of domestic workers. In

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in the so-called pink tide—the shift in Latin America that brought more pro-labor left-wing governments to power between 1999 and 2016—as Lugo’s government ended abruptly after a crisis that removed him from office the year before the end of his mandate. Yet this was not the only reason. The very composition of Lugo’s government, within which leftand right-oriented fractions were struggling for power, paired with the fierce opposition led by the defeated Colorado party (the biggest political party in the country) and economic elites, blocked any significant challenge to the traditional structure of economic and political power. In such a context, not many profound changes were implemented in the three years and ten months of Lugo’s government, and the unequal social structure remained relatively unchanged. Thus, Paraguay’s inequality levels continue to be among the highest in the region, with a Gini index of 0.473  in 2019, surpassing Latin America’s average (0.46) (CEPAL, 2022, p. 97). Over the period that led to positive legal changes for domestic workers, their organizations also went through some changes. In 2018—around 10 years after its constitution—the ADESP transitioned to a trade union, changing its name to SINTRADESPY (Sindicato de Trabajadoras del Servicio Doméstico del Paraguay). By the end of 2016, the SINTRADOP had a falling out with its trade union confederation (CNT), deciding to adopt the denomination SINTRADOP-L (Legítimo) and to adhere to the newly constituted CNT-L. As mentioned previously, this type of fracture is far from rare in the Paraguayan labor movement. If anything, what is unlike other trade unions in the country, is that domestic workers’ organizations always worked together. Regardless of their different union affiliations, having an important common ally—the CDE—helped them maintain their joint action, counteracting the effects of Paraguay’s traditional union fragmentation. Being based in Asunción, the proximity makes collaboration between SINTRADOP-L and SINTRADESPY easier. For over a couple of years now, both unions host a radio program in which they discuss the situation of domestic workers in the country,8 and have this regard, already in his inaugural speech of 2005, the newly elected president Tabaré Vázquez stated that they were planning to change the law in order to guarantee more rights to domestic workers, and that his government would introduce a tripartite negotiation procedure for this sector to set wages and obtain other benefits (Mazzuchi, 2009). 8  The radio program, which is broadcasted Saturdays in the early afternoon, can also be heard through both union’s Facebook pages: https://www.facebook.com/sintradop/ and https://www.facebook.com/sintradespy

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also organized jointly to help those of their members most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.9 The SINTRADI, in Encarnación, also hosts its own radio program,10 indicating that all three organizations discuss and agree upon strategies. Overall, we can see that domestic workers’ trade unions have been successful in obtaining their goals. Now, even if they have become better inserted in trade union confederations, they still occupy an ambivalent position between the labor and feminist movements. The determined support of the CDE and, in broader terms, of feminist groups, shaped not only the way some domestic workers organized—departing from the union figure initially—but also how they framed their claims. In this regard, most of their campaigns demanded rights for women workers, appealing to the fact that paid domestic work is the most important economic activity for women in Paraguay.11 And while this situation could lead to tensions between labor and feminist actors, domestic workers’ main allies (cf. Rojas Scheffer, 2022), I argue that this position as an outsider in the trade union movement has helped them get involved in broader societal discussions, overcoming corporatist stances. This can be observed through the discussions about public policies on care. The Politicization of Care and the Demand for Public Policies Throughout the region, feminist academics and members of women’s organizations have been leading the debates on the necessity to redistribute care responsibilities. In a recently published compilation, Ailynn Torres Santana (2021) argues that the distribution of care has been progressively permeating social and political agendas in Latin America, although at a different pace in each country: In Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Uruguay there have been more solid debates and interventions, in other countries the discussion is more incipient. In the case of Paraguay, there have been some important developments such as the institution of the Grupo 9  See https://www.hoy.com.py/nacionales/trabajadoras-domesticas-entregan-kits-con20-kilos-de-alimentos-para-cesadas-durante-pandemia 10  See https://www.facebook.com/sintradi 11  See https://www.abc.com.py/edicion-impresa/locales/marcha-de-las-trabajadorasdomesticas-­del-paraguay-1414598.html. As the photo shows, the signs carried in different demonstrations highlight that paid domestic work is the most important occupation for women in the country, and that discriminating against domestic workers equates to discriminating against women.

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Interinstitucional Impulsor de la Política de Cuidados del Paraguay, comprised of governmental institutions and representation of the civil society, with the support of international cooperation. This group produced a document with guidelines to design a national policy of care in 2019, contributing to the debate on the social organization of care in the country. Domestic workers have been identified as one of the most active sectors involved in this process (Dobrée et al., 2021, p. 606). In participating in these discussions, they have linked their occupation-specific demands— higher wages and better working conditions—to broader claims and debates around care as a right and as a matter of public policies. In this respect, by demanding the recognition of their labor as work, and, therefore, as an activity that deserves a (fair) wage and access to labor rights, domestic workers forced the Paraguayan society to discuss the value of care work and the necessity of its redistribution among different institutions (families, the state, markets, and the community). Moreover, recognizing their right to a minimum wage affected traditional arrangements wherein it was socially accepted for families to meet their care needs by resorting to the underpaid labor of domestic workers. The involvement of domestic workers’ organizations in these discussions is again linked to their joint work with feminist organizations and the international cooperation, actors that fostered the debate around the politicization of care in Paraguay. In this regard, the emergence of a massive and radical feminist movement in Latin America (Gago, 2019), with focus on work relations and care, gave a strong impetus to domestic workers’ demands and helped them link their grievances to those of other women. While still presenting union-specific demands—related to wages and working conditions—domestic workers could recognize their struggle in that of other women, expanding their sphere of action and getting involved in broader discussions with other social movements. Something that the more traditional labor movement in Paraguay still seems to struggle to do.

Conclusion For decades now, the strength of the labor movement in Paraguay has relied predominantly on the public sector’s unions. Public employees make up to 90% of trade unions affiliations in the country, and their struggles are the ones that dominate the union confederation’s agendas. This is easy to explain considering the high degree of the informal labor market,

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an institutional context that discourages organizing, and a highly fragmented labor movement that still needs to make changes to attract younger generations and give women the opportunity to occupy leading positions. By addressing the struggles and achievements of domestic workers’ trade unions, this chapter had a twofold objective. First, it has sought to shift the focus of analysis, moving it away from traditional trade unions and opening room for rather atypical actors, calling attention to the necessity of expanding our understanding of work, workers, and labor organizations. Second, it has sought to contribute to the study of coalition building as a strategy for informal workers and those in precarious work relationships, who have historically been excluded from trade unions. Various scholars have addressed the complex dynamics of coalition building, introducing novel ways of analyzing and understanding the reasons for cooperation between trade unions and social movements (cf. Teixeira & Motta, 2022; Zajak et al., 2018). In this chapter, I drew on the concept of Networks of Labor Activism as a tool to theoretically grasp the alliances between different types of organizations that operate at distinct geographical scales. This concept has proven particularly useful to describe the organization process of domestic workers in Paraguay, whose emergence is linked to feminist organizations rather than to trade unions, and to transnational actors rather than local ones. The mobilization of domestic workers in Paraguay began after the CDE decided to conduct research on this subject. The first projects—and many more that came later—were funded by the ILO and UN Women. This funding not only supported research and publications but also helped domestic workers organize, providing them with material resources for staging demonstrations, attending meetings, and taking part in training courses to learn how to present their claims in political settings (Rojas Scheffer, 2019). Yet the support of the international allies was not only material but also symbolic. In Paraguay, discussions about changing the law to guarantee more rights to domestic workers were firstly met with fierce opposition from the elites, and it could only advance after the ILO Convention 189 was adopted in 2011. The recognition of domestic work as work, and as such entitled to rights just as any other occupation, marked a milestone for domestic workers, locally and globally. This legal instrument, approved by the ILO, an institution with the legitimacy to set basic principles and rights at work, helped to legitimize the claims of household workers and opened new opportunities in the domestic sphere through

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the creation and action of international networks of activism (Keck & Sikkink, 1998; Sikkink, 2005). Other countries in the region also saw similar developments (Soto, 2017). In this sense, a coalition of diverse actors at the national, regional, and global levels was key to allowing a historically excluded and weakened group to include its demands on the national political agenda and to achieve important gains regarding its rights. However, which actors would be involved in such a coalition depends ultimately on the national context. In this sense, the Paraguayan case differs from others in the region in that the main ally has been a feminist NGO and not the trade union movement. The greater support of feminist organizations in Paraguay influenced the organizational structure of the sector and the way domestic workers presented their claims, while the leading participation of domestic workers’ groups in demonstrations organized on International Women’s Day and other related events linked them to broader feminist demands. This contrasts with the Uruguayan case, for example, where the identification with the workers’ movement is much stronger (Rojas Scheffer, 2022). Even if Paraguayan domestic workers’ organizations identify as trade unions nowadays, not all of them were founded as such. In this regard, not only the network that emerged around domestic workers have cross-­ movement characteristics, but also the very domestic workers’ organizations do also. Moreover, I contend that it is precisely their hinge position—between trade unions and social movements—together with an international context that was highly receptive to their demands that helped domestic workers make important gains within the last decade. This has allowed them to access more institutionalized tools of trade unions, while also maintaining a highly dynamic presence in the public sphere through demonstrations and feminist collective actions. At the same time, it has helped them expand their demands, going beyond labor’s traditional focus on class inequalities and including claims related to gender-­based inequalities. Their active participation in the discussions for a National Care Policy also shows that, even if the governments after Lugo have not been particularly keen on negotiating with social movements and subaltern collective actors, domestic workers and their allies could maintain their links with some actors within governmental structures, keeping political spaces open to discuss public policies. Also, in this case, having access to broader framing strategies—i.e., being able to present their claims not only in terms of class but also in terms of gender—has proven to be helpful.

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Finally, this chapter has also called attention to the fact that the same axes of inequalities that determine domestic workers’ subordinate position in the social structure can become elements of political mobilization. In this regard, workers connect with other actors with whom they share an interest in subverting power hierarchies, opening opportunities for coalition-­building. By so doing they not only expand trade unions’ constituencies, planting the seed for a revitalization process (Frege & Kelly, 2004), but also help to bring to the fore the situation of workers that had been overlooked for decades. This also highlights the necessity of constructing an intersectional practice within the labor movement. Opting for a “lowest-common-denominator” politics (Kurtz, 2002), far from representing all constituents, marginalizes those that need support the most. In other words, without an intersectional approach, trade unions could end up benefiting some members of the group at the expense of others.

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Soto, L. (2005). La situación de las trabajadoras domésticas y el trabajo infantil doméstico remunerado. In V. López, L. Soto, & H. Valiente (Eds.), Trabajo doméstico remunerado en Paraguay (pp. 169–218). OIT. Soto, L. (2014). Trabajo doméstico remunerado en Paraguay. Información para el debate. CDE/ONU Mujeres. Soto, L. (2017). Las trabajadoras del hogar remuneradas en el Cono Sur: lucha y superación de exclusiones histórica. In Cuaderno N° 1, Igualdad de género. UNDP. Soto, L., & Ruiz Díaz Medina, N. (2014). Trabajadoras Domésticas Remuneradas. Aprendizajes para la Acción. CDE/ONU Mujeres. Tarrow, S. (2011). Power in movement. Social movements and contentious politics. Cambridge University Press. Teixeira, M., & Motta, R. (2022). Unionism and feminism: Alliance building in the Brazilian Marcha das Margaridas. Social Movement Studies, 21(1), 135–151. Torres Santana, A. (2021). Introducción: la larga duración del debate sobre los cuidados. In A.  Torres Santana (Ed.), Los cuidados. Del centro de la vida al centro de la política (pp. 7–59). Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. Valenzuela, S. J. (1989). Labor Movements in Transition to Democracy. A Framework for Analysis. Comparative Politics, 21(4), 445–472. Valiente, H. (2010). Regímenes jurídicos sobre trabajo doméstico remunerado en los Estados del Mercosur. Cotidiano Mujer. Valiente, H. (2016). Las Leyes sobre Trabajo Doméstico Remunerado en América Latina. CDE/ONU Mujeres. Young, G. (1987). The myth of being ‘like a daughter’. Latin American Perspectives, 14(3), 365–380. Zajak, S., Engels-Zandén, N., & Piper, N. (2017). Networks of labor activism: Collective action across Asia and beyond. An introduction to the debate. Development and Change, 49(5), 899–921. Zajak, S., Gortanutti, G., Lauber, J., & Nikolas, A. (2018). Talking about the same but different? Understanding social movement and trade union cooperation through social movement and industrial relations theories. Industrielle Beziehungen, 25(3), 166–187. Zub Centeno, M. (2021). Derechos de las trabajadoras domésticas. Un año marcado por la necesidad. In Coordinadora de Derechos Humanos del Paraguay – CODEHUPY (Ed.), Derechos Humanos en Paraguay 2021 (pp. 107–114). CODEHUPY.

The Feminist Movement in Paraguay: No Way but Forward Charmain Levy and María Molinas Cabrera

Although there are similarities in context and claims with other Latin American feminist movements, this particular context strongly conditioned the trajectory and pace of the Paraguayan feminist movement. In Paraguay, the sociopolitical positioning of women is last compared to Argentina, Chile, and Brazil, all three of which also went through dictatorships in the twentieth century (Bareiro & Torres, 2010). Paraguay was the last to enact a femicide law and never had a female president. However, Paraguay is the only country with a feminist political party that struggles for gender equality. In this context, the Paraguayan feminist movement is a key sociopolitical actor in the questioning of the patriarchal regime and in the democratization of both state and society.

C. Levy (*) Department of Social Sciences, Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO), Gatineau, QC, Canada e-mail: [email protected] M. M. Cabrera Asunción, Paraguay © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. Levy et al. (eds.), Social Movements and the Struggles for Rights, Justice and Democracy in Paraguay, Social Movements and Transformation, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25883-1_8

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As in other Latin American countries, it has played a key role in the country’s democratization in the 1990s, has pushed for more inclusive policies, an expansion of rights (e.g., divorce, sexual, and reproductive), and measures to combat violence against women (Fernandez Anderson, 2021). In fact, since the beginning of the twentieth century, feminist movement actions have been characterized by their breadth (Bareiro et al., 1993; Dávalos, 1990) in promoting demands for equality and non-­ discrimination, not only for women, but also for society, from a humanist perspective strongly linked to the defense of human rights and values of justice, freedom, democracy, and pacifism. Similar to other Latin American countries, Paraguayan culture and society portrays women as submissive, indecisive, and destined almost exclusively to fulfill a biological and social reproductive role. In this context, pleasure is not an accepted part of their sexuality and resignation to unwanted pregnancy is inherent to their feminine condition, as well as their silence within social, family, and public relations. Since colonial times, Paraguayan women are mainly represented as victims of oppression, exploitation, and machismo. Indigenous women were exploited and enslaved by the Spaniards. They occupied an inferior place in the social hierarchy and only served the (sexual) needs of men. Later, during and after the War of the Triple Alliance, a Marianist image portrayed women as mothers of the Paraguayan land, having fought and repopulated the country (Makaran, 2013). Paraguayans, not just the elite, idealized the myth of a church-married family, headed by a man who controlled his wife and children, although many did not live this version of family life.1 In 1954, when Stroessner became president of Paraguay through a coup d’état, the country was dominated by a ‘paternal’ figure and machismo was institutionalized as a national value (Bareiro, 1997). Paraguayan women were the last Latin Americans to obtain the right to vote in 1961 when, ironically, free and open elections were prohibited by the dictatorship. In the 1990s and 2000s, urbanization, and the impact of the media, changed certain traditional patterns and values, although this slow and belated process of modernization did not mean the weakening of patriarchal social institutions nor of patriarchy as an inherent characteristic of social and cultural life. As a result, the Paraguayan labor market is highly 1  In 2012, about 32% of Paraguayan households were headed by a female (Zavattiero & Serafini Geoghegan, 2019).

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segmented by gender. The roles and responsibilities socially established for women are different from those of men, and this has an impact on job opportunities, financial independence, and personal liberty (Serafini Geoghegan, 2008). We will argue that the trajectory and agenda of this movement have moved at a different pace than other Latin American feminist movements due to conditioning factors that include a domestic gender regime that lasted well into the 1990s when many Latin American countries already achieved a public gender regime (Moghadam, 2020).2 The repressive nature of the state and patriarchal values of society influenced the type of claims and mobilization of the Paraguay feminist movement. Because of the societal and political shifts in the 2000s (urbanization, migration, neoliberal political economy, reprimarization of the economy, mass protests), the movement could advance its claims and create a more sustainable dialogue with government actors in the 2010s. When a reversal in government occurred in 2012, this dialogue ended and eventually led to a renewal of the movement involving massive street protest. One of our goals is to characterize the different phases of the movement and explain how the decade of 2010 was a turning point in terms of movement renewal. Political generations are a product of experience, ideologies, and identities forged by the time activists are living in. In political contexts hostile to feminism, cross-generational conflict is less likely and generational alliances are common (Reger, 2012). As with most social movements, the Paraguayan feminist movement is conditioned but not determined by its context. Studying the feminist movement in Paraguay involves a diverse set of women’s organizations, as well as other organizational forms and civic expressions that have been active since the beginning of the twentieth century and have included women and men (Bareiro et al., 1993). This chapter presents a global portrait and analysis of the Paraguayan feminist movement since the end of the dictatorship investigating how in 2008 it

2  In her work on gender regimes, Walby (2004, 2009) theorizes and historicizes the relationship between modernization and gender regimes, examining their evolution over time and distinguishing between the private patriarchy of the family (the domestic gender regime) and the public patriarchy of the state (the public gender regime). In Walby’s model, a gender regime is a set of interrelated gendered social relations and institutions that constitute a system operating across four institutional domains: polity, economy, civil society, and violence. The more contemporary “public gender regime” came about through markets, political provisioning, or regulations.

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moved from the political and social margins toward the center of political society (Schild, 2002). In our analysis of this movement, we will consider factors that influenced the consolidation and achievements of the feminist movement: the state of the democratic regime, access to and inclusion in government decision-making. We also will highlight the influence of the conferences on the movement’s elaboration of its claims, as well as how other feminist movements, especially in Argentina, influenced the Paraguayan movement, its agenda, and its collective actions. We will explain how these new national and regional contexts of the twenty-first century changed feminist organizations, their agenda, and their mobilization. Twenty interviews were conducted by María Molinas Cabrera with Paraguayan feminists and specialists in the field between 2019 and 2021. In addition, we collected and analyzed more than 500 primary and secondary sources on feminism and feminist collective action in Paraguay since 1986, as well as elements of the discourse on the public agenda since 2010. We will begin this chapter with an overview of our theoretic frame then proceed to a general characterization of the movement, and how it developed during the beginning of the democratization process in the 1990s. The following sections will describe the expansion of the movement, the role of the secretariat/ministry of the feminine condition, how the feminist movement advanced its agenda during the Lugo government (2008–2012), the advancement in Violence against Women (VAW), and the more recent expansion in mass protest of the movement influenced by the #NiUnaMenos movement in Argentina (2017).

Theoretic Frame Social movements emerge when dissatisfied and unrepresented social groups promote social, political, cultural, and economic change through collective action beyond conventional means that involves citizens collectively challenging the political reality (both the process and the outcome); how its resources are employed; and who decides on their use [based on McAdam et al. (2001)]. The goals of social movement couple the making of public claims with the creation, assertion, and political deployment of collective identities (Tilly, 1999). To pursue these goals, social movements create political spaces for excluded populations, neglected programs, and unrecognized grievances (Tilly, 2003). Social movements, as McAdam

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et al. (2001) suggest, move across fields of contention, engaging in collective action that may be more or less conventional, in response to political structural opportunities, new issues, and unanticipated events. Feminism is a form of contentious politics and a political discourse based on challenges to patriarchal elements in society and calling for gender equality and justice for women (Stevenson, 2021). It consists of the production of knowledge and practices articulated by critical thinking, which questions the subordination of women simply because they are women. Feminist movements can be defined as social movements where women, organized explicitly as such, are the major actors and leaders and make gendered identity claims the basis for their actions (Beckwith, 2005). When referring to the feminist movement, we use a broad concept that includes the diverse set of collective currents of thought and action that aim to promote equality between people and non-discrimination toward women in different spheres of society. The women’s movement in Latin America can be characterized by many small associations and NGOs with very diverse agendas, which, in Molyneux’s (1998) opinion, can cumulatively come to constitute the women’s movement. While this kind of activism has no central coordination, and no agreed agenda, the extent of participation and its overall significance suggest that the women’s movement often takes a more diffuse and decentred form. This movement may be characterized by a diversity of interests, forms of expression, and spatial location. Feminist claim-making refers to sustained efforts within civil and political society to ensure the recognition and realization of full and equal rights for women (Goetz & Jenkins, 2018). Women’s movements are identified in this set of criteria based on who the activists are (women) and the collective nature of their activism (frequently class-specific), whether directed at the state or focused on autonomous and primarily local efforts (Beckwith, 2005). The discussion of issue framing notes the tension between the feminist principle that the social foundations of gender inequality must be confronted head on, and the pragmatic impulse to articulate policy ambitions in politically less threatening terms (Goetz & Jenkins, 2018).

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Brief History of First and Second Feminist Waves As in many Latin American countries, the first wave of the feminist movement began at the beginning of the twentieth century. In Paraguay, as early as 1904, the Committee of Women for Peace was founded, followed by the Feminist Movement for Asunción (in 1919), the Paraguayan Feminist Center, the Feminine Union of Paraguay, and the Paraguayan League for the Rights of Women. This included suffragettes and anarchists in the early twentieth century, feminist journalists, trade unionists, women workers’ guilds, revolutionary feminists (1936) as well as pacifists, and anti-war activists during the 1870 war and the 1932 Chaco war. In the context of the national social and economic crises at the time and the mobilization against the Stroessner regime in the 1980s, a new generation of feminists emerged in Paraguay among groups of women holding discussions on gender issues, specifically those claiming equality before the law. The movement was consolidated during a national meeting in 1987, leading to proposed amendments to the Civil Code containing discriminations between the rights of men and women in the context of marriage. The most important result of the meeting was the creation of the Coordination of Women of Paraguay (CMP).3 This organization was also inspired by international events and meetings coordinated by the UN Women’s Decade (1975–1985) and the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Founded in 1988, the Multisectoral Women’s Network of Paraguay was composed of feminists linked to Paraguayan parties. The heart of its political project was the creation of a ministry dedicated to gender issues (Yore & Colazo, 2001). While the CMP aimed at legal transformation, the Multisectoral project focused on the Paraguayan political institutions. The feminists in these organizations came from two well-defined sectors: political party activists and women NGOs researchers and academics who pioneered reflection on gender issues through academic research and socio-political activism. Since the return of democratic elections in 1989, feminists influenced state structures in ways that have nurtured democracy more broadly moving beyond free elections to include equality and women’s full citizenship 3  CMP was rooted in social research by feminists working in NGOs, such as CPES and BASE. The CMP governance included a board of directors made up of 14 member representatives from 14 member institutions.

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(Gúzman, 2003; Molyneux, 2000). A feature of the Paraguayan party system was the lack of loyal and legitimate competition from opponents of the hegemonic party, the persecution of third parties outside the two-­ party system, and the repression of social organizations. Molyneux observes that the capacity of women’s movements to contribute to a “workable formula for the delivery of social justice within which women’s interests, diverse though they be, are given recognition” depends on the existence of “favorable political circumstances” (2000, p. 160) that transcend such conventional variables as regime type, the nature of party competition or the formal legal environment. This limited public contestation for fear of repression. Like many other national feminist movements in Latin America, the Paraguayan movement increased its organization and claims during the beginning of democratization period in the early 1990s. Feminists slowly began to occupy civil and political society, demanding their rights and questioning their marginal participation in the political and social system, as well as in university leadership, in the student and trade union movements. Panels, seminars, debates, and other types of socio-cultural and awareness-raising activities proliferated during the 1990s in what was first called the women’s liberation movement and later the feminist movement (Corvalán, 2013). At the time, Paraguay was a mostly rural country, with huge disparities and a traditional patriarchal regime based on values and laws, many of which had not changed in a century. One example is the law requiring women to seek permission from their husband to work outside of the home. Under a domestic gender regime legally embedding gender hierarchies in the family (Walby, 2020), there was simply no human rights and gender perspective incorporated into the rationality and legal logic of those responsible for the administration of justice. The state was the focus of feminist advocacy, and changes in legislation and statutory institutions became its object (Cornwall & Molyneux, 2006). It was at this time that Asunción-based, middle-class intellectuals and activists formed different groups and undertook workshops and publications on the condition of Paraguayan women producing gender-based knowledge questioning patriarchal social and political institutions. They developed most of the arguments for equality, and they did so in a variety of spaces, such as parliamentary advice, local, national, and regional women’s organizations, and international cooperation, human rights, and development organizations.

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During this period, the movement established an agenda and consensus around women’s issues. For example, the issue of VAW was added to the feminist agenda in the late 1990s. Other claims included the adoption of minimum quotas for political participation, the legal right to receive equal pay for the same work, mainstreaming a gender perspective, parity as an effective realization of equality, and other proposals. Throughout the 1990s, the movement established a claim-based relationship with the state with the goal of expanding participation and democratizing the state. As the personal became political, their collective actions moved from private events toward public protests aimed at gaining visibility and recognition of their claims and influencing public opinion. Within the context of democratic opening, constitutional reform offered a window of opportunity for feminists to generate new legal instruments and processes which, in theory, extended access to justice (Cornwall & Molyneux, 2006). This included divorce as a secular and legal form of dissolution of marriage that became law in 1991 because of campaigns proposing and making changes to the patriarchal Civil Code inherited from Strosnismo; amending Paraguay’s new constitution; and establishing a state organ focused on gender issues, the Women’s Secretariat (Szwako, 2012). Underpinning all the themes was women’s status as fully autonomous human beings, and therefore as subjects of rights. In 1992, the creation of the Women’s Secretariat opened channels for exchanges between feminist organizations and the state around issues such as policies to combat domestic violence.4 For example, in 1994, feminists demanded that the secretariat play a more important role in the collection and incorporation of gendered data in the national census and statistics. In 1993, the Network of Women Municipal Councilors of Paraguay (RMMP) was formed, which was mainly concerned with learning about, developing, and promoting municipal public policies with a gender perspective, including the creation of mechanisms for women’s equality and the incorporation of their interests and proposals in these policies. In the late 1990s, the feminist movement responded to a political opportunity during the March 1998 protests that sought to reorganize the state–society relations and establish civilian platforms of social control, debate, and influence. Gradually during the 2000s, the feminist movement broadened itself from its core of urban middle-class educated activists and began to inspire and integrate peasants, lesbians, and a new 4

 Feminists’ demands were directed at the national level of the state.

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generation of feminists into the movement. The institutional strategies of gender-oriented women’s organizations vis-à-vis the state and international cooperation throughout the 1990s were characterized by greater specialization, e.g., legal, psychological, sociological, political, anti-­ violence against women’s violence, dissemination of entrepreneurial attitudes, leadership development, etc. (Corvalán, 1998). While the first claims were of a more liberal nature, during the 2000s, the movement slowly diversified to include working-class urban and rural women. Their repertoire of collective action also changed beginning with negotiations with government officials and in the 2000s involving more public displays of contention through protest.

Boomerang Pattern and International Alliances The implication and engagement of Paraguayan feminists in international networks demonstrates the boomerang pattern (Keck & Sikkink, 1998), where they pressured government and elected officials to respond to their demands through international contacts (foreign governments and international organizations), which reminded the Paraguayan government of their commitment to international conventions. During the 1990s, the UN conferences provided Latin American national feminist movements with references and a framework to structure their claims and present them to government and the public. Moreover, feminist debates among organizations were to some extent influenced by the international women’s movement and translated into the mobilization of women from the private and public sectors, at the national and regional levels, in addition to the important economic and human resources that accompanied international cooperation projects carried out in Paraguay throughout the 1990s and 2000s. The aim was to mobilize and adapt international feminist knowledge and then pressure the government into considering public policy for women. During this period, they referred to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women signed by Paraguay in 1986, which provided a conceptual and societal model to implement in their country. Feminist NGOs remain among the most active and influential forces behind rights campaigns and were central in translating international and national rights into on-the-ground practice, as in legal literacy and reproductive health initiatives (Cornwall & Molyneux, 2006).

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After the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing (1995), the consolidation of the movement and its agenda took place around the articulation of feminists with decision-making and implementation powers in a commission composed of the Women’s Secretariat representing the state, civil society, through the Women’s Coordination of Paraguay, and international cooperation agencies, led by the United Nations Development Fund. The Paraguayan feminist movement demanded the state invest in and collaborate with feminist experts. One result was the creation in 2000 of the commission on equity, gender, and social development of the Senate, which opened a powerful space for the influence of feminist voices and issues from the movement. The Beijing process was thus key to the constitution of a national feminist movement, as well as to the establishment of a link between the Women’s Secretariat and organized feminists. The Women’s Coordination of Paraguay (CMP) once again played the role of promoter of a broad coordination of women’s organizations, which organized eight forums, four sectoral and four regional. For the first time there was a national mobilization and national debate on the status of women, which was reflected in the document “Aprender a querer” (“Learning to love”) (CMP, 2001). This process was also fundamental for the insertion of the Paraguayan feminist movement into the Latin American feminism. It led to a systematic relation with the Women’s Secretariat, both at the regional meeting in Mar del Plata (1994) and Beijing (1995). Paraguayan feminists not only played a leading and participatory role in the NGO Forum, but were also part of the official delegation (Elias, 2001). As a result, a Tripartite Commission for the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action in Paraguay made up of civil society, the Paraguayan State, and the United Nations, was established and represented by the CMP, the Women’s Secretariat, and UNIFEM/UNDP.  This coordination continued until 2002.

Expansion of the Feminist Movement and the Conservative Backlash Contrary to other Latin American countries, the issue of institutionalization/autonomy was not a central one. This was partly due to the formal networks that evolved during the 1990s that, on the one hand, divided goals and created a specialization among feminist organizations—many of

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which depended on international cooperation funding. The CMP’s activities, for example, developed around knowledge production, research, training, and development projects, while the RMMP aimed its efforts at the political, governmental, and party sphere. Most feminists were staunchly opposed to the neoliberal agenda being imposed by the international community on Paraguay. One challenge of the feminist movement was that working-class, peasant, and indigenous women did not feel represented or included. The group of social science researchers was very limited in number, which is why the different circuits of gender knowledge production—academic (universities, research centers), action (social movements, feminist spaces), public institutions (national, departmental, municipal), and civil society organizations in general—were precarious (Corvalán, 2013). During the late 1990s and 2000s, feminist organizations and claims diversified and emphasized the multiplicity of women’s experiences, needs, and interests in opposition to the mostly white upper-middle class and professional feminists of the previous wave (Evans & Chamberlain, 2015). One excellent example discussed in detail by Rojas in this volume is the domestic workers’ union. Amid this expansion, feminists recognized the importance of intersectionality to explain and include the various types of oppressions experienced by women from marginalized groups. Another example of popular feminism5 is the National Coordinating Committee of Rural and Indigenous Women Workers (CONAMURI), founded in October 1999. CONAMURI6 is an organization that brings together rural and indigenous women who denounce a series of injustices and inequalities related to gender, ethnicity, and conflicts in rural territories (CONAMURI, 2009; Fleytas, 2007). They highlight discrimination, oppression of women, and the lack of participation in public spheres, particularly in political life and decision-making spaces. The emergence of lesbian rights as an object of discussion begins with the founding of Aireana— Grupo por los derechos de las lesbianas. Aireana was established in 2003 by activists of the Paraguayan LGBTQ+ movement, the Grupo de Acción Gay y Lésbico (GAC-L). Lesbians are discriminated against in their labor rights, constantly dismissed, harassed in 5  Popular feminism involves working-class women and tends to focus on redistributive claims and raising collective rights issues (Lebon, 2013). 6  For a fuller understanding of CONAMURI as a feminist peasant organization, its claims, and repertoire of collective action, please consult Jamie Gagliano’s chapter in this volume.

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their workplaces, and forced to remain anonymous in the expression of their sexuality. This reality of lesbophobic violence extends to virtually all public aspects of lesbian women’s lives, which obviously translates into their private lives. At the end of the 1990s, several groups of innovative and radical university women emerged, raising the banners of feminism, freedom of expression, sexual choice, and forming virtual networks of solidarity and knowledge. Thus, the invisible but sensitive ideological, generational, and socio-economic differentiation emerged within the movement. The result was new and different ways of seeing and acting in life that comes with a new generation and their ideological, political, educational, sexual issues, which fill the gap between younger and older feminists. Collective action occurred through communication (radio, web, and written press), new communication and information technologies, political and feminist education, self-determination, creation, and popular education. Between 2004 and 2008, different groups formed by young feminists emerged in Paraguay, contributing to the diversification of the movement, already initiated by lesbian feminists organizing for their rights a few years earlier. Las Ramonas, Catarsis Colectiva Feminista, the Riot Grrrls, and even the Equipo Feminista de Comunicación, are groups that were born driven by young women. Las Ramonas and Las Virginias are small groups of young feminists dedicated to the promotion of feminism as a political proposal for social change for gender equality. They define themselves as an autonomous space for personal and collective growth within the feminist movement and articulate actions with youth organizations as a progressive social movement.7 The multiplication of feminist organizations continued throughout the 2000s and 2010s. In 2012, the then Women’s Secretariat registered more than 300 rural women’s organizations in three departments of the country—Canindeyú, Cordillera, and San Pedro. In 2014, a survey by the Coordinadora por los Derechos Humanos del Paraguay (CODEHUPY) identified 31 national organizations working on various women’s rights issues and 14 women’s organizations operating in the political sphere (CODEHUPY, 2014).

7  Autonomists or anarchist feminist groups are understood as organizational, ideological, and financial in relation to leftist parties and governments. Their organizations are composed of small, often informal, and short-lived groups of feminists or individual activists.

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Faced with a growing feminist movement since the return to democracy, religious fundamentalism and social conservatives emerged as a powerful social and political force in Paraguay. The Catholic Church and several evangelical churches have been central actors frequently intervening in legal and public policy debates, becoming spokespersons for all these issues, including human rights issues. In the early 2000s they denounced “gender ideology,” opposing gender and sexual and reproductive rights, mainly around abortion.8 They rejected all reproductive rights law proposals on the grounds that they would lead to abortion, even though the proposals did not address the issue (Soto & Soto, 2020). The conservative right stoked public fears of opening the door to what they called same-sex marriage, even though the issue was not addressed during that period. Abortion and same-sex marriage were preemptively used to raise public fear and reject any progress on sexual and reproductive rights. What is notable is the adoption of a gender ideology discourse much earlier in Paraguay than in other Latin American countries mainly due to the embeddedness of religious institutions and patriarchal values among the great majority of the political class as well as the public resonance of feminist claims and gains. This misogynistic discourse informed and exacerbated a wave of conservative, retrograde backlash (Cowan, 2016). But it also provoked feminist resistance against this retaliation, served to unite feminists, and in 2017 it contributed to the spread of a feminist renewal. Within this context, social networks became a disputed space between fundamentalist anti-gender currents and feminist activists.

Advancing the Feminist Agenda Within the State It was not until 2008, almost two decades after the fall of the dictatorship, that the transfer of government from one political group to another took place peacefully at the ballot box, for the first time in Paraguay’s political history. According to Bareiro [cited in Pinto and Flisfisch (2011)], this was a milestone that could be considered the end of the post-dictatorship 8  In the first decade of the 2000s, the debate on abortion continued, around a new process of reform of the Penal Code that began in 2005 and culminated in a Code approved in 2007, which, although it modifies the articles on abortion, maintains it under an almost absolute prohibition, with the sole exception of the risk to life. Other laws related to sexual and reproductive rights also were debated: one on care for victims of punishable acts against sexual autonomy; and another on sexual, reproductive, and maternal and perinatal health, between 2005 and 2007.

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democratic transition, since until then the dictatorship’s party was always in government. The government elected in 2008, led by Fernando Lugo9 as president of the republic, appointed several feminist ministers to his cabinet and this, in turn, created a stronger presence of the feminist narrative in the national political debate. Civil society feminists no longer had to dispute with the Women’s Secretariat to incorporate their demands, because the new ‘femocrats’ already knew and worked with them. There was an opening in terms of publicly debating feminist issues and a certain acceptance of feminism and feminist knowledge. “Even the issue of abortion, which for a long time was a taboo, an issue that people were not committed to, during this government people were not so afraid to talk about abortion, debates could be held. There were events where abortion was discussed and women ministers were present” (Angelica and Cristina—CMP). During the Lugo government, while there were advances, they were minimal and symbolic mostly based on meetings and exchanges between feminists and government officials around LGBTQ+ rights. For example, the Pedagogical Guiding Framework for Sexuality Education proposal, in which a sex education policy was proposed was the first time that this issue was raised by the state. It was followed by a backlash from political, social, and religious conservatives leading to a greater influence and presence of fundamentalist anti-gender currents in the structure and functioning of the state. As a result, there was no creation of a public policy truly inclusive of lesbians and transgender people during the Lugo government, an official prohibition of the gender perspective in education and the elimination of the word “gender” in the comprehensive law for the protection of violence against women, and in the plan for equal opportunities between men and women. The impeachment of President Fernando Lugo carried out on June 22, 2012 had a significant impact on Paraguayan society and, consequently, on the feminist movement. The Women’s Minister faced the choice between resigning or continuing in office with the new government. She decided to stay and resist external social and political pressure as well as the onslaught of feminists who were against the national government. This event divided the movement between those who chose to follow the new government and those who participated in an active resistance in opposition to the new government. The majority of its members were against the 9

 Ex-bishop and Liberation theologian.

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new government. The consequences of the change of government on the feminist movement, or more specifically on the CMP, once a compact, supportive feminist movement, were important and the cause of rifts between comrades and friends.

The Women’s Ministry To understand the feminist movement in Paraguay, it is indispensable to analyze the feminists in political society and the state, including the role, functioning, and support of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs.10 Depending on the government in place, the Paraguayan state has proved to be both progressive and regressive; at times extending some greater rights and freedoms to women, and then, in other places and times, taking them away (Htun & Weldon, 2018). The existence of a state agency did not introduce a gender perspective in public policies, although it could be considered a central axis for gender mainstreaming. The Women’s Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic (SM) played an active and enduring role in the empowerment of women, maintaining the rights and obligations that all governmental bodies have in their field of action, in this case as an intermediary mechanism between society and the state. Initial advances included the follow plans: The National Plan to Prevent, Punish and Eradicate Violence against Women; the Institutional Strengthening Program (SM-BID); the Program for Equal Opportunities for Women in Education (PRIOME); the National Reproductive Health Plan; the Network of Centers for Development Initiatives for Women in Paraguay; and the National Plan for Equal Opportunities for Women 1997–2001. Despite the progress made by the SM in the gender-based knowledge, scope, and practice, the top-down style of government and the constant partisan meddling, prevented greater progress in implementing a gender regime and strengthening of the Women’s Secretariat. Progress in terms of gender rights and equality was therefore relatively slow, especially when 10  In the document “Proyecto de Ley para la creación de la Secretaría de la Mujer,” the CMP and the Multisectorial de Mujeres presented the Constitutional Affairs Commission of the Chamber of Deputies with a document based on workshop discussions coordinated by the two organizations. It contained the basis for the elaboration of a Bill for a Women’s Secretariat, at the ministerial rank. After more than three years, in December 1991, the Chamber of Deputies approved the bill, to be created under the Presidency of the Republic, which was presented by Congresswoman Cristina Muñoz.

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differences came to the fore between the SM and the civil society feminists, mainly due to the rejection of the SM of feminist theory and praxis, and because the feminist movement openly acted as a political opposition to the Colorado party. In the 2000s, the decrease in international cooperation funding to women’s civil society organizations and the selective political cooptation of the SM reduced the productive and successful collaboration between women’s NGOs and the SM. Nevertheless, the active and constant participation of the SM in the Mercosur process was important, not so much in terms of concrete results, but in its participation in meetings with other colleagues of the same rank, also as part of the political and economic integration process, which contributed to the visibility and participation of Paraguayan women at the international level (such as the Presidency of the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) belonging to the OAS). An important turning point occurred in 2008, when Gloria Rubín, a journalist, feminist, and former member of the Coordination of Paraguayan Women, was appointed Minister of the Women’s Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic. She ensured that economic, human, qualified, and technological resources were available to improve the communication of reports on progress and setbacks, programs, and actions aimed at equal opportunities and treatment for women in the development of the III Plan for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men 2008–2017. This minister improved transparency and accountability based on better communication that led to greater visibility of the results involving agreements with other institutions, particularly about the mainstreaming of the application of the gender perspective in public administration. In 2012, the Women’s Secretariat status was upgraded to the Ministry of Women. This breakthrough was the result of the longstanding claim of the feminist movement toward Congress, for the change of status and functioning of this state body.11 The progress made in the mainstreaming of gender policies in public administration was part of the constant management of state intervention and the consequent impact on the system of gender institutionality. Minister Rubín expanded the network of gender mechanisms initiated ten years before by Cristina Muñoz, then head of the Women’s Secretariat. During Rubín’s mandate, greater emphasis was 11  The Ministry of Women is responsible for the status of women and was questioned on numerous occasions, when parliamentarians proposed replacing it in 2013 with a Ministry of Social Development.

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placed on the creation and strengthening of gender mechanisms, in the country’s interior, based on agreements and action programs with different political stakeholders.

Feminist Claims and Institutional Advancement on VAW In 2004, the issues of violence against women and sexual and reproductive rights became and persisted as a central claim in the feminist agenda. Paraguay, as other Latin American countries did, minimized gender-based violence with a lack of preventive laws and laws that protect women who suffer from violence. In 2009, the Public Policy for Social Development for the period 2010–2020 was drawn up, complementing the Strategic Economic and Social Plan, and for the first time the Paraguayan state recognized the right of women to live a life free of violence as an integral condition for development. The following year, the Secretariat for Women set up the first temporary shelter for women in situations of violence. In 2010, the Women’s Secretariat, the Ministry of the Interior, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) presented the summary of the project “Attention to victims of domestic and gender-­ based violence: citizen security”. This publication contained the principal results and advances of the project, which aims to introduce strategies for a citizen security policy from a human rights and gender perspective. The project included the creation of Specialized Attention Divisions in the National Police, which as a public policy represents a step forward in dealing with gender and generational inequalities expressed in the framework of domestic violence and feminicide. Two years after the implementation of this project, other concrete actions were put into place, such as training with a rights-based approach for more than a thousand police officers, six specialized Attention Divisions in police stations in the capital and in the interior of the country. In addition, shelters for women victims of violence and/or trafficking in Ciudad del Este and Pedro Juan Caballero, Chaco, and Curuguaty, plus a Manual of Police Procedures for the Commission of punishable acts related to domestic and gender violence and a system of preventive work were installed that has already reached thousands of citizens. New regional women’s centers were created in the interior of the country, as well as

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installing a toll-free telephone line to support and assist women victims of violence. Emphasis was placed on actions for the prevention, punishment, and eradication of violence, defining strategic lines of work, which include: the decentralization of public services; the creation of an information system; and the inclusion of a gender perspective in the national Expenditure Budget. The creation of four Regional Reference Centers under the Presidency’s Secretariat for Women’s Affairs in departments in the border area with Argentina and Brazil (Alto Paraná, Canindeyú, and Amambay) and in the Paraguayan Chaco (Boquerón).12 In February 2011, the Inter-institutional Committee for the Prevention of Violence against Women approved the creation of an Inter-institutional Technical Committee for the development and operation of the Unified Registry of public services provided to women victims of gender, domestic, and intra-family violence (known as RUVIG). The ultimate objective of this initiative is the availability of reliable and timely information for the analysis, monitoring, evaluation, and reformulation of public policies for the eradication of violence against women. This has been a joint venture between the Secretariat for Women’s Affairs and the Civil Cabinet of the Presidency. This mechanism, in addition to the Women’s Desk and the Safe House, contributed to the improvement of the state’s response to complaints from women in situations of domestic violence. The goal is to make progress in prevention, optimizing the state’s participation from the moment the woman makes the first complaint or seeks help. In 2013, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs set up the Single Registry of Domestic and Gender Violence (RUVIG), but the work did not continue, nor did it manage to unify the existing registers (González, 2017). The year 2017 saw the inauguration of the Law N° 5.777/2016 (“Por Ellas” Law), for the comprehensive protection for women against all forms of violence, which incorporates important advances in terms of prevention, care, and punishment for violence against women (González, 2021). This includes femicide, as a type of public criminal action, which implies the recognition that many murders of women are not only simple homicides, but also occur within the framework of unequal power and gender relations. However, the same year, the Ministry of Education and Science

12  The latter has a large indigenous population, but a low state presence, particularly in terms of gender policies.

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(MEC) banned the dissemination of “gender theory and/or ideology” in educational institutions under the MEC. In the past twenty years, significant progress has been made regarding the establishment of gender offices or secretariats in various state bodies, as well as the implementation of protocols for action in cases of gender-­ based, domestic, and intra-family violence. Between 2008 and 2012, the Inter-institutional Committee for comprehensive attention to gender-­ based violence was in place and carried out coordinated work among the four ministries,13 in the framework of which important policies were generated, such as specialized police stations and specific plans and programs for attention to victims of gender-based, domestic, and intra-family violence (González, 2017). There have been many advances, although so far, they are insufficient due to inadequate resources to extend care services throughout the country, and also due to the weak political commitment to confront this problem as a phenomenon that occurs as a result of the historical inequality suffered by women in the framework of a macho and patriarchal culture. To date, the state has been unable to implement a single registry of cases of violence, even though it has been proposed on several occasions and by different public bodies. With Law N° 5.777—which establishes the obligation of the state, through the Ministry of Women, to create the Unified and Standardised System of Registration of Violence against Women, in coordination with the General Directorate of Statistics, Surveys and Censuses (DGEEC)—an important step forward would be taken, since the current registers of the different instances can only be compared with each other, year by year (González, 2017).

Political Feminism Traditionally, there are very few women in decision-making spheres, and power relations demonstrate patterns of behavior based on inequality. Since the end of the dictatorship, female elected representation has oscillated between 5% and 17% (Cerna Villagra, 2015). It went from 5.6% female presence in 1993 to an average of 16.8% of women in both chambers in 2013 (Soto & Schvatzman, 2014). This also is a problem for 13  Ministry of Women (MINMUJER), MInistry of the Interior (MI), through the National Police (PN), the MInistry of Public Health and Social Wellbeing (MSPBS), the Judiciary (PJ), and Ministry of the Public (MP).

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introducing and implementing gender-sensitive laws and policies (Turner, 2021). This is still far from parity but shows progress. Paraguay is currently below all averages for women’s political participation. Even with quota mechanisms of 20% for multi-member positions, none of the levels reach a critical mass to allow broader participation. The social and political norms are slow to change, and political elites do not see strategic advantages in electoral reform (Turner, 2021). Concerning political parity, in November 2008, several feminist and women’s organizations introduced a bill in the legislature that proposes modifications to Article 32 of Law 834 (1996). This reform raises from 20% to 50% the minimum percentage of participation of women registered as candidates in the internal elections of political parties (Soto & Schvatzman, 2014), with a goal of eventually reaching equality between men and women in the political society. In 2010 the feminist political movement Kuña Pyrenda (KP) was founded and in 2013 it became a political party. Its emergence is justified by the following factors: (1) a conservative party system; (2) the lack of political participation of women in decision-making bodies in traditional parties and in elected positions; (3) a majority of political parties lean toward the right of the political spectrum; (4) a largely conservative electorate that identifies with Catholic and traditionalist values; and (5) the lack of political policies with a gender perspective. The first thing that stands out about Kuña Pyrenda is its innovative character with respect to the stance of feminism around which it has built its political movement. More importantly, this happened in a society characterized by a two-party, conservative, and patriarchal political system where the main actors and political parties have more similarities than differences in their attitudes, practices, and ideological, mostly right-wing stances. One of its goals is to represent a diversity that exists within women themselves and this political movement commits to a decolonized feminism, in which gender agendas are built based on women’s experiences and contexts, as political and social protagonists. Apart from defending the interests of Paraguayan women, Kuña Pyrenda also upholds the equality and integration of other social groups marginalized by the institutionalized sexism, classism, and sexism by the Paraguayan state. This includes both structural discrimination that impacts the lives of marginalized groups, and political discrimination, which consists of the political strategies and discourses that marginalize and exclude the same groups.

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Toward a Mass Feminist Movement In 2014, the Paraguayan Chapter of the Campaign September 28 for the decriminalization of abortion in Latin America and the Caribbean presented a proposal that included decriminalization of abortion on demand until 12 weeks and that, after 12 weeks, abortion should be permitted under the following circumstances: risk to life and health, rape, incest, fetal impairment, and in the case of pregnancies of girls and adolescents up to 17 years old. The parliament did not consider the proposal and no change in the law has happened since then. However, inspired by the “Ni una menos” movement (not one woman less) in Argentina, the conversation about abortion increased and became more active in social media with younger feminists taking the lead on this issue. This is a case of ideas, organizational, cultural, and tactical strategies and repertoires spreading transnationally among a diverse number of social movements (Piatti-­ Crocker, 2021). The March 8 demonstrations in Asunción (and in other cities) in 2017 marked a milestone in feminist history in Paraguay. On that day 10,000 women marched in commemoration of International Working Women’s Day, demanding equal rights, non-discrimination and an end to gender-­ based violence. Many of the demonstrators were students highlighting the issue of sexual violence by professors and fellow students against female students and the fact that it is not being addressed by authorities. This watershed moment demonstrates how crisis motivates as it intensifies and multiplies feminist frequencies. Another important characteristic of the 2017, 2018, and 2019 #8M marches was their capacity to unite a variety of feminists and include their claims into a single manifesto. The goal of these demonstrations was not only to integrate feminist claims into public debates, but also a form of solidarity among feminists to learn and support specific claims (lesbian, trans women, sex workers, migrants, peasant, indigenous rights) and highlight uniting claims (VAW, education, health, equal pay). This took the form of workshops, debates, counseling, and artistic performances during a full day of manifestations. Although these demonstrations were initially inspired by the Argentinian #NiUnaMenos, the organizers worked democratically to be as inclusive as possible toward feminists from all over the country representing different groups leading to an incredible diversity of claims and public performances. This represented an important moment

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for the feminist movement within the context of a country with conservative values and a patriarchal regime.

Conclusions Political and societal change in Paraguay is slow and difficult. However, since the end of the dictatorship, the feminist movement has demonstrated its determination in the struggle for hegemony. Today, Paraguay is a more urban modern country. Women are more educated, make up an important part of the workforce, and are increasingly present in higher education and in the state. Most recently a new generation of feminist struggles, advocacy, and campaigns have brought about formal advances in laws and policies and even attitudes around VAW and wage equality. Building on feminist gains and repertoires of the 1990s and 2000s, they remain vigilant concerning the contradictions between formal policies and implementation. Paraguay feminism is more diverse and intersectional today and includes different forms of action such as training and popular education of grassroots groups; artistic (graffiti, cultural events); and demonstrations, leafleting, advocacy actions, monitoring and shadow reports on the fulfilment of the state’s commitments (monitoring of Beijing, monitoring of CEDAW, CODEHUPY human rights reports). National feminist gatherings have been an important part of creating a national feminist network among women in different walks of life, uniting around certain claims and educating each other about specific claims. There also is an increase in gender studies and feminist research documenting issues such as VAW, reproductive rights, and political quotas. Feminists also are present, making alliances and taking leadership roles in issues such as agrarian reform, labor laws, housing, the environment, democracy, and governance at both the national and subnational level, and regional macro-economic issues. The increase and proliferation of feminists in political and civil society has expanded feminist ideas and values throughout society. For this reason, there is a strong backlash by social conservatives to preserve a dated and even mythical version of society no longer viable or desirable to women. Without the feminist movement, there is no justice, no real democracy in Paraguay.

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 State Violence Against LGBTQ+ setting the Boundaries of Citizenship in Paraguay Marco Castillo and Mirta Moragas Mereles

Introduction The 1989 Paraguayan transition to democracy set the stage for redefining political and social rights toward full and equal citizenship in opposition to the explicit exclusions and legal restrictions of the Stroessner dictatorship. However, while the post-dictatorship period inaugurated reforms toward equality and universal citizenship in a liberal sense, structures of inequality and oppression from the state persisted. In this chapter, we analyze how the combination of violence and state policy targeting the LGBTQ+ community in Paraguay excludes them from substantive citizenship. These techniques of exclusion operate against the backdrop of derogatory discourses against gay men, created during the dictatorship, and which

M. Castillo (*) Department of Sociology, City University of New York Graduate Center, New York, NY, USA e-mail: [email protected] M. M. Mereles Synergía, Initiatives for Human Rights, Asunción, Paraguay © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. Levy et al. (eds.), Social Movements and the Struggles for Rights, Justice and Democracy in Paraguay, Social Movements and Transformation, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25883-1_9

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still function as a rationale for justifying and normalizing violence against the entire LGBTQ+ community. We examine how citizenship refers not to a legal status, but to the capacity of specific groups to substantively participate in the political community. This capacity has historically been restricted by class, gender, and race. The divide between those who receive full recognition of their rights and enjoy what feminist critique of citizenship calls “substantive citizenship” (Field, 2007; Lister, 1997), and those who only have formal rights but lack de facto recognition and are excluded from it. Highlighting the context of the transition to analyze the exclusion of LGBTQ+ individuals from substantive citizenship is relevant given the changes in the status of political and social participation that the advent of democracy brought about. It also illustrates how exclusions are established through different forms of violence along the lines of gender and sexuality. The transition was assumed to be a period of new definitions vis-à-vis the dictatorship. While the dictatorship was based on clear and evident exclusions, the transition to democracy supposed a redefinition of democratic equality and citizenship. However, as we suggest in this chapter, exclusions based on sexuality continue to be sustained through violent policing and discriminatory policies. The analysis we present illustrates how sexuality operates as a form of social regulation and how the heteronormative underpinning of the nationalist project endures even three decades after the fall of the dictatorship.

The Context of the Transition and the LGBTQ+ Movement The fall of the 35-year dictatorship in Paraguay came at the end of the Cold War and in line with the decline of the Southern Cone’s other dictatorships.1 It initiated the transition to democracy that only partially shifted the political landscape, economic structures, or social inequalities. With 1  The Paraguayan dictatorship is notable for taking the lead in establishing a right-wing regime in the Southern Cone. Starting in 1954, just two years after the Bolivian revolution, it preceded the Brazilian military coup by a decade, and the Argentinean, Uruguayan, and the infamous but notorious Chilean dictatorship by two decades. Pioneering the right-wing turn did not mean it ended anytime earlier than the rest. It only fell in 1989, outliving the region’s other authoritarian processes except for the Chilean transition that started in 1990.

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the Colorado party still administering the process of transition, the definitions of where the boundaries of inclusion and exclusion would be drawn were to be heavily influenced by lingering authoritarian practices of the dictatorship. It was a political time when democracy was still not fully in reach, and the dictatorship was also not totally abandoned.2 Paraphrasing Gramsci, the new world was struggling to be born. Unlike Gramsci’s thesis, however, the old one was definitely not dying, lending the transition to democracy an ambivalent nature.3 Nevertheless, the political process of transition turned into a structure of political opportunity (McAdam, 1999) characterized by a decline in repression, the partial shift of ruling political elites albeit within the Colorado party, the acceptance of a greater political plurality, and important legal reforms concerning liberal equality and universal citizenship rights. The old legislative corpus was replaced by a new constitution in 1992 that established a regime of representative democracy and guaranteed legal and political equality. Given the newly enacted political rights and a climate of greater tolerance, new and proscribed political parties resurfaced, and several social movements emerged. The decade of 1990 saw a revitalization of landless farmers organizing land occupations for land reform, and unions mobilizing for improved working conditions. Eventually, both movements also mobilized together against the neoliberal reforms, such as the privatization of public services that characterized the transition. An urban feminist movement that achieved the legalization of divorce for the first time also emerged during the first decade of the transition as well as an invigorated student movement occupying colleges for the implementation of university reforms (López & Loza, 2023). Despite the transition’s political reforms that were antithetical to the dictatorship’s explicit prohibitions and exclusions, the liberal standards of equality, and the universality of rights and justice did not consummate for 2  Declassified police files from the “Terror Archives” show pervasive surveillance of the political process well into democracy. For instance, the first democratic municipal election for the capital held in 1991 and won by the progressive candidate and former union organizer Carlos Filizzola, was closely followed and documented by the police (CDyA, 1991). 3  In his classic text, Dankwart Rustow (1970) identified the difference between the conditions required for initiating and those for maintaining democracies, leading him to introduce the notion of transitions. He proposed to focus on the dynamics of the transition instead of on the stability of pre- or post-democratization. We adhere to this idea but, in this chapter, we suggest that the practices stemming from the dictatorship have a far more important role than the notion of a totally sui generis transitional situation accounts for.

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everyone. Social classes and groups, such as the poor, landless farmers or campesinos, women, and sex and gender minorities, remained to different extents de facto excluded from the benefits of equal citizenship. That is, they were explicitly or implicitly excluded from the capacity of participating in the social and political community on equal terms. Moreover, a comprehensive critique of the political transition has pointed out several aspects of its limitations (Hetherington, 2011; Lambert & Nickson, 2002; Morinigo, 2002; Nickson, 2010; Orué Pozzo et al., 2016). A common point is that under the ambiguous mantle of transition, power structures remained mainly unaltered, and the transition served as a pact of impunity for the old establishment. It is telling that the 1989 coup was followed by a change of regime led by the same Colorado party that had been in power since 1947. It was under the tutelage of the military that the dictatorial regime ended, and a civilian government was elected (Lara Castro, 2006). In any case, the transition allowed the Colorado party to stay in power until 2008.4 It was also in the context of the transition that the LGBTQ+ movement emerged and navigated the contradictions of coming of age in a moment of more tolerance for social and political mobilization, while also still confronting discrimination and policing. As a movement, it focused first on issues concerning HIV, as well as regrouping survivors of police repression during the dictatorship (Orué Pozzo et al., 2016). The emergence of the LGBTQ+ movement also mirrored developments in the region, and in Paraguay, as it became an important part of the human rights community.5 An important part of the urban social movement, which included the LGBTQ+ and the human rights movement, focused its repertoires largely on seeking recognition by the state, policy reform, public demonstration, strategic litigation, and the implementation of progressive and human rights-oriented legislation for equality. An outcome of this alliance was the establishment of the Truth and Justice Commission (TJC) in 2003, with 4  In 2008, the coalition led by former Catholic bishop Fernando Lugo won the elections. His center-left government would, however, not conclude its term but was deposed by an express impeachment process four years later. The Colorado party would go on and win the following elections of the years 2013 and 2018. 5  The series of reports by human rights network CODEHUPY is a testimony of the diversity of the movement organizing around human rights, including the LGBTQ+ collectives and their agendas. A central part of these centers around the expectation that the democratic state will be accountable for its past and current violence and develop sustainable social change through legal reform.

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the goal of creating a report on human rights violations during the dictatorship. The TJC presented an eight-volume final report in 2008, including a chapter on the persecution of LGBTQ+ people that included recommendations for public apologies to survivors of state violence, and measures to end state-led violence .6 Starting in 2003, annual Pride demonstrations were held. Eventually, an important part of the movement decided to shift the annual march to the month of September, in commemoration of the 1959 police repression against gay men (see more below) in Asunción (Falabella, 2012). Struggles for equality and legal recognition involved mobilizing for legal reform and proposals for the recognition of same-sex marriages by the Paraguayan state.7 Among law proposals, the one for a law against all forms of discrimination8 is particularly salient in this context. It was the result of the work of a civil society coalition against all forms of discrimination established in 2003, that focused on legal and policy reform for equality under the campaign “We are all equal” (Anon, 2022). The focus on legal reforms seems to have been an effect of the contemporary milieu of legal transformations that transpired during the transition and was geared toward permanently inscribing rights. It was also influenced by international cooperation and networks. Organizing around legal reform projects proved important as an incentive for the movement to discuss, analyze, and organize around common needs. In sum, Paraguay’s democratic transition was a historical moment in which a new civil society started to form that would shape and influence the democratic state. The new constitution was a milestone that would affect how to think about issues of state power and the rule of law, especially in contrast to the dictatorship’s legal framework .9 However, most importantly, the transition was a context that influenced how part of the 6  In the act of presenting the final report, President Fernando Lugo apologized publicly to the victims, on behalf of the Paraguayan State (Anon, 2008). 7  Some activists who have married in countries where same-sex marriages are legal, such as in Argentina, mentioned to us their intention of having Paraguayan justice recognizing it locally. 8  The proposal was called “Proyecto de Ley ‘Julio Fretes’ contra Toda Forma de Discriminación” (can be seen at https://nodiscriminesparaguay.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/proyecto-deley-julio-fretes-contra-toda-forma-de-discriminacic3b3n.pdf). 9  A contemporary report of the dictatorship by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 1987 described torture and disappearances of dissidents as common practice and illustrated the abusive use of repressive legislation as well as the virtually permanent state of siege as voiding any remaining protections of rights during the dictatorship (Comision Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, 1987).

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social movement would organize. In our view, a significant part of it did so around the struggle for equality and full citizenship that the transition and the promise of the new constitution brought about. In this chapter, we discuss how, despite the opening that the transition represented, subalternized groups remained marginalized, controlled, and repressed. This is the case for the Paraguayan LGBTQ+ community and the movement that came of age during the transition. We look at how the control of sexuality has historically underpinned this repression and show that sexuality became regulated during the dictatorship. We also describe techniques of repression still operating during the transition and democratic regime. Finally, we analyze how these different forms of violence perpetrated predominantly by the state, can be understood as techniques that establish limits that fall short of full and substantive citizenship for people of the LGBTQ+ community in Paraguay. We suggest that despite the transition’s legal transformations toward equality and universal citizenship rights, full citizenship nevertheless has boundaries that are drawn along the lines of gender and sexuality.

Regulation of Sexuality in Paraguay Sexuality and gender both contribute to the construction of, and are favored by, specific social, political, and cultural institutions, and can operate as the basis of exclusions. The idea of nation in which masculinity and heterosexuality are hegemonic turns the very notion of nation into a significant location for the institutionalization of gender differences (McClintock 2005 citing Mayer, 1999, p.  29). Masculinity and heterosexuality can, in that context, be seen as what Mayer (1999) calls a “moral code” which is at the intersection of nation, gender, and sexuality. This is notable in the way that regulation of sexuality in Paraguay is deeply rooted in dictatorial politics. It was during the dictatorship that homosexuality became particularly problematic for the regime, and was used as a justification for persecution, torture, and the exercise of state violence. One way in which it operated was through derogative gender stereotypes that played a key role in how the legitimation of violence has functioned ever since, including during the transition. One such gender stereotype in Paraguay is the expression “108”. The number is a well-known epithet that has been widely used to refer to gay

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men in Paraguay and which is still avoided in several circumstances.10 While “108” is, in general, a known signifier in Paraguay, the roots of the term were less known until research done by activist Erwing Szokol (2013) provided a historical account of its origins. “108” as a derogatory expression has its origin in 1959 when radio broadcaster Bernardo Aranda was found dead in his apartment with his room set on fire. The police investigation that ensued was carried out in the context of a consolidating military regime that relied on repression and a legal state of siege that eliminated fundamental rights. The state of siege also granted authorities the right to arrest those they considered suspicious persons under the pretext of national security (Cuevas, 2015). Aranda’s case was notably reported in mass media as a crime of passion linked to a community of “amoral men” and triggered the incarceration of several men. There were never reports on the number of arrested men, but newspapers claimed that the police had arrested 108 men of “doubtful moral conduct [sic]” (Orué Pozzo et  al., 2016). The first comic strips depicting gay men’s supposed participation in the case or referring to them with a mention of the number “108” appeared shortly thereafter in local newspapers (Szokol, 2013). Two decades after the Aranda case, another criminal case reinforced stigma against homosexual men. In 1982,11 the abduction and killing of 14-year-old Mario Palmieri was another crime that the dictatorship linked to homosexual men. The police started to arrest “well-known homosexuals” and once again mass media served as the principal vehicle to portray those arrested as plausibly responsible for the crime (Szokol, 2013). Several of the arrests were explicitly motivated by the alleged homosexuality of the suspects and many of them reported different forms of torture during detention, including sexual abuse. As in 1959, the police once again released a list of arrested men that was distributed to media and public institutions (Comisión de Verdad y Justicia, 2008).

10  Famously, in the halls of the Catholic University Law School in Asuncion, classroom numbering jumps the number 108, going from classroom number 107 to 109. 11  Even though the dictatorship was completely consolidated during the beginning of the 1980s, repression had increased. To a large extent as a response to the execution on the streets of Asuncion of former Nicaraguan dictator Anastacio Somoza Debayle by a guerrilla commando in 1980. Somoza had been exiled in Paraguay after the success of the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua and the refusal of the Carter administration to grant him asylum in the US.

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Both deaths and subsequent police investigations combined with the mass media coverage of the cases became the cornerstones for the systematic persecution of gay men in Paraguay. It represents how discrimination against gay men in Paraguay, and consequently against other sexual minorities, was constructed and framed by the dictatorial state’s justification of repression. In fact, homosexuality is present in several police files of the dictatorship as a motive for arrests, or next to those considered national security threats.12 Homosexuality poses a threat to a nation that is, as Nagel (1998) proposes, assumed to be a masculine entity. And the Paraguayan disciplining of homosexuality can be traced back to 1959 when sexuality was put under the dictatorial state’s surveillance and the expression “108” was first coined. “108” is furthermore what Patricia Hill Collins (2000) calls a “controlling image”. It is a discourse that categorizes, and controls behaviors based on a set of socially constructed definitions and practices exerting disciplinary power to impose order. The way in which the number “108” persistently remains a controlling image,13 signifies the links between the Paraguayan dictatorship and current discrimination and violence against LGBTQ+ communities. It is an expression that bears a specific historical constellation of military dictatorship, political oppression, and violent enforcement of sexual normality. It is against this backdrop of disciplining and regulation of sexuality constituted during the dictatorship that we describe techniques of surveillance and regulation of sexuality and gender identities targeting the LGBTQ+ community during the transition. Both the regulation and the controlling image serve to justify repression even after the end of the dictatorship.

12  There is a collection of documents in the Terror Archives that portray this quite clearly. A 1982 communication of an inmate transfer states his homosexuality to be the reason for his arrest (CDyA, 1982a). Other documents (such as CDyA, 1982b) contain lists of detainees mentioning the motive for their detention. The list includes motives such as connections to the Somoza assassination, membership to the proscribed Communist Party, and homosexuality [sic]. 13  It is important to highlight that “108” has been reclaimed by the LGBTQ+ community as a symbol of pride and struggle during the transition.

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Techniques of Repression During the Transition Regrettably, the lived experience of several social groups that came of age during the transition, such as the LGBTQ+ movement, exposed enduring practices of the dictatorship despite the promises of equality, democratic participation, and inclusion. The resilience of the governing order and coercive state institutions still operated towards exclusion, especially when it came to socially devalued groups. In essence, several techniques of repression from the dictatorship had effects that still reverberated well into the transition. Below we look at two ways in which techniques of repression operate today.14 We focus specifically on various forms of violence targeting members of the LGBTQ+ community, including police violence. The second technique we focus on has to do with the censoring of discourses around gender through policymaking. We analyze how the Ministry of Education produced a rationale against gender equality to ban pedagogic discourses. These are techniques and discourses through which normality and deviance of sexuality are defined and enforced by state agents and institutions. Targeted Violence and Policing “Targeted violence” refers to violence directed at specific communities, such as ethnic and sexual minorities. Targeted violence in this sense should be understood as a process of oppression and exclusion that “are a way to maintain power inequalities between (…) [those minorities] and others in society” (Field, 2007, p. 255). In the specific case of gender and sexual minorities, targeted violence functions as a means of social control in which the role of the state must be highlighted because of its capacity to regulate—through laws and administrative arrangements—the “criminalization of stigmatized sexualities, and organize violence in policing, prisons and war” (Phelan 1994, in Field, 2007, p. 225). In Paraguay, targeted violence against LGBTQ+ people is not a random type of aggression; rather, it is anchored in the image of gender identity as 14  For two months’ time in 2018, we collected activists’ perceptions, experiences, and analysis of discrimination and violence directed against the LGBTQ+ community of Asuncion through a combination of anonymous voluntary interviews and participatory observation. We also carried out archival research of policy documents, law proposals, reports, government resolutions, and judicial verdicts that form the basis of this analysis. All interviewee names have been changed.

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problematic and disruptive. We contend that the “108” label evokes a notion of disruption of heteronormativity, and that it is a useful way to envision specific populations and provide a rationale for surveillance of gendered bodies considered deviant and even threatening to the state. When we asked Damian, a founding member of the queer collective of Asuncion, the broad question of why discrimination existed in society, he eloquently answered how the image of “108” created a visible subject. The “amoral” one could be anyone. Many could be amoral. However, with the 108 case, the amoral is created and becomes visible. It gains flesh and bone, it gains a face, and it creates a subject that is susceptible to persecution. [It] is a subject susceptible to persecution not only by the dictatorship but by society and by anyone. (Damian, interview, June 2018)

The visibility that Damian discusses is what lies at the base of the perceived disruption of both the public space and the nation-state. Not only visible, he told us, but also disruptive of the nation-state by contradicting its constitutive features of heroic manhood and “Guaraní-grit” (Damian, interview, June 2018).15 It is not an uncommon dyad that Damian taps into, that of nation and masculinity. In the construction of nationhood, as he observes, the exaltation of masculinity and heterosexuality are common hegemonic notions (McClintock 1995, in Field, 2007, p. 250). A common perception among our interviewees was that the experiences of discrimination and violence against the LGBTQ+ community were, like the “108” image is, still related to a part of the dictatorship that never seems to fall and entirely disappear. As another activist from Asuncion told us: Here we must understand that our historical register consists of all the attacks of the dictatorship, the persistent attacks on the LGBT imaginary. Those of us who were there, those suffering the attacks were gay men. That list of 108 names was made public everywhere back in those days (…). And apart from the cases of torture like the Bernardo Aranda case, there were also other cases of torture that we had during that time. Even after the fall

15  The “Guarani grit” is a common exoticizing and patronizing idealization of the indigenous legacy in the creation of Paraguayan identity. The allegorical myth is based on the sexual surrendering of the indigenous women to partner the best traits of two men, the fierce but dominated indigenous Guarani with the colonizing Spaniards.

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of the dictatorship, there were hate crimes that were never clarified until now. (Daniel, interview, June 2018)

The “108” narrative stemming from the dictatorship inscribed itself in the collective imagination as a representation of the LGBTQ+ collective, it is the social representation of it, or its existence as a social fact, which is important. It is a narrative that conceives homosexuality as suspicious, and vicious and contributes to justify its repression. Public discourses using gender and sexuality as problematic, or insulting can aggravate authoritarian and violent aspects of society. Juliana, a trans woman activist, described to us how discrimination was transmitted through several ladders of society by media. She told us that when in high school, her schoolmates started to call her a “scum” after a member of parliament famously stated, in the context of a parliamentary debate, his hate for homosexuals. During his much-publicized speech, he confessed to yelling “scums of society” to transsexuals from his passing car whenever he had a chance. It was from that very moment that it started to happen, not only there, but at the bus stop and everywhere. They started to yell “scum” at you. And I don’t know how to tell you this, but media has a lot of power to reach out to society. And that Member of Parliament saying those words ended up inciting more violence, more discrimination. Not only against the trans population, because he was approaching the whole LGBTQ+ population in general. It was one of the things triggering the issue of being the scum of society. (Juliana, interview, Asuncion, June 2018)

What she described is the representation of acts that justify and normalize violence by expressing the validity of reclaiming the public space back from gender-disruptive bodies. Unfortunately, it is not an uncommon experience for the LGBTQ+ community in Asuncion. It is an expression of control that puts individuals under surveillance given a visible or perceived gender expression. Mayer (1999, p. 17) alludes to a similar bodily disposition when she remarks that when “nation, gender and sexuality intersect, the body becomes an important marker—even a boundary—for the nation”. To justify aggression based on visible or assigned attributes is a way of making “individuals subject to social regulations” (Dutta, 2012, p. 114). Discrimination and violence against behaviors that fall outside of

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heteronormativity, can be perceived as a way of enforcing masculinity and social normality (Herek, 1986; Mayeda & Pasko, 2012; Tomsen, 2017). Another way in which this control operates is through policing of public spaces. Monitoring typically happens as a form of safeguarding “appropriate” sexual comportment (Hubbard, 2001). The importance of safeguarding public space is given by the fact that visibility in public space also creates and defines its meaning (Shortell, 2016) and by being vigilant with expressions of affection, the police prevent disruptions from accepted norms. A common approach of policing to extort same-sex partners is by threatening them to reveal supposedly morally doubtful situations they might be caught in. An illustration of it is Remy’s experience of being retained by the police at a semi-public square where he was together with his partner. After “discovering” Remy sitting closely together with his partner and talking, the police officer accused them of exhibitionism and attempted a clever confrontation: (…) he asked us “Are you two homosexuals?” And we answered “Yeah, sure.” He was expecting us to deny and panic, which we didn’t. I think he was first trying to blackmail us [because] he kept saying “You are lucky I’m not exposing your shame.” When he realized that it didn’t work, he threatened to handcuff us. Then he took us to another officer and asked for our ID to check our record. In that moment we decided to comply [with the ID check]. We didn’t know what could happen to us. (…) But he warned us from doing that again, that we couldn’t do that there. (Remy, interview, June 2018)

This time, the extortion tactics proved ineffective on Remy, who had been a spokesperson for several organizations in Asuncion and is more difficult to intimidate. The notion of shame that the police officer tried to exploit by asking about the couple’s “homosexuality” was unsuccessful this time. However, it is revealing in that it attempts to exploit a notion of a breach of public morality that is present in several encounters with the police. Police guard what Mayer (1999) calls the “moral code” of masculinity and heterosexuality, establishing what the public space ought to tolerate. By threatening to expose a supposed breach of morality, the officer reproduced the same procedure that originated the use of the term “108” during the dictatorship in the first place.

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Police officers as public space vigilantes are functional to what Hubbard calls the enforcement of “sex zones,” public spaces constructed around notions of appropriate behaviors that exclude sexual dissidents and reproduce notions of citizenship based on heteronormativity (Hubbard, 2001). Remy’s narrative is a story of the tragically successful enforcement of exclusions on the part of the police. Asking for ID is a common way to demand compliance by the police. It is an excuse to perform authority. Martha, an independent lesbian activist and human rights lawyer, recalled cases that illustrate what happens if one does not carry an ID or, as in the previous case, when one lacks the capacity of documenting an abuse on the phone. She describes the case of another gay couple holding hands while walking, being stopped by the police to verify their ID, and escalating until deciding to detain both. They tell them that they can’t walk around like that on the streets. And they always allege issues related with morality: that it is voyeurism, immoral acts that are not allowed on the streets. That it is exhibitionism, as if they were fucking there. There are a lot of those cases. However, there is an important difference. In the case of the guys the thing is much more related to public force and to formal oppressive powers which are more violent. And in the case of women, it happens with more frequency within the family. (Martha, interview, July 2018)

She referred to the fact that men’s disruptive gender expression might be more visible than women’s. While control in public spaces might be less frequent for lesbian women, it is not unheard of. Jennifer told us about her experience of attracting police attention that usually asks her for her ID.  She usually rejects the police’s prerogatives by putting up a fight. According to her, it is clearly her gender expression as well as a public display of affection, which makes police officers react to restrict and confine them to the private space. (…) it is like that prejudice of, OK we are two women on the street, we both have short hair, so all that prejudice that inevitably, we can’t be there. It has to do with that notion of us having to do our things between these four walls, while being on the street means that we must be one meter apart from one another. (Jennifer, interview, July 2018)

Surveillance is typically related to expressions of affection, but also by being visible to patrolling police who take the opportunity to exercise

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authority. The group most exposed to the selective enforcement of surveillance by police is possibly that of trans women, especially sex workers. Juliana told us about two revealing episodes of police violence she experienced. The first one refers to her intervention to break up a conflict that had escalated into a fight between her friend and another woman on a bus trip. When she approached the intervening police officer to try to explain to him what had happened, the officer proceeded to arrest not only her friend but also Juliana. Both were put in a cell for the night where police threw bleach at them and offered them to join other cells to be sexually abused by other detainees. She immediately shared another story of an arrest for not carrying an ID. In both stories, torture and sexual abuse by the police seem to be normal practices. I was so nervous that I couldn’t even sleep. And because they had thrown bleach at us, my friend got all her leg burned. And later they told us to go into where other men were that it would make us good, that they would treat us good. “They’ll show you a good time. You’ll find what you’re looking for,” they told us. Another time we were detained because we did not carry our ID (…) they stripped us of our clothes and got us totally naked. Then they forced us to do exercises (…) totally naked. And they made fun of us. They said to us in Guarani, “Look, you are all men, you have a penis.” I’m telling you, they almost started masturbating on us there. In several cases, there is also the thing of bribing or having sex with them, so they leave you alone to work. (Juliana, interview, June 2018)

Since the fall of the dictatorship in 1989, and according to reports from Panambi, an Asuncion-based trans organization, there have been 54 cases of murdered trans women (Panambi, 2014). Juliana is herself a firsthand survivor of an assault on her life, but her case was, however, dismissed by the police, and the perpetrator was never apprehended or prosecuted. The reasons behind the neglect to investigate and prosecute, or tolerate violence against trans women, is a typical form of passive violence in which the state engages by disregarding reports of cases of violence or by negligence in investigating them (Ungar, 2000). It is a form of violence summarized in the striking phrase by Marlen: “They kill us because they know they won’t go to jail, and that no one will condemn or blame them. They kill us because it is OK to kill us, even if that is not written down somewhere” (Marlen, interview, June 2018).

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Narratives around police control, torture, and violence as a form of surveillance, revolve around experiences related to control and violence against gendered bodies individually. However, besides individual-level experiences, there is also police violence that has to do with interventions directed against organized groups of the LGBTQ+ movement. Police interventions against organizations represent the other side of the coin of control of public space to repress demonstrations by the LGBTQ+ collective. Two concrete episodes describe the operation of the police in this sense. The first episode had to do with demonstrations during an Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) held in Paraguay in 2014. The OAS meeting agenda included the discussion of anti-discrimination policies to be adopted by member countries. The discussion of that agenda summoned the LGBTQ+ sector and their opponents to the occasional headquarters of the OAS to demonstrate both for and against anti-­ discrimination. While both groups had permission to demonstrate, the police ignored it and ended up attempting to disperse them. (…) the one in charge told us to move further back and we said “no, this can’t be, we have the right to be here, it is a public space, we are demonstrating peacefully, and this is our constitutional right” (…). And after that they became more aggressive. First, they came one by one, but then the anti-riot group came and pushed us back. Some were hit at by them. Most of us got affected by the teargas. It was like, very much… a shock. Because they even hit and kicked girls. (Julio, interview, June 2018)

The second episode had to do with a political crisis that was not related to the LGBTQ+ issues directly. In April of 2017, a proposal for the reelection of the incumbent president through a Constitutional amendment sparked protests against the National Congress that was to approve the amendment. During the peak of the protest, several demonstrators managed to break into the Congress building and set a part of it on fire. Later that night the police fought back all demonstrations and ran amok on the streets of downtown Asuncion. One of the most telling events of that April night was not the burning of Congress itself, but the death of a young Liberal party activist, the main party of the opposition. Rodrigo Quintana was shot in the back by the police, not on the streets or at the burning edifice of Congress, but inside the offices of his party’s headquarters. While Congress was burning and before storming the Liberal party,

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another squad of police raided Asuncion’s biggest gay nightclub, and sprayed the lineup outside with rubber bullets for no obvious reason (Hetherington & Castillo, 2017). It was that Saturday night on which they went to kill that guy at the Liberal Party. Before that, they came around here. They passed by and there were a lot of people forming a line to get into the disco. And we locked ourselves in here and waited… they were still there in front [of the disco] with their armored water cannon truck. They did everything, I mean, they passed by and people were forming the line, gays, lesbians, trans, and they yelled at them “This is for being faggots” and whatnot. And “You deserve it,” and then they started to shoot. (…) that moment of stress had to do with Cartes’ government and the political conflicts in which it was involved [and not with us]. But gays are easy targets of violence just because. We deserve it, as they said, for being faggots. (Julio, interview, June 2018)

These different forms of targeted violence through policing are related to visibility in public spaces. The more visible non-normative gender expressions are, the more they can define the space. Altering the look of spaces changes their meaning (Shortell, 2016). Therefore, the more disruptive gender expressions are in the public space, the more controls and violence it seems to evoke from the police that represses minorities that may have the capacity of redefining the public space. Censoring of Pedagogic Discourses on Gender The heteronormative nature of the nation-state was quite clearly illustrated by a couple of events that unfolded during our fieldwork in 2018. A set of discourses that revolved around gender and the symbolic vindication of nationhood defined in heteronormative terms were publicly displayed several times during the electoral year that coincided with our fieldwork. The discourses and policies we observed spoke to the idea of nation as a masculine entity (Nagel, 1998) and were directed to restrain the perceived influence of the feminist and the LGBTQ+ social movements, which represented the opposite. Even though feminists and the LGBTQ+ movements overlap, their political agendas are broad and diverse (Falabella, 2012). However, such differences were not acknowledged by conservative sectors that criticize both movements. In their narrative, feminists, and the LGBTQ+ social movement, are often bundled together and referred to as the promoters of

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“gender ideology.” While the meaning of “gender ideology” is not clearly defined; it is still used in public debates to describe the spectrum of activist feminism and LGBTQ+ organizations, their actions, and gender studies in general.16 One peak moment in these debates was the passing of resolution #29664 by the Education Ministry, the governing national institution for K-12 education. The resolution forbids teaching content related to “gender theory and/or gender ideology” and banned all textbooks containing mentions of “gender theory”17 (Moragas, 2021). The resolution had been preceded by then Education Minister, Enrique Riera’s public declarations against “gender theory.” A senior politician of the governing right-wing Colorado party, Riera had expressed his predisposition to burn “gender theory” books in the public square side by side with Christian fundamentalist groups to convince them of his support for their cause just some months before the ban (ABC Color, 2017). The gender theory/ ideology ban served to exert censorship18 on education, but it is a way to establish boundaries of accepted ideology and, most importantly, the nature of equality under citizenship. The resolution has two interesting features in that aspect. First, its justifying statement relies on three arguments, namely equality between men and women and the principle of non-discrimination; the notion of protecting the family and the heterosexual nature of marriage; and the endorsement of the family as the natural field for education. Below is an excerpt of the preamble of the resolution that grounds the ban on “gender ideology/theory” in the Constitution: “Taking into consideration: That the Constitution emphatically indicates in its 46th article, OF THE EQUALITY OF PERSONS, that: ‘All the inhabitants of the Republic are equal in dignity and in rights (…); concordant with article 48 OF THE EQUALITY OF RIGHTS OF MEN AND 16  The debates promoted by LGBTQ+ organizations that are considered most provoking revolve around issues as gender as socially constructed, marriage equality, reproductive health and rights, abortion, and defiance of traditional gender norms. 17  The full name of the resolution is “Resolution 29664 by which diffusion and use of educational material, printed or in digital form, related to gender theory and/or ideology is prohibited in educational institutions dependent of the Education and Science Ministry”. 18  As a matter of fact, the final part of the resolution creates a commission to review the totality of materials used in the school system to recommend adjustments. That is, it creates a de facto censorship committee tasked to ensure that the consequences of the resolution will be both durable and sustainable.

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WOMEN: ‘Men and women have equal civil, political, social, economic, and cultural rights.’ That (…) article 49 (…) states: ‘OF THE PROTECTION OF THE FAMILY, The family is the foundation of society. Its complete protection will be promoted and guaranteed. It includes the stable union of a man and a woman (…).’ That the Ministry for Education and Science, as the highest regulating body of the national education system, should incorporate the work of the family, the community, the State, teachers, and students to strengthen the FAMILY as the natural environment for education (…).”

The resolution specified the limits to equality quoting the Constitution. In the resolution’s interpretation of constitutional equality, it implied that rights should be granted to those who embody the heteronormative definition of men and women. In their view, equality of rights is constitutionally ascribed to men and women who in turn are capable of forming a family, and the family—that ought to be protected—is recognized by the Constitution as the foundation of society. The Ministry of Education then responded to the call for the custody of the family by banning the supposed threat of study materials containing “gender theory/ideology.” (Resolution 29664, 2017). The conception of excluding equality19 is compatible with the argument in support of a family constellation conformed by a male and a female, defined by the Constitution as the founding block of society. The form of equality encouraged by invoking the constitution is contingent on the achievement of a set of “scripts” (Nagel, 1998) related to the reproduction of traditional gender roles. Moreover, by this standard, it can be deduced that non-heteronormative persons are implicitly excluded. Rights should then not be granted equally to everyone despite differences, but to those who are equal according to the performance of a set of hegemonic scripts. The promotion of the family as the institution that requires allegiance above everything else is not unique to this case; it has a tradition of being

19  This is the way in which equality has been historically constructed as a boundary for exclusion from citizenship. This aspect of the resolution is aligned to Hall and Helden’s (1990) description of “successful attempt(s) to restrict it [citizenship] to specific groups and to ascribe rights according to the characteristics of these groups”.

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defended in several previous contexts in Paraguay20 and elsewhere.21 The importance of the family resides in that it symbolizes the nation and that, as such, it reproduces a patriarchal, hierarchical order in which its members are ascribed roles according to their gender (Mayer, 1999, p. 14). By doing so, it does what Field (2007, p. 250) calls the “institutionalization of heterosexual privilege as a barrier to substantive citizenship of LGBTQ+ people”. The family is consequently an institution that reproduces and safeguards the heteronormative nature of the state.22 The resolution enacted by the Ministry of Education is a local expression of a set of actions against gender equality that has gained traction in Europe and Latin America during the last two decades (Castro et  al., 2021). The resolution exceeds the question of only being a repressive policy but should be seen as the emergence of discourses on gender that classify it. It generated a milieu in which other government institutions and political candidates also took advantage of the opportunity to publicly state their rejection to “gender ideology” and, indirectly, to the LGBTQ+ community as a whole.23 However, intolerant discourses specifically regarding the LGBTQ+ community are not uncommon in Paraguay. In the back of several of our interviewees’ heads were former president Cartes’ infamous anti-gay statement still resonating. Shortly after winning the elections, a journalist had asked him what his reaction would be if his son told him that he was gay, to which he declared that he would “shoot himself in the balls” [sic]. 20  Divorce, for instance, became legal first after the new Constitution was implemented in 1992. The debates leading to its incorporation in the Constitution were both polarized and infected, confronting the emerging feminist urban movement fighting against women’s submission with sectors organized mostly by the Catholic Church. A telling poster from an anti-divorce rally inquired “Your mother with another? Oppose divorce!” (Szwako, 2012). 21  God, country, and family is a common triad of fascist regimes of both Europe and Latin America. 22  Other similarly conflictive themes related to the “gender theory/ideology” debates are those related to reproductive health education and sexuality. By placing these educational issues in the hands of the family, the ministry drives reproductive health, gender and sexuality away from the public realm and into the private sphere, which is a sphere traditionally represented by women (Pateman, 1989). 23  One remarkable example was the announcement by the drug enforcement agency—a specialized police and prosecuting force—that it was organizing a forum called “Current Dangers for the Family in Paraguay related to the New World Order and Gender Ideology”. However, the event was canceled after several sectors questioned the appropriateness of training elite police specialized in drug enforcement to fight a supposed gender ideology agenda linked to the LGBTQ+ community (Anon, 2017).

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A Question of Substantive Citizenship How can we make sense of the violence directed against minorities in the context of transition with roots in the dictatorship? We propose to think of it as a way of curtailing the possibility of enjoying full citizenship status in contemporary society. That is, as a way of setting boundaries that are not based on legal restrictions but that rest on social practices tolerated or promoted by the state and operate as techniques of exclusion. In our description, these exclusions are based on gender and sexuality, and have been historically constructed since the times of the dictatorship but were renewed during the transition and afterward. The notion of citizenship rests, to a significant extent, on the conception of legal equality, a feature introduced by the transformations that took place in Paraguay during the transition, especially so by the new set of rights contained in the Constitution from the year 1992. It is an important conception that influenced how the LGBTQ+ social movement organized its repertoires, including reclaiming and altering the look of the public space with Pride parades, organizing campaigns and legal reforms for equality and against discrimination, and reporting on human rights violations. However, legal equality has also, as we described, been used by state actors as a rationale to uphold exclusions. What equality for citizenship therefore means is a matter of contention that sets the stage for struggle. Embedded in the very notion of citizenship are the “exclusionary tensions” (Lister, 1997) that limit the enjoyment of full citizenship to specific groups. These exclusions are what Hall and Held (1990) refer to as citizenship’s constitutive exclusions. That is, the restriction of citizenship status to historically specific groups.24 Moreover, the degree to which certain groups have had the ability to enjoy not only formal but also substantive rights is related to where they are positioned along the lines of exclusion 24  This view contests the idea of citizenship being universal by virtue of its history of exclusion. It also builds upon, and critiques, T.H. Marshall’s (1965) classic evolutionary notion of modern citizenship. In Marshall’s view, citizenship has evolved from comprising civil rights (i.e., individual liberties and expression) to include political rights (i.e., ability to vote and being elected), and later social rights, secured by the consolidation of the welfare state. Marshall linked the concept of citizenship with social class and was ultimately concerned with social equality. However, while Marshall’s model is promising and explicitly geared to the elimination of inequalities, the empirical foundation on which it was built is linked to the experience of white working-class men in England. As such, we submit that its limitation is not to consider the exclusions implied for other social groups.

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or inclusion that characterizes citizenship. Defining these limits establishes the boundaries of the sociopolitical community and distinguishes those who fully benefit from their citizenship status from those who do not, despite their formal rights. While liberal citizenship is predicated upon the notion of the universality of rights and equality, specific sectors of society have historically been excluded from the full benefits associated with citizenship.25 Liberal thought on citizenship has been constructed based on the notion of rationality,26 a feature considered necessary to participate in politics that was linked to men. Citizenship was consequently defined in opposition to womanhood (Pateman, 1989). The legacy of inequality as well as the dependence, tutelage, and submission to the rule of men has played a role in impeding the universality of citizenship for women or including them as subordinates27 (Vogel, 1994, p.  77). This notion of qualified equality is relevant to our case, given the gendered nature of citizenship that we see in Paraguay. The benefit of substantive citizenship is sustained through legality but also through policies, discourses, and practices. Similarly, these sets of actions also limit it for certain segments of the population, excluding them. Among several techniques of exclusion is also what (Field, 2007) calls “targeted violence” that limits their access to substantive citizenship. 25  Restrictive citizenship status is especially clear when it comes to voting rights, particularly in the case of women. Women’s systematic exclusion was sustained in the notion of them being opposed to the universal citizen who was defined as a man (Glenn, 2002, p. 21; Pateman, 1989). 26  Liberalism has always been characterized by constitutive exclusions. Mehta (1997) meticulously defines how liberalism has served to define the character of these exclusions by not including specific populations in the rational narrative of the nation. He traces back the exclusionary character of liberal thought to Locke who, among others, built his theory of the social contract based on the necessary exclusion of women, the poor and the uncivilized. The Lockean account of participation is based on the possession of rationality for inclusion. And rationality required extensive social inscription: those naturally irrational, less civilized, uneducated, or otherwise inadequately socially inscripted were unable to exercise reasoned choice (Glenn, 2002, p. 21). Historically, the requirements for citizenship also included different types of inscriptions, such as social (class), racial (whiteness), and gender (being male). Today, these requirements are still mediated by ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and even the possession of specific sets of documents (see Torpey, 2000). 27  As Carol Pateman (1989) puts it, women as wives, have been included as subordinate to men through a sexual contract that served as a type of “civil slavery”. Despite being formally considered equals, being adhered to men through their status as wives, results in equality mediated by hierarchies of subordination.

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Even though targeted violence does not revoke legal equality and prerogatives associated with citizenship, it is likely to undermine substantive aspects of citizenship of targeted groups (Field, 2007; Lister, 1997). As we have seen, in the specific case of sexual and gender minorities, targeted violence functions as a means of social control in which the role of the state must be highlighted because of its capacity to regulate— through laws and administrative arrangements—the “criminalization of stigmatized sexualities, and organize violence in policing, prisons and war” (Phelan 1994, in Field, 2007, p. 225). Despite the enforcement of exclusions through violence, the construction of boundaries is also much more complex, diverse, and effective than the blunt use of force. Aihwa Ong describes citizenship as the site of a set of technologies of government, including policies, programs, and practices oriented at the production of subjects with specific values to produce the way of life in the highly regulated environment of liberal societies (Ong, 2003, pp. 20–21). Furthermore, the idea of who is a citizen has been constructed by defining its opposite, by designating an “other” that has been systematically excluded from the benefits of citizenship. The interdependent construction of citizens and non-citizens gives meaning through the contrast by opposition of the alien, the slave, and the woman (Glenn, 2002, p. 20). Exclusion based on otherness is a way of establishing boundaries that keep in check minorities deemed different and, by virtue of their apocryphal differences, remain excluded. Exclusions are then sustained by not conforming to hegemonic characteristics and values. A specific type of hegemony is that of gender roles and masculinity (Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005). Hegemonic masculinities, as well as hegemonic heteronormative social norms, establish expected behaviors analogously to how legal control operates by disciplining specific groups based on their supposed deviance. Inclusion requires the fulfillment of a set of performances within these boundaries, and exclusion is normalized when they are not achieved.

Conclusion This chapter sought to understand how access to substantive citizenship is established by boundaries of exclusion by analyzing how LGBTQ+ people in Paraguay are denied substantive citizenship in the transition to democracy. We have used a notion of substantive citizenship to track the “exclusionary tensions” of citizenship (Lister, 1997) and provide evidence to

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suggest that the boundaries by which these exclusions are constructed fall along the lines of sexuality and gender identity. The boundaries of exclusion from substantive citizenship are drawn through mechanisms of targeted violence (Field, 2007) directed at LGBTQ+ people on the streets by policing and through policies. Policing and the enforcement of dubious or improperly applied laws against LGBTQ+ people are forms of “legal and semi-legal state violence” that stem from the combination of authoritarian legacies, unaccountable police forces, and social homophobia (Ungar, 2000). While violence against the LGBTQ+ community is not unique to Paraguay, the ways in which it is specifically connected to the latest dictatorship and the transition might be. We contend that understanding the ways in which the dictatorship surveilled and repressed (also) based on gender and sexuality, with a focus on gay men, allows us to better understand how exclusions based on sexuality continue to be sustained through policing, policies, and state bureaucracy. Targeted violence operates in the context of social homophobia that informs both direct police violence as well as repressive politics through bureaucratic means (i.e., discriminatory institutional practices and policies) by sustaining a conception of non-heteronormative sexuality as irruptive and negative, as is expressed by the persistent use of the “108” image. As we have argued, “108” is a controlling image (Collins, 2000) that reflects a complex structure of oppression that is historically rooted in the dictatorship, and very much present in contemporary Paraguay. It does not mean that there was no homophobia before the coining of the “108” image, but the specific view of homosexuality was very much structured by the dictatorship that normalized homophobia and violence. Social homophobia is also present in the display of intolerant discourses by elites and in the approval of policies that ban and censor gender studies and gender diversity. It is likewise present in the surveillance of public spaces where the police de facto establish the limits of legal rights. These mechanisms of oppression function to delineate the boundaries of exclusion. We argue in favor of looking at targeted violence as a process of social control that importantly defines, as Mayer (1999) suggests, who is central and who is marginal to the national project. We do not assume that the exclusions from substantive citizenship that we describe here are the only ones that exist. However, in the intersecting structures of oppression (Collins,  2000) of LGBTQ+ people in Paraguay, a salient structure of oppression is based on gender identity and sexuality.

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Conclusively, citizenship regimes are the result of how political and social participation and exclusion have been historically organized. It is a contested category that develops dialectically. It can be both a disciplining tool as well as a force for resistance (Field, 2007). The struggle for redefining boundaries of citizenship that the LGBTQ+ social movement impulses, has the potential to do more than just visualize increasingly specific types of citizenship. While calling out boundaries of citizenship that must be modified to cease the exclusion of specific groups, it is paramount to also challenge the exclusionary character that the construction of citizenship has had historically. To not just set new limits for citizenship, albeit more inclusive, it is necessary to frame the struggle for citizenship against oppressive hegemonic definitions of it. One step in that direction might be what Ann-Marie Field (2007) calls the construction of “counter-­ hegemonic citizenship” which considers it a process, rather than only a set of rights. By focusing on citizenship as a counter-hegemonic process, it can be possible to promote meaningful struggles that radically change the exclusionary character of liberal citizenship. Acknowledgments  We would like to thank Charmain Levy and Laureen Elgert for their useful comments and helpful advice in the preparation and edition of this chapter. We are also grateful to Carolina Bank Muñoz who guided the development of the original research. Their generosity and expertise have improved our chapter and saved us from many errors; however, the ones that remain are entirely our own responsibility.

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The Movement for the Right to Education in Paraguay: Student Actors and Disputes over Youth Subjectivities in a Society of Inequality Luis Ortiz

Introduction This chapter presents an overview of the struggles and victories around the right to education whose architect was the student movement during the so-called democratization process from 1989 to the present day in Paraguay. The subjects that emerged over three decades—during the transition from one century to another—were not only shaped and constituted within the framework of more or less organized collective actions, but also redefined by their awareness and identity as young people and students, who mobilized and presented their demands to the State as

L. Ortiz (*) Instituto de Ciencias Sociales (ICSO), Asunción, Paraguay Faculty of Social Sciences, National University of Asunción (FACSO-UNA), Asunción, Paraguay © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. Levy et al. (eds.), Social Movements and the Struggles for Rights, Justice and Democracy in Paraguay, Social Movements and Transformation, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25883-1_10

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actors who, representing a sector of society, formulated claims that concerned society in general, and the implications regarding its future. The novelty of the student collective actor is that it supports a social movement and a political discourse for broadening and deepening social rights in Paraguay, particularly regarding the right to education, which, merely through access, does not lay the foundations for the exercise of citizenship during the democratization process, or even further into the future. In addition, by emerging as a social movement, it recovers the historical memory of a student movement that, during the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner, was an active critic of the authoritarian regime, and an established political-ideological model. The mobilization of this movement and its organizations was characterized by the emergence of a broader scope of social actors from different camps, whose perspectives were articulated around alternative political projects to the political system characterized as conservative, class-based, and dominant. In this context, the students’ discourse was also defined and redefined from a multiplicity of places and approaches, which nevertheless were convergent around the common goal of uniting efforts and struggles for public action to generate and ensure the conditions for exercising the right to formal education, especially for the most socially and economically disadvantaged sectors of society. However, the student movement was neither homogeneous nor free of contradictions. Disputes over agendas linked to other social actors and interests that sought to articulate—if not coopt—the student organizations, led the student movement to split or fragment, or to become dormant at different moments of the democratization process, thus generating hegemonic limbo spaces. At this turning point in the social movement, other actors emerged to dispute the space the student movement managed to generate with its early irruption in the 1990s. New actors generically self-defined as “youth” movements shifted the discourse and claims of the student rights movement toward moral discursive constructions and symbolic actions with an impact that attracted the attention of more compromised social sectors, which did not direct their attention to the traditional youth movement aiming to promote the right to education. This chapter is organized as follows. First, it presents a general theoretical framework on collective action and the characteristics and aspirations of student movements in the context of democratization processes which began in 1989. Then, one of the first adolescent and youth student movements is presented, the Movimiento por la Organización Secundaria (Movement for Secondary School Organization), which arose at the

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beginning of the Paraguayan democratic opening. This is followed by a description of the Frente Estudiantil Secundario (Secondary Student Front) and its influence. The national level of the struggles and their unusual achievements can be confirmed with the emergence of the Movimiento por la Obtención del Boleto Estudiantil, which was later institutionalized as a national federation with a basic bureaucratic structure and funding from international cooperation agencies. The subsequent emergence of the Unión Nacional de Centros de Estudiantes del Paraguay (National Union of Student Centers of Paraguay) highlights the progress in student organizing and mobilizing, with the recognition, in many of the country’s educational institutions, of student centers as an organizational body for young students. Finally, the National Student Organization recovers the history of collective action while coexisting with other forms of youth mobilization, claiming its status as a collective subject and its action without necessarily being limited to the student sphere. The conclusions of the study presents certain arguments concerning the movement’s path, the political and ideological dispute over rights, as well as the redefinition of this collective actor that was joined by social sectors that were once passive spectators of this struggle.

Theoretical Framework The social movement perspective possesses the theoretical merit of being able to link the study and description of far-reaching social dynamics while acknowledging their autonomy of other specific dynamics arising from collective action. This perspective is also of great interest in that it makes it possible to study issues deeply rooted in Latin American societies, such as those linked to poverty, human rights, cultural identity, and struggles against domination and repression (Tarrés, 1992). In this respect, social movements are understood here as forms of collective action with particular characteristics, while their emergence is intertwined with structural changes. According to Tilly and Wood (2010), social movement development can be understood as the result of a synthesis of three elements. First, the campaign element, which brings collective demands to the attention of the authorities through an organized and sustained public effort. Although social movements resort to petitions and/or declarations, the campaign is not limited to a single episode, but involves relatively prolonged,

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continuous work over time. Three elements also are linked in a campaign: the group whose members make the claim, their goals, and finally, the audience. Secondly, the social movement repertoire, which is a combined use of various forms of political action. Among these, for example, we find the creation of associations and coalitions for a specific purpose, rallies, demonstrations, and public meetings, among others. These actions can certainly also be found in other political actors, such as trade unionism or electoral campaigns, but what distinguishes social movements is the integration of an important number of forms of political action during prolonged campaigns. Thirdly, demonstrations of worthiness, union, number, and commitment, are represented in public and concerted protests. This refers to declarations, slogans, names, or labels that express or symbolize those notions, always within a language shared with their target audience in order to favor and broaden comprehension. As such, the language varies depending on the spheres and historical periods considered, affecting or modifying the expressions, but preserving their connection to the notions of worthiness, union, number, and commitment. Likewise, and in line with Tilly and Wood, it is possible to identify three types of claims that bind social movements together. One of them is programmatic in nature, as it involves an explicit declaration of adherence or rejection by the objects of the demands to the actual or proposed actions. Other claims have an identity nature, consisting of an assertion of unified strength on the part of the claimants in order to be recognised at the time of political decisions (demonstrations of courage, unity, numbers and commitment underpin these identity claims). Finally, positional claims reinforce bonds and commonalities with other political actors, such as minorities, excluded groups, or defenders of the regime. The relative importance of these three types of claims will always vary, and more or less significantly, from one social movement to another, from one stakeholder to another within the same movement, and between the successive stages of each movement, which is why empirical validation is necessary in each case. However, the theoretical proposal presented here incorporates conflict as a key element in the analysis of collective actions within the framework of social struggles shaped by power relations. Therefore, the notion of social movement developed so far is complemented by Touraine’s

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definition: “A social movement is the organized collective behavior of an actor struggling against their adversary for the social control of historicity in a particular society” (2006, p. 255). This implies that a social movement orients its actions within a historical field, fighting for the control and re-­appropriation of knowledge, production, investments, and the cultural model temporarily dominated by an opposing group with antagonistic interests. Among the characteristics of the student movement as a type of social movement, identity stands out as an aspect that highlights its particular nature. This is because identity constitutes an integrating element, as far as it expresses the definition and self-recognition of actors, as well as their differences when compared to others. This makes the movement closely linked to generational problems, revealing, for example, the emergence of a social sector that protests social inequalities and refuses to remain marginalized. Within these movements lies a search for identity that emerges throughout student movement dynamics and seeks to reinforce their positions from an inclusive and identity-aware perspective. In this sense, one strategy is creating the assembly as a space for developing communitarianism by building said space to encourage the coexistence of young people from different cultural backgrounds, gathered around fundamental and common demands (Aranda, 2000). One fundamental principle in the emergence and justification of the struggles of the student movements is the incorporation and recognition of education as a basic human right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. According to Gentili (2009), education as a right of every citizen, guaranteed by the State and not restricted by national borders, will result in the recognition of education as a right of all human beings, where the States violating it are held responsible for a crime against their own citizens and against all citizens of humanity. Therefore, including this right in international treaties or declarations broadens the aspirations and demands to guarantee this right, underpinning the struggle for its effective implementation and the struggle for its recognition as an ethical principle. For all these reasons, the right to education acts within a field of conflicts that unfold around expanding the effective conditions of access to education for all human beings, a struggle historically taken up and carried out by student movements.

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The Movement for Secondary Organization (MOS) Within the context of the democratization process that began in 1989, Paraguay witnessed an explosion of different social movements for the conquest of social rights in a society historically pointed out for its widespread poverty and deep inequality. One movement constituted by those youth segments of the population in the emerging democratic regime identified themselves as student actors pursuing the right to education for all. They were seeking the social orientation of the educational system to meet the deep-rooted, delayed expectations regarding the inclusion of socially disadvantaged sectors of society. Consistent with the transformation process inherent to the recently initiated democratic period, there also were redefinitions within the youth population based on the struggles for demanding public freedoms and protesting the social problems occurring at the end of the dictatorship in the 1980s. This led many secondary school students to create an organization to promote and defend their rights (Irala et al., 2019; Flores, 2016). Within this context, the Movement for Secondary Organization (MOS) was founded in 1989. According to González Bozzolasco (2007), there was an important influence of university student organizations, especially the Federation of University Students of Paraguay (FEUP), in founding the MOS. Its creation was based on three core principles. To achieve student union autonomy and reject the interference of government authorities, educational institutions, and the Colorado Party; to obtain educational and scientific freedom, as well as to promote educational reforms and free education for all; and to build student, worker, and peasant solidarity, based on a clear definition of the class nature of the movement (González Bozzolasco, 2007, p. 58). The subsequent decline of the FEUP, already led by a corporate-union line of orientation that focused on not politicizing the student union spaces and rejecting its former class-based character, prompted the MOS immediately after the promulgation of the new National Constitution (1992–1993) to distance itself from university student sectors. This action was not without confrontations against groups in this sector (e.g., among others not participating in mobilizations and marches, absenteeism in programmatic meetings, alternative communiqués, and detachment from the class discourse).

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Consequently, the MOS began to think of an independent working strategy aimed at strengthening a secondary organization on the permanent basis of its founding principles. In doing so, it promoted the campaign for reduced student bus fares in the mid-1990s, whose goal was to obtain a differentiated price for students (Caputo, 2007). Beyond pursuing a concrete goal, this campaign was intended as a kick-off to boost student organization and mobilization. However, the campaign for the ‘student ticket’, being a demand that directly affected parents, also allowed the student movement to be in closer contact with other sectors, such as peasants, workers, and teachers (Lachi & Rojas Scheffer, 2019, p.  44). Thus, by establishing alliances within educational institutions (among teachers), the struggle for the student bus ticket allowed the MOS to obtain quick support from students in several schools. For example, at the beginning of the 1991 school year, it managed to consolidate strong bases in Colegio Presidente Franco, Comercio N° 1, and Colegio Nacional de Niñas (Asunción Escalada), and attract more activists (González Bozzolasco, 2007, p. 60). However, as the movement grew, two programmatic lines directly associated with the political role of the MOS, and the importance of the campaign for the student ticket became apparent. As a result, two sectors emerged: one which proposed to continue the campaign for the student ticket; the other which proposed a new campaign focusing on the struggle for freedom in schools, in addition to the repeal of a decree on secondary education. Those who defended the latter position argued that the campaign for the student ticket did not directly affect high school students and, moreover, was unfeasible, so it had to be abandoned. This resulted in a strong division within the movement, adding to the conflict the discussion about the connections that existed between some MOS militants and leftist movements.1 In December 1991, the division between the two groups became irreconcilable. The majority sought to abandon the bus ticket campaign and continued in the MOS, while the minority group, which defended the campaign for the student bus ticket, withdrew from the movement. The first group, which was led by Ricardo Benítez, Andrea Vera, Mercedes Canese, among others, remained in the MOS, although with different goals. The second group was formed by Rocío Casco, Camilo Soares, 1  Movimiento Democrático Popular (MDP), Alternativa Socialista, among the most outstanding.

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Fernando Rojas, Juan Flores, Rodolfo Serafini, among others, who withdrew from the movement to create the Frente Estudiantil Secundario (Secondary Student Front) (González Bozzolasco, 2007, p. 61).

The Secondary Student Front (Frente Estudiantil Secundario: FES) The founding principles of the MOS also continued to be those of the Frente Estudiantil Secundario (FES), since this group did not propose separating itself from them; on the contrary, they expressed a critical position with respect to their being abandoned by the MOS. The FES consolidated the idea of forming a student movement with a class character, while, at the same time, it strengthened the group that founded it, at both the trade union and political levels. This prompted the formal dissociation of its sympathizers from the leftist political groups to which they were related. While building student–worker–peasant solidarity, the FES strengthened ties with teachers’ unions, especially the Organization of Education Workers of Paraguay (OTEP), and various peasant organizations in the country. Consequently, in 1992 the FES began to expand to other cities, which differentiated them in relation to the actions carried out by the MOS that were restricted to Asunción and a few parts of the Central Department. In 1993, by means of considerable grassroots growth and significant mobilization actions at the national level, the FES consolidated itself as the major student movement organization. Among these actions, the struggle for the student bus ticket stood out as one of the most unifying demands of the secondary organization. Other actions included the occupation of the National Congress by students on August 24, 1993, and the national mobilization on October 12, 1993, to celebrate three years of uninterrupted struggle for achieving the student bus ticket (Lachi & Rojas Scheffer, 2019, p. 44). Due to the limited resources available to the organization, the FES did not manage to consolidate an organizational structure. This prevented the development of a more coordinated work at the national level. The structure of the FES was assembly-based, despite the existence of a general secretary for each city. This secretary, routinely, was the most charismatic person, but this did not imply the existence of a hierarchical structure:

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“The organization of the FES was rather decentralized, and each group was autonomous, as long as they respected the original principles of the movement. Since it was a plenary, responsibilities were assigned in an assembly, where strategies, tasks, and those who were responsible, were horizontally defined” (González Bozzolasco, 2007, p. 64). The FES core had the role of a national secretariat, whose main leaders were those residing in Asunción, due to both their charisma and their history of struggle. Although these leaders worked as legitimate representatives, each nucleus was autonomous and defended its autonomy. This autonomous feature was shaped by two situations. First, the obligation to comply with the fundamental principles of the FES, where “the independence of the student union” could not be violated by the organization itself. Second, political parties and sectors, on the one hand, and NGOs, on the other, were permanently stalking the organization with the aim of influencing the actions of each nucleus. In addition, since it did not rely on bylaws, the FES was governed by its founding principles, and based on the collective agreements established by each independent nucleus. Simultaneously, as it expanded its bases and generated new groups in cities throughout the country, the FES acquired a much stronger national character. At this point, one action with the greatest impact was the “sentata” held on August 24, 1993 inside the National Congress building, before the occupation of this institution. The sentata surpassed the expectations of a student movement and contributed to the fulfillment of the principles and objectives of the FES, closely linked to its class-based character and directly connected to national issues. The MOS, for its part, was already extinct (González Bozzolasco, 2007, p. 65). With strong groups in many cities, and with fluid communication among them, the FES organized a national student mobilization in October 1993. On October 12, the action generated the promise that, on October 22, the approval of the student ticket bill by the National Senators would be discussed. At this time, the FES organized another demonstration, since there were rumors that the bill would be postponed again. As a result, the mobilization became tense, and the students of that department occupied the government building in Alto Paraná. This form of collective action, known as contention, exerted pressure on the public authorities, questioning and making their intentions visible (Tilly & Wood, 2010). In this sense, it served as a strategy so the Senate would propose the bill to be discussed. The bill was then tabled, and the senators approved the student ticket law.

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After the expiration of the 90-day term for the executive branch to issue its opinion on the bill, the Student Ticket Law was finally enacted. Undoubtedly, this was an extremely important victory for the student movement. But the leaders of this first generation, who were in their last year of high school, decided to withdraw during the 1993 Congress. The leadership was thus left in the hands of students without much organizational experience, and with little previous work in the student movement. In addition, the election process gave rise to internal factions that created a division in the leadership, whose base was established in the capital city (Lachi & Rojas Scheffer, 2019, p. 45). In conclusion, the FES emerged as a student movement that knew how to “combine youth rebellion with the most classic demands” (González Bozzolasco, 2007, p. 68) in a historical period during which Paraguay was going through deep social changes and a certain openness to public freedoms. Its banners and struggles were not only restricted to educational problems but also managed to insert themselves in a global framework where education was part of a set of problems, such as the situation of the peasant and working-class populations with whom it established alliances throughout its actions and demands.

The Student Ticket Movement Although it is true that the FES obtained the enactment of the Student Ticket Law, it was never enforced. Both due to the resistance of the teachers and directors themselves, who hindered the organizational processes— and the lack of student organization—the law was not applied (Velázquez, 2018, p. 107). It was not until after the events of the “Paraguayan March” (March 1999)2 encouraged by the leading role of its young participants, that several student centers organized themselves to promote the implementation of the ticket. The campaign for the student ticket resumed in 1999, specifically by the Movimiento por la Obtención del Boleto Estudiantil (MOBE), whose creation had the support of the non-­ governmental organization Decidamos, which provided the necessary space for dialogue among the student centers.

2  Protests in Asunción against the assassination of the then vice president of the Republic, Luis Argaña, which led to the removal of President Raul Cubas Grau, to inaugurate what was called the Government of National Unity.

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The MOBE was structured by the highest body, the assembly. Work teams were formed, where each one designated three people to be part of the coordination. The selection criteria were leadership and responsibility. Among these teams, the stable ones were the lobbying, dissemination, and mobilization ones. Ordinary assemblies met every two weeks, while extraordinary assemblies were called according to the movement’s needs. The coordination team, on the other hand, met whenever its members deemed necessary (Palau, 2004, p. 24). The movement remained critical toward political parties, especially due to some attempts to interfere within the movement. Conversely, the MOBE did maintain more contact with other groups, such as the Conscientious Objection Movement (Movimiento de Objeción de Conciencia, MOC), the Youth Parliament, and the Young Christian Workers. The MOBE resumed the struggle to obtain the student ticket, carrying out several demonstrations over the course of a year. This led to the effective implementation of the ticket in September 2000. Although the movement initially had the objective of carrying out the campaign for the student ticket as its only flag, it later began to project its demands beyond it (Lachi & Rojas Scheffer, 2019, p.  45). Thus, throughout 2000 and 2001, the movement set the foundation for the creation of a broader scope organization and did so by means of a campaign for education budget and coverage. To that end, the MOBE called for a joint mobilization with other youth sectors, while joining other slogans such as, for example, questioning the increase in diesel fuel, electricity, and water rates, as well as the family ‘basket of goods’ price. The MOBE, unlike MOS and FES, knew how to propose more adequate strategies for monitoring and controlling the student ticket process, in addition to showing a critical capacity that made it possible to expand its set of demands (Velázquez, 2018, p. 108). It was precisely the search to broaden the horizons of the organization that prompted its name change, since, subsequently, MOBE stood for Movimiento por la Obtención del Bienestar Estudiantil (Movement for Obtaining Student Welfare), in 2002. However, in September 2002, the MOBE would undergo a new transformation, becoming the National Federation of Secondary Students (FENAES). Without abandoning the campaign for the student ticket (constantly threatened by politicians and transport business people), it would extend its demands to include two pillars in the educational field

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and in student organization. On the one hand, to expand the quality and coverage of education by demanding the implementation of educational reform, increasing the quantity and quality of the budget allocated to the education sector, and, on the other hand, to demand freedom of expression and democracy in schools.

The National Federation of High School Students (FENAES) Already informally established in 2002, a National Assembly of Students was summoned in 2003, resulting in the formal founding of the National Federation of Secondary Students (FENAES), whose bylaws (Art. 3) defined it as “a democratic, pluralistic, autonomous, independent, non-­ governmental, representative and non-profit student association, integrated by students of the Republic of Paraguay” (Segovia, 2008, p. 72). The student ticket campaign allowed the unity of various social sectors, positioning students in the public arena. Likewise, this demand led to the emergence of broader processes, which resulted in spreading the organization’s bases, initially confined to Asunción, toward other cities, thus increasing the number of militants. Preferential access to transportation also raised students’ awareness of possible demands for other goods. In this sense, the organization adopted the demand for better education, stepping into the public space with concrete demands, such as an increase in the budget allocated to education, and an educational reform meeting the needs of students (Cuevas, 2021). Meanwhile, democracy in schools implies freedom of speech, but also the participation and independence of the student organization (Segovia, 2008; Irala et al., 2019). As for its organizational structure, FENAES was integrated by students of the three years of Secondary Education, representing youngsters between 15 and 18 years old. However, the Student Ticket is a right that also applies to students in the last three years of Elementary School, generally between 12 and 14 years old. With grassroots in about eight departments in the Eastern Region of the country, the organization reached about 75,000 students. Of those, the majority resided in urban areas. For example, Asunción and Ciudad del Este were the two largest cities (more than 100,000 inhabitants) in which FENAES members were grouped, while the rest were distributed in intermediate or small cities, with

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populations between 30,000 and 100,000 inhabitants or less than 30,000 inhabitants, respectively (Segovia, 2008, p. 75). In each department where FENAES had a branch, there were two departmental coordinators in charge of organizing activities in their respective areas, while maintaining permanent contact with other departmental coordinators and with the executive coordinators. There were about eight executive coordinators residing in Asunción or in the Central Department. These executive coordinators oversaw articulating actions and demands at the national level. This group of people constituted the “National Leadership”, which met monthly to discuss the functioning of FENAES and to define the organization’s political lines. Coordinators were selected democratically at a national assembly. In this annual assembly, representatives participated from all educational institutions associated with FENAES.  The educational institution was allowed to delegate one or more representatives according to its number of students, at the rate of 1 representative for every 500 students. Discussion topics at the national assembly were defined in the regional pre-congresses, which were meetings attended by representatives of each department, divided into three sectors according to their geographic distribution to discuss the most relevant topics of the region at the national assembly. The executive coordinators were selected by the representatives attending the Congress. Each departmental or executive coordination had four secretariats: administration, organization, training, and communication. Undoubtedly, the Gran Asunción Area acted as the main articulating and mobilizing axis of the organization, since this is where the 30 public and private schools were located, and where the young people who participated in the assemblies and other activities, such as protests, came from. There were no open tensions between the representatives of the capital and the central zone, as well as the representatives of the provinces. Although one of the main goals of FENAES was the fulfillment of concrete demands such as the student ticket, training its members also was a major purpose. Training initiatives within the organization concerned the establishment of a responsible citizenship, based on values such as justice, democracy, and equality. The two most important training moments of FENAES were the assemblies prior to the national assembly. In addition, the exchanges leaders and militants also were considered by its members as formative spaces, since they enabled an analysis of the country’s

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situation, and allowed for reflection on social movement strategies, among other issues (Segovia, 2008). Regarding the mechanisms for building and extending its public policy proposals, FENAES mainly used two methods: by means of advocacy in the form of statements; and by the modification and/or drafting of bills, with the advice of professionals, (Segovia, 2008, p. 79). Concerning direct actions for the enforceability of rights, these arose when the aim was exerting pressure for the approval of certain proposals. For example, organized rallies were related to specific situations, or occurred when negotiation possibilities with the economic and political powers were exhausted. FENAES maintained a close relationship with other movements, such as the Conscientious Objection Movement (MOC). Various activities also were carried out together with an organization called Jóvenes en torno al Lago (Youth around the Lake) and the Movimiento Juvenil Campesino Cristiano (MJCC—Christian Peasant Youth Movement). FENAES also joined national networks such as the Coordinadora de Organizaciones Juveniles del Paraguay (COJPY—Coordinator of Youth Organizations of Paraguay) and the Mercosur Social y Solidario (Social and Solidarity Mercosur), a space articulating peasant organization, homeless people, neighborhood commissions, and agro-ecological producers. During the transition from MOBE to FENAES, the NGO Decidamos played an important role in terms of economic resources for the student organization. FENAES had its headquarters in the Decidamos offices, where they also received funds for materials, tickets, newsletters, etc. There were four main lines of action worked by Decidamos, together with MOBE and FENAES: (a) training talks aimed at creating student centers in several schools in the country; (b) mobilizing those student centers into a movement; (c) advising and training MOBE/FENAES leaders and activists; and (d) offering material and financial support to MOBE/ FENAES (Segovia, 2008, p. 101). However, FENAES would later become independent from the NGO, facing only two alternatives for funding: the projects that could be submitted to international or national organizations; or the contributions offered by student members of the Federation. Undoubtedly, the second option proved to be difficult due to the precarious economic situation of the students’ families. Simultaneously, autonomy from Decidamos meant the end of projects supporting student organizations, by means of which the NGO provided funds for the development of FENAES.  This led to a “crisis

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phase” experienced by the organization, and a loss of prominence at the national level from 2006 onwards (Lachi & Rojas Scheffer, 2019, p. 46). After a period of slowdown, due to lack of definition in its support mechanisms, the student movement was reactivated in the second half of 2013. This occurred following a meeting between young people from various educational institutions (such as the CETEC School in Fernando de la Mora, Técnico Javier, Presidente Franco, among others) at the Colegio Nacional de Comercio N° 1, which resulted in the re-foundation of the FENAES. However, this reactivation reached its point of greatest development only in 2016, through the large student demonstrations within the historical period called “Paraguayan Student May” (Lachi & Rojas Scheffer, 2019, p. 50). An issue faced by FENAES in this stage was the discussion regarding lunch for secondary education students. Thanks to this struggle, FENAES obtained the implementation of a school lunch plan pilot program for technical schools and night shift schools in Asunción.3 In addition, among its demands, FENAES included issues indirectly related to education, such as privatization and military service, taking a stand against the Public–Private Partnership Law (PPP), and participating in the general strike organized by the trade union movement in March 2014. Finally, it is important to highlight the participation of FENAES in the First National March of Public and Private Schools (MNCPP) on September 18, 2015, an initiative led by the student center of Colegio Cristo Rey. This was the first working experience between FENAES and the National Union of Student Centers of Paraguay (UNEPY), an organization described next.

The National Union of Student Centers of Paraguay (UNEPY) On July 20, 2013, UNEPY was officially established at a convention where 80 student centers from 51 schools in the country participated. This event took place within the framework of the project named “Construyendo Centros de Estudiantes en la Educación Media” (2011–2012), and its extension, “Voces del Futuro” (2012–2013), implemented by Fundación 3  https://www.ultimahora.com/alumnos-se-sumaron-al-paro-pese-inconvenientes-los-­ directores-n939497.html; https://www.abc.com.py/edicion-impresa/locales/cartes-dice-­ a-estudiantes-que-morira-en-la-cancha-1414273.html

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Casa de la Juventud that promoted creating student centers in schools with the objective of strengthening student participation and improving the quality of education (Valinotti & Insaurralde, 2019, p. 89). From the beginning, as an organization with a nationwide presence, UNEPY had to organize a governing structure to allow local leaders from each department to participate in decision-making bodies. Hence, UNEPY was structured based on a National Executive Commission and a National Leadership. The former oversaw coordinating UNEPY’s actions and maintaining contact with the authorities, while the latter held monthly meetings and was the main body of the organization. Consequently, the National Leadership made decisions concerning the direction to be followed by the organization; therefore, it was composed of representatives from every department of the country. When it was founded, the Executive Commission consisted of five members: a spokesperson, a deputy spokesperson, a press secretary, an organization secretary, and a recording secretary. In turn, the National Coordination was made up of 30 members: the coordinator of each department, plus as many representatives from each department according to the number of associated centers. By 2016, the National Executive Commission was reduced to three members, although they were increased to five in 2017. In turn, the National Leadership increased to 50 members, and the territorial organization was structured by zones, and no longer by departments. Zone coordinators and members of the National Coordination of each zone were elected by direct vote during annual zone assemblies held prior to the National Assembly during which members of the National Assembly were elected (Lachi & Rojas Scheffer, 2019, pp. 56–57). Since UNEPY was exclusively constituted by minors and, therefore, unable to obtain legal status, the first leaders who graduated from high school created an association to acquire it. Thus, the UNEPY Association is responsible for raising funds, and providing logistical support and advice to the student organization. This also helps preserve the link between the organization and former students. With respect to training and capacity-building, UNEPY developed a cyclical plan with three phases: the zone assemblies, the annual Assembly, and the “Camp Leader” training camp, which lasts four days in January. This camp has a defined plan whose content revolves around the Paraguayan educational system, democratic participation, student organizations, the Ministry of Education and its functioning, and the concept of

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‘student representative,’ among other topics. In addition, UNEPY also participated in workshops on gender equality and sex education, as well as in workshops organized by Amnesty International. UNEPY’s action can be summarized in two ways. On the one hand, building participation arenas for the student body, with the aim of giving them visibility and allowing them to take leadership roles in educational decision-making. On the other hand, promoting the creation of student centers in schools throughout the country. Thus, in 2014, this organization submitted a bill to Parliament and a proposal for a ministerial resolution guaranteeing the autonomy and free organization of student centers. The bill was rejected in 2015, before the beginning of the student spring, while the resolution was accepted and implemented by the Ministry of Education, after the so-called “student May” of 2016. During the task of creating student centers, the UNEPY had to face authoritarian practices such as unfavorable evaluations or unjustified sanctions by teachers, directors, and authorities of the MEC, especially in the countryside (Lachi & Rojas Scheffer, 2019, p. 59–60). One UNEPY demand was to strengthen the control and supervision of the school kit’s quality and the control of its timely delivery. In addition, it demanded the inclusion of textbooks in the school kit, which, until 2015, was limited to school supplies, plus the repair of educational institutions whose building conditions were precarious or in poor shape. Because the organization saw the campaign for the student ticket as an issue too restricted to urban cities with public transportation systems, UNEPY did not become directly involved in the demand for this right, which was however, one of the historical demands made by the secondary school student movement.

The National Student Organization (ONE) In October 2013, after student leaders from schools in Asunción and Central expressed their disagreement with respect to the new leadership and the line of action established in the re-foundation of FENAES, a new group formed called Organización Nacional Estudiantil (ONE). After several years of the student movement’s lethargy, ONE would come to constitute, in a few months, the third active organization with a presence in several territories of Paraguay, promoting a greater role in the management of the educational system (Lachi & Rojas Scheffer, 2019, pp. 149–150). The founding group of ONE was integrated by students

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from schools in the capital, such as Colegio República Argentina, Colegio of Comercio N° 2, Colegio Fernando de la Mora, and Colegio Nuestra Señora de la Asunción. ONE’s organizational composition is made up of the General Assembly, its highest body, which meets once a year, and where the organization’s board of directors is elected every two years. Likewise, the national leadership is made up of a president and a vice-president, plus a board of directors comprising the General Secretariat, the Press Secretariat, and the Organization and Training Secretariat. At the local level, there are Departmental Coordinating Committees, each of which includes commissions made up of members from schools belonging to the department. Since ONE’s leaders were from schools in the capital, the organization met weekly at the República Argentina school in Asunción. With respect to training spaces, ONE organized training talks through contacts with the NGO Decidamos, and with the Secretariat for Children and Adolescents (currently the Ministry of Children and Adolescents). ONE’s main action focused on the formation and organization of student centers in autonomy and freedom. Consequently, the organization offered help and assistance to the students at its member schools, often mediating with school administrators, or even with the Ministry of Education. In addition, ONE incorporated into its demands the correct use of the resources provided by the National Fund for Public Investment and Development (FONACIDE), in addition to demanding an increase in the education budget to 7%. Finally, ONE defined itself, from a union political point of view, as “dialogue-oriented” (Lachi & Rojas Scheffer, 2019, p. 62). This position implied maintaining an allied and non-confrontational line toward the Ministry of Education. An expression of this position was reflected by the non-participation of ONE in the national march of public and private schools during the “student spring” of 2015.4 However, this position later changed, specifically at the beginning of 2016, when the roof collapsed in a section of the Nuestra Señora de la Asunción school, whose student leaders were members of ONE. As a result, the organization undertook 4  This decision was not discussed among the organizations that decided to organize the protest, beyond their own disagreements in the negotiation and action planning process. This is demonstrated by the fact that, in 2016, ONE took part, with other organizations, in a new demonstration targeted at the MEC.

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the campaign “Patience is over”, whose actions were aimed at demanding the dismissal of the then Minister of Education, Marta Lafuente. Other organizations such as FENAES and UNEPY were joined to participate in this campaign (Setrini, 2016). It was at that moment when ONE strengthened its relations with FENAES and UNEPY, and the actions of these movements became focused on taking over schools throughout the country. The takeovers took place in the Central department and in numerous cities of the countryside, such as Ciudad del Este, Caaguazú, Villarrica, Pilar, among others. Although the minister’s resignation was achieved, the three organizations agreed to continue with the takeovers, demanding, as a condition, the direct intervention of the President of the Republic, and the execution of an agreement (Valinotti & Insaurralde, 2019). This was the moment of the closest relationship between ONE and the other organizations, holding regular meetings at the República Argentina school. With the establishment of the “Mesa de Trabajo Estudiantil”, the “Paraguayan Student May” concluded, with a clear triumph for high school students reaffirming their civic participation in democracy, in the framework of a process that began several years earlier (Escobar, 2012).

Redefining the Actors and the Dispute for Hegemony in the Youth Movement The path of the organized expressions and collective actions carried out by Paraguay’s youth presented here shows the conflictive configuration of a social actor whose basis is youth in its diversity. Following the discourse and vindication of a collective action goal, namely the right to education, actors from other sectors began to struggle for an identity that gradually distanced themselves from the student condition as an exclusive form of generational social actor, as well as from the goals linked to education as the only defining demand of contentious actions, and the mobilization of resources in the sense proposed by Tilly and Wood (2010), and by Tarrow (1997). The emergence of other groups associated with Catholic movements, multi-sectoral in nature (not only related to students) and disguisedly class-based (middle and wealthy classes) gave the youth social movement a different profile that changed identities once linked to the opposition into a conservative political order on the side of social demands based on

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the legal discourse. On the other hand, disruptive actors diluted the monopoly of education as the gravity center of youth discourses and demands, transferring them to a general social problem whose interest could provoke the adhesion, collaboration, and legitimization of other sectors of society, even if they were not youths and did not demand the right to education. This is the case of youth initiatives, such as Juventud Que Se Mueve, which managed to displace the hegemony of the collective action discourse around the right to education and relocate it into the ethical-­ political problem of integrity and transparency, thus questioning the corruption of public power and its effects on the moral degradation of society (Santa Cruz, 2008, p.  40). In this sense, the weakening of the student movement—for the right to education—resulted in various forms of action and collective actors, as well as in unusual scenarios in which new social sectors displaced middle-class sectors or upper fractions of the popular classes that characterized the hegemony and leadership of the youth social movement during the 1990s and the beginning of the twenty-first century. The moral discourse that displaced the treatise on rights constituted a key cleavage in the youth movement, hand in hand with affluent social sectors that sought to insert their agenda at different levels of society, and the redefinition of the social demands of younger generations in coexistence with the rights movement, first, while attacking and later disqualifying it. This is one explanation for the irruption of a conservative discourse that portrayed social movements for rights as contrary to societal “values”, and supposedly sought to alter fixed identities, defined according to a “natural order”, which are the basis of Paraguayan society. The features and characteristics, along with the scope and limits of the youth movement that are not focused on the education rights agenda, are not included in this chapter. However, mentioning the emergence of such a social actor shows that the disputes for hegemony within the youth movement are part of broader disputes regarding the definition of a historical project in Paraguayan society. This is in addition to the normative horizons behind the policies for the promotion of public goods to strengthen democracy and the social rule of law, aspects that still constitute a deep-rooted social debt in Paraguayan society.

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Conclusions The emergence and development of the student movement, captured in this chapter through its struggles, slogans, and characteristics, positioned it as a prominent sociopolitical actor in the social struggles for rights, and in the definition of an educational agenda in Paraguay. The different phases of the collective actions showed the ups and downs of youth collective subjects under a student identity, going through achievements, but also crises, which jointly defined the process of democratization itself. In the last phase of this process, three movements linked to each other have stood out, as they share certain common interests around exercising the right to education and, therefore, the right to quality education. First, the National Federation of Secondary Students (FENAES) was reactivated in 2013, but it was only in 2016 that it reached its greatest development, through student demonstrations in the framework of the “Paraguayan Student May”.5 One issue faced by FENAES then was the demand for lunch service in secondary schools. Thanks to this struggle, FENAES implemented a pilot school lunch plan in technical schools and night shift schools in Asunción. Secondly, the National Union of Student Centers of Paraguay (UNEPY) had two main lines of action: on the one hand, it sought to build participation arenas for the student body to make it more visible and increase its role in decision-making on the educational agenda. On the other hand, it strengthened and supported the creation of student centers in schools throughout the country. Thirdly, the National Student Organization (ONE) also focused on the creation and organization of student centers, based on autonomy and freedom. For this purpose, the organization offered assistance to the students at its member schools, mediating with school administrators or with the Ministry of Education. ONE, instead, incorporated into its demands the monitoring of the correct use of the resources provided by the National Fund for Public Investment and Development (FONACIDE), in addition to requesting an increase in the national education budget to 7%. Student actors were formed by identifying needs that they transformed, through collective actions, into claims for rights. This process gradually 5  As a matter of fact, the structural and institutional bases of these student demonstrations, which, a few months later, would unfold in the university sector through the #UNA-No Te Calles movement, are analyzed, by Ortiz (2016), in terms of social structure transformation processes, specifically about social classes.

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challenged the meanings and orientations of educational policy within a redefinition of the Paraguayan State and the democratic regime as a catalyst to address these demands, and the responses from public authorities through mobilizations. As a social movement, student youth actors contributed to the implementation of a social mobilization repertoire around rights in Paraguay. Consequently, the right to education became a discursive vector through which the structure of political opportunities, opened by the democratization process of the 1990s, laid the foundation for the emergence and expansion of citizenship, not only politically but (above all) socially. Certainly, this is still a complex process, and, in a certain way, it is still emerging, despite the fact that three decades have passed since the authoritarian regime fell. Conservative forces do not give in, but rather resist the complete democratization of society, giving rise to different forms of construction and redefinition of social actors who are pushing for equal rights in Paraguay. In this regard, different actors emerge and dispute collective action spaces, as well as identities (e.g., youth) that, in line with social project construction processes vindicating a democratic regime, also seek to signify and re-signify democracy’s horizons and scope, to enable the expansion of all forms and expressions of rights, or to restrain them within a restrictive framework. Finally, dominant sectors organize themselves and shape new forms of collective subjectivity to promote an agenda that, under a declaration based on democratic principles, supports the perpetuation of authoritarian and unequal social structures. Acknowledgments  I would like to acknowledge and thank Sergio Rojas for his collaboration in the completion of this work.

References Aranda, J. (2000). El movimiento estudiantil y la teoría de los movimientos sociales. Convergencia, 21, 225–250. Caputo, L. (2007). Las demandas en situación del movimiento estudiantil y campesino en Paraguay. Documentos de Trabajo N° 118, Base IS. Cuevas, L. (2021). Educación democrática en el Paraguay. Una mirada diferente. Ciencia latina. Retrieved from https://ciencialatina.org/index.php/cienciala/article/view/983/1342

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Escobar, M. (2012). La participación ciudadana en Paraguay. Análisis a partir de la transición democrática. Revista Internacional de Investigación en Ciencias Sociales, 8(1), 119–140. Flores, P. (2016). Breve historia del movimiento estudiantil secundario paraguayo. Campaña Latinoamericana por el Derecho a la Educación. Gentili, P. (2009). Marchas y contramarchas. El derecho a la educación y las dinámicas de exclusión incluyente en América Latina (a sesenta años de la Declaración Universal de los Derechos Humanos). Revista Iberoamericana de Educación, 49, 19–57. González Bozzolasco, I. (2007). El Frente Estudiantil Secundario (FES). Una primera aproximación histórica. Revista Novapolis, 1(11), 55–70. Irala, A., Palau, M., & Yuste, J. (2019). Movimientos sociales en Paraguay, organización, identidad y cambio. Jetypeka, 1(1), 1–15. Lachi, M. & Rojas, R. (2019). Luchas de estudiantes. El renacer del movimiento estudiantil secundario y el nuevo liderazgo femenino (2013–2017). Centro de Estudios Germinal y Arandurã. Ortiz, L. (2016). Apuntes para el estudio de las clases en la sociedad paraguaya. In L.  Ortiz (Ed.), Desigualdad y clases sociales. Estudios sobre la estructura social paraguaya (pp. 239–298). CEADUC/CLACSO/ICSO. Palau, M. (2004). Reseña de las organizaciones juveniles paraguayas y sus principales tensiones. Documento de trabajo, N°106. Base Investigaciones Sociales. Santa Cruz Cosp, M. C. (2008). Juventud Que se Mueve: Ola versus Estructura. Análisis de las características de movimiento social y organización no gubernamental en una iniciativa juvenil paraguaya. Thesis in Sociology. Universidad Católica Nuestra Señora de la Asunción. Segovia, D. (2008). Movimiento de Estudiantes Secundarios en Paraguay. La demanda del boleto estudiantil expresada por la Federación Nacional de Estudiantes Secundarios. In L. Caputo (Ed.), Juventudes y espacio público: las demandas de la Juventud Campesina de ASAGRAPA y Estudiantil de la FENAES en el Paraguay (pp. 63–135). Base IS. Setrini, G. (2016). Primavera estudiantil en Paraguay. Democracia abierta. Recuperado de: https://www.opendemocracy.net/es/primavera-­estudiantil-­ en-­paraguay/ Tarrés, M. (1992). Perspectivas analíticas en la sociología de la acción colectiva. Estudios sociológicos De El Colegio de México, 10(30), 735–757. Tarrow, S. (1997). El poder en movimiento. Los movimientos sociales, la acción colectiva y la política. Alianza Editorial. Tilly, C., & Wood, L. (2010). Los movimientos sociales, 1768–2008. Desde sus orígenes a Facebook. Crítica. Touraine, A. (2006). Los movimientos sociales. Revista Colombiana de Sociología, 27, 255–278.

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Valinotti, S., & Insaurralde, M. (2019). La reactivación del Movimiento estudiantil secundario en el Paraguay (2013-2016). Revista Novapolis, 15, 85–113. Velázquez, D. (2018). Relaciones entre autoritarismo y educación en el Paraguay: 1869-2012. Un análisis histórico. La educación en el Paraguay después de Stroessner. Cuarto volumen 1989–2012. SERPAJ.

The Organization and Struggle of University Students in Paraguay: Student Movement Demands for Socio-educational Rights Magdalena López and Jorgelina Loza

The Latin American student movement began a new cycle of protest at the end of the twentieth century, expressing strong discontent with the consequences of the neoliberal policies implemented in those decades. As we shall see in the following pages, the protest cycle of the 1990s gave rise to new theoretical approaches. The student movement became part of these reflections due to the radicalism and explosiveness of its demonstrations (Aranda, 2000). The movement, and associated organizations, are known for their creative and innovative practices combined with pre-existing strategies.

M. López (*) • J. Loza CONICET/IIGG, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Grupo de Estudios Sociales sobre Paraguay, IEALC, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina e-mail: [email protected] FLACSO Argentina, Área de Relaciones Internacionales, CONICET-FLACSO, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. Levy et al. (eds.), Social Movements and the Struggles for Rights, Justice and Democracy in Paraguay, Social Movements and Transformation, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25883-1_11

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In Paraguay, the student movement has had, since the time of the Stroessner dictatorship, a fundamental role in the struggle for quality education and providing access to universal and free education. Experiences in public universities, such as UNA No Te Calles (2015), the takeover of the Catholic University of Asuncion (UCA) building (2017), and the struggle for zero fees (2020), have demonstrated a high level of politicization and the eruption of organized arenas around specific educational and democratic demands, which often overflow existing student institutions. Social movements, as Touraine (1988) explains, sustain a critical action elucidating the contradictions between the interests of a singular social group. The actors who carry out a given collective action are defined with respect to a general social conflict that belongs to the existing historical system (Killian, 1966; Tilly, 1998). Any characterization of a movement brings us back to the context from which it emerges, to the tensions therein, and to the status quo and hegemonic order in which they develop. Collective action takes various forms, not always visible, and the demands are not necessarily linked to economic issues. Collective behaviors are oriented according to the meanings constructed by the actors within the social reality level. In this chapter, we analyze these political mobilization dynamics led by young university students, recognizing the traditional forms of organization that are set in motion, as well as the most innovative dimensions of these experiences. We will approach these collective processes from a theoretical framework combining different approaches, evaluating the structure of opportunities within the political context (Tarrow, 1998) of their emergence, and the resources called into play by members of the movements and their protest repertoires (McAdam et al., 1999). This work is a comparative case study, in which each eruption of struggle is interpreted as the crystallization of a long-standing tradition regarding the organization, protest, and mobilization of the Paraguayan university student body. These occurrences are not spontaneous or isolated, nor are they alien to the disputes within the parties and government structures. UNA No Te Calles, the UCA takeover, and the struggle for zero fees, are all part of a historical process that precedes them, contextualizes them, and provides them with tools to be used at specific moments. The cases were studied by combining documentary, bibliographic, and legislative analysis with semi-structured interviews with members of the movement and its organizations. To conduct this work, we carried out three stages of data collection. In the first stage, we compiled and critically

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analyzed the existing bibliography on student and university movements in Paraguay. In the second stage, we used legislative, documentary, and historical records to reconstruct the different contexts in which the three selected events took place. Finally, we identified the protagonists of the movements to interview students who were key players in the struggles. Based on this selection, semi-structured interviews were conducted with two representatives of the Una No Te Calles Movement: Liz Guillén and Arturo Cano; three members of the movement that took over the UCA building: Camila Corvalán, Autora Lezcano, and Martín Couchonnal; and two members of each of the two student groups that fought for the Zero Fee Law: Nicolás Prono, who represented the sector that successfully imposed its model law, and Vivian Genes, whose project was not approved.1 We will present the three cases analyzed, combining the data obtained from the three collection methods. We place special emphasis on the testimonies gathered from the protagonists, to reconstruct the symbolic frameworks within the discursive field of student organization. We start from the interpretation that the symbolic dimension of collective action is crucial to understand the evolution of political mobilization initiatives. Next, we will describe the theoretical framework; then, we will present the case studies. We continue by deepening the analysis of the data collected, based on three central axes: the results and perspectives, the idea of historical continuity in the construction of collective action, and the national and international support they received. Finally, we will outline some final reflections.

Theoretical Perspectives on Social Movements Three approaches highlight different perspectives on the study of social movements. The political opportunity structure perspective (Tarrow, 1998) looks at the interaction of collective mobilization with institutionalized politics. The changes that take place in the political structure (formal and informal) are interpreted as opportunities for the emergence of social movements and have implications for accessing power, building 1  The dates of the interviews are as follows: Liz Guillén (interview conducted on November 9, 2021), Arturo Cano (interview conducted on November 18, 2021), Camila Corvalán (interview conducted on November 3, 2021), Autora Lezcano (interview conducted on November 19, 2021), Martín Couchonnal, Nicolás Prono (interview conducted on November 3, 2021), and Vivian Genes (interview conducted on November 22, 2021). The interviewees agreed to publish their names in this paper.

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connections, and aligning with other movements and institutions. The resource mobilization perspective focuses on the process in which action is formed and developed, emphasizing the rational capacity of actors to decide to mobilize (Tarrés, 1992). The resource mobilization theory states that conflicts emerge between social actors who seek control over resources (economic, social, and ideological) and who develop mobilization dynamics through rational strategies to satisfy their demands and protect their interests. McAdam et  al.’s (1999) perspective proposes that the emergence of collective action is based on two possible dynamics that combine the frames of meaning and political opportunities. Frames of meaning refer to those shared meanings that are constructed as a collective mobilization takes shape, and which guarantee common interpretations of the conflict to be made visible, the adversaries and the possibilities. A movement’s framework of values implies a shared and specific ideology, which provides answers and action guidelines to the members of that group (Killian, 1966). As collective identities are a kind of explanation, a representation of who the members of a group are and why they are together, the representations that shape them are based on the information available to the actors at a given time. Identity becomes a field of struggle that transcends the division of societies into classes (Melucci, 1991; Smith, 1998). The existence of a collective identity with shared values, and representations, guarantees sustainability over time, even though it does not invalidate the pre-existing internal heterogeneity of the group. According to Melucci (1991), some elements are required for a social movement, a specific type of collective action, to emerge: a certain solidarity, that is, that the actors be capable of recognizing themselves as part of the same social unit; the existence of a confrontation, an adversary that is disputing the same field; and the possibility of separating themselves from the historical social system to which their actions refer. These different ways of understanding social space, the different frameworks of representation and interpretation, and the diversity in the values framework can explain the coexistence of two student groups that, within the same conflict, condense different demands and interests (Snow & Benford, 1992; Tejerina, 1998). For example, during the UCA takeover (2015), a student sector identified with the Faculty of Law confronted the sector that was carrying out the occupation of the building. Furthermore, during the dispute over free university enrollment (2020), two groups of

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students carried out public and lobbying actions in parallel, defending two different projects, as we will analyze below. These dimensions, especially the emphasis on collective identity, strongly appear in what came to be called the Theory of New Social Movements (TNSM), which emerged in the 1970s and was strengthened in the last decades of the twentieth century. In Latin America, it constituted the hegemonic theoretical framework for understanding the emergence of collective action against neoliberalism and inequality in the 1990s. The TNSM identified the emergence of protests and mobilizations in the face of the contradictions and oppressions displayed by the State in the post-industrial stage. The particularity introduced by this theoretical approach was the emphasis on the dynamics of civil society, where collective action experiences emerge. The emphasis on structural processes was left aside to think about the forms of mobilization and organization that did not always aim at taking or reaching power. The novelty of these collective experiences lay in the way they expressed their demands, as well as in non-conventional organizational proposals. But one of the difficulties of this theoretical approach lies in the flexibility of the definition of NMS, which ends up encompassing different claims under the same category. We agree with Aranda (2000), who states that the TNSM is not suitable for thinking about Latin American mobilizations since these frameworks “were elaborated on the basis of specific premises and experiences in relation to modernity, democracy and the formation and performance of the State, which do not correspond to Latin American reality” (Aranda, 2000, p. 240). The basis of this theory is the separation between State and civil society, spheres that in Latin America remain interconnected. Youth social movements were brought into this category given their global growth since the 1970s and the originality of their mobilizations and demands. In Latin America, there are doubts about considering these expressions as novel, although it is possible to think of a structure of opportunities that is changing as the control of the authoritarian states of those decades has decreased. The student youth mobilization is characterized by an intersectoral composition in which, as we will see below, dimensions of traditional politics are involved with new forms of protest, in conflicts that develop on multiple scales, so it is also not useful to characterize its novelty (Núñez, 2013). The literature on student and youth collective action frequently refers to the university reform achieved in Cordoba in 1918 as the main precedent for these mobilizations, which remained active in the region, although

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with inconsistent intensity (Marsiske, 2019; Bidegain & Von Bülow, 2021). Student movements are recognized, in Latin American political history, as central actors in the cycles of protest, engaging in international and national debates. The wave of authoritarian governments that the region experienced in the 1970s and 1980s imposed strong repression on student movements and organizations. Student mobilization strongly returned during the cycle of protest at the end of the twentieth century, in which Latin American populations rejected the neoliberal policies applied in the region and the regressive changes in social politics (Núñez, 2013; Guzmán Concha, 2016; Bidegain & Von Bülow, 2021; Della Porta et al., 2020). Often overlapping, the categories of youth movements and student movements do not always align. Caputo (2007, p. 33) explains that young people usually have a marginal place in formal institutions, including political parties, so they often create their own groups where they establish “their own steps of social interaction”. The configuration of the “student” collective encompasses a large part of these young people and constitutes a significant arena for socialization, training, and education. However, there is consensus regarding the non-linear and sometimes contradictory relationship with political organizations (Palau, 2004; Núñez, 2013; Bidegain & Von Bülow, 2021). Often, youth or student protests emerge against the actions of a specific government or party, just as there have been approximations between these organizations and more traditional parties or organizations that manage to convene student activists. In one of the cases analyzed, UNA No Te Calles (2015), the intention to sustain independence from political power is highlighted, according to Caballero Alarcón (2018), as a way of manifesting their non-identification with the codes of traditional politics. Some experiences have managed to become opportunities for political evolution, even placing issues on the national agenda (Donoso, 2017). This type of outcome, or even the possibility of modifying or consolidating new identities and normative spaces, is the object of analysis of new perspectives, highlighted by Della Porta et al. (2020) as a way of affirming the importance of student youth mobilization as a significant political actor. Understanding these outcomes implies looking beyond the existing structures that allowed or conditioned the emergence of the mobilization, and observing in detail the dynamics and interconnections that take place in the protests. In any case, the relationship with the partisan political

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world is complex and requires a review of specific experiences (Bidegain & Von Bülow, 2021). Duarte (2001), Reguillo (2003a, b), and Chavez Cerda and Poblete Núñez (2006) suggest that the most traditional analyses in the field have focused on the cultural production of these collective experiences. They propose to observe the social articulation of diverse political proposals that are constructed from a cultural dimension. This is why Reguillo (2003a) points out the relevance of considering young people as political agents and the need to abandon the normative reflections that assume a priori— and from an adult-centric viewpoint, from a position of power—which needs and mobilization factors are specific to young people. The cultural dimension of youth mobilization is usually highlighted since it represents a certain novelty with respect to more traditional collective action. Donoso (2017) states that this shows the strong confidence of young sectors in cultural change. Several analyses on youth mobilization (Aranda, 2000; Duarte, 2001; Reguillo, 2003a) point out that young people who mobilize are more interconnected with similar experiences and actively use social networks to make their claims known and build links with other referents. This appears very strongly in the expressions we analyzed, especially UNA No Te Calles. The construction of networks (virtual and face-to-face), and even a special jargon of their own, is understood as a consequence, but also as a characteristic, of youth political mobilization (Diani, 1998; Marsiske, 2019). Artistic expressions are a frequent element in the protest repertoires of youth movements, as well as questioning media as a strategy to make claims visible. The importance of social networks and digital activism shows the mixture of new and old repertoires in these movements (Bidegain & Von Bülow, 2021). This is where Aranda (2000) states that youth mobilization was a privileged object of study within the TNSM due to the importance of a collective identity constructed within these experiences. The non-existence of a class conflict as the axis of protest was also highlighted. But what this framework fails to explain is that the structure of youth mobilizations in terms of social class shows actors concerned about their labor insertion and their future, and who embody a critical reflection on the existing conditions of inequality. Certain studies, such as that of Bidegaín and Von Bülow (2021), underline as characteristics of those who mobilize within universities: biographical availability (because of their age, they might have more time available), structural availability (because of their participation in networks that promote activism), and a strong political commitment.

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However, these same authors point out that the demand for greater democratization—present in the cases analyzed herein—casts doubt on the idea of geographic availability, since these are students who work and need some type of financial support to attend university. What Donoso (2017) stated, quoting Marsiske, regarding the fact that the analysis of the student mobilization means diving into “a part of the history of the privileged” (p. 72), referring to the major component of middle sectors in the student spheres, is called into question. The university campus, an environment rich in political information and that promotes activism (Bidegain & Von Bülow, 2021; Della Porta et al., 2020), appears then as an interconnection space between the more traditional politics and underground political sectors, in the words of Guzmán Concha (2016). Being part of student activism strengthens opportunities for critical reflection and challenging traditional ideas. Student youth movements refer in their claims to the knowledge construction processes against which they highlight inequities and short-sightedness. Proximity to knowledge production and mobilization provides specific characteristics to the collective identity of student youth movements. With multiple organization levels, they show collective identities linked to their generational belonging, and distance from the leading generation. There is a very strong emotional and affective component within such identity. Thus, against the insecurity and hostility of the social environment, the collective ties among the members of these movements are strengthened. Chávez Cerda and Poblete Núñez (2006) state that this identity does not aim to point to shared material conditions but to produce new meanings and social relations emerging from collective mobilization. This identity is manifested and strengthened through public mobilization, in the exercise of the protest repertoire, but also in the community spaces they build and where new forms of solidarity are observed. Regarding the demands, the literature indicates that some are of a trade union nature, that is, directly linked to the educational field: study conditions, access to discounts on transportation, benefits such as school meals, and others. However, as in the case studied in this chapter, we also find demands linked to deeper political positions which discuss higher education as a right of universal access and its connections to national politics. These demands demonstrate the authorities’ incompetence to address them (Donoso, 2017). These demands usually appear as overlapping, are not exclusive, and constitute non-universal identity elements within the movement’s scope, which could explain why there are different factions (often confronting each

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other) that share some proclamations, but are distanced in others, or in the means used to access them. Finally, before turning to the characterization of the Paraguayan student movement analyzed in this chapter, we would like to highlight one last aspect considered in the literature: the interconnection between youth political experiences, which shows the significance of the transnational dimension in the analysis of collective action. Marsiske (2019) mentions the participation of Latin American students in student meetings held in Europe (Paris, 1900; Budapest, 1902; Marseille, 1906 Bordeaux, 1907) and New York (1913). At that time, the First International Congress of American Students in Montevideo (1908) and the First International Congress of Students of Great Colombia (1910) also took place. In 1921, the International Congress of Students was held in Mexico, with the support of José Vasconcelos, who held the position of rector at the Autonomous University of Mexico. The participants were mostly Latin Americans (Marsiske, 2019). In 1966, the Latin American Continental Organization of Students (OCLAE) was created (Bidegain & Von Bülow, 2021). This transnationality is also evident in the cases we will analyze in this chapter.

General Description of Student Mobilization Processes The Paraguayan student movement has been the focus of many studies and all agree on its sociopolitical importance, its centrality in terms of organization, its permanence over time, and the importance of its public interventions both in times of dictatorship and in transition and democracy (Céspedes, 1999; García Riart, 2006; González Bozzolasco, 2007; Fois, 2021). Over time, both youth movements, in general, and student movements, in particular, have instilled their own dynamics in social protest in Paraguay and have accompanied or led, depending on the moment, social protests, establishing their own trajectory with demands that have often exceeded the strictly educational (budget, building and infrastructure investments, quality of education provided) to greater democratization (in educational institutions but also in national politics), changes in social policies, and respect for human rights, among other claims. The promotion of education as a right is part of the sector’s demands and relates to both secondary students, very active in the construction of

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the student struggle in Paraguay (Torres Grössling, 2005; Lachi & Rojas Scheffer, 2019; Ortiz, 2023), and university sectors. Under the dictatorship, as during the transition to democracy, education has gone through political disputes, and the student sector has been crucial to resist the advance of authoritarianism, to struggle for improving education, expand democratization practices within the education system (Velázques Seiferheld, 2020), and prevent the deepening of education inequity within the Paraguayan education system (Ortiz Sandoval, 2014, 2015). In addition to an organized student body, teacher unions have developed active participation, in particular, “at the beginning of 2000, with a protagonism and vitality unknown until that moment” (Becker & Aquino Benítez, 2009, p. 43). UNA No Te Calles, the UCA takeover, and the struggle for zero fees, are all campaigns that achieved long-lasting pathways of student struggle, as well as collective learning that gave rise to such outcomes. All of our interviewees reported a sense of advancing along a path that had already been traced by previous struggles, using those prior learnings and leaving new markers for the next stage when that whole trajectory is condensed into a new milestone that is made public. We agree with previous studies (Sosa Walder, 2015; Fois, 2021) that these experiences were neither isolated nor exceptional. As we mentioned in the previous section, collective action takes place in a historically charged and multipolar social field (Melucci, 1991), in which competing interests coexist and underlie social conflicts. A social movement is, then, a social behavior oriented toward the display of conflicts (of different types) that constitute the system of historical action (Touraine, 1995). Every social movement triggers conflict while expressing contradictions. University students have been, since the beginning of the twentieth century, at the forefront of social demands, together with the peasant movement that became central actors in the protest arena in Paraguay (García Riart, 2006). The form adopted by mobilization is linked to the relationships between actors, their ties to institutions, and the meanings constructed with respect to such collective action. The bonds built by those who participate in a mobilization contribute to the construction of a group identity and certain shared definitions (Tilly, 1998). Student mobilizations add to these conditions the complexity implied in an identity that is limited in time (that of the “student”), immersed in a long-standing construction that expands its local and temporal adhesion within a network of international and transgenerational contacts and connections.

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For decades, the National University of Asuncion was predominant in terms of access to higher education in Paraguay. In this institution, students were also an expression of social demands and policies with resonance in Latin America, as well as on a domestic scale. As Caballero Alarcón (2018) states, the creation of the Catholic University of Asunción in the 1960s breathed new energy into the educational landscape, but it also brought with it the complexity implied by a hybrid public–private model of education, as well as the challenges in terms of a student protest and struggle history within a new structure imbricated in a religious institution. “By 2008, the total number of universities reached 43, and in 2013 the figure of 53 was reached. An unprecedented quantitative increase was thus achieved, but with the vices of privilege, the consolidation of power groups within universities, and the shadow of corruption looming menacingly” (Caballero Alarcón, 2018, p. 183). In the following section, we will describe the specific situation of each chosen protest cycle, giving an account of the general political context, in which the collective actions of the student movements are embedded, and of the specific tensions within the movement at each moment.

UNA No Te Calles (2015) In 2013, after the inauguration of President Horacio Cartes, the Colorado party (National Republican Association or ANR) deepened its internal struggles, forming at least two opposing sectors that remained separated even until the subsequent national election. The influence of the ANR within university politics and structure is recognized both by the specific literature (Sosa Walder, 2015; Fois, 2021) and by our interviewees (Cano and Guillen, interviews, November 2021). There are continuities between party leaders who hold elected positions at the national level and authorities of national universities, especially the National University of Asuncion (UNA), which is the largest both demographically and in terms of budget. “The UNA is the oldest and most transcendent university in Paraguay, due to enrollment levels, territorial presence, budget allocation, academic production, participation in international networks, and infrastructure availability, among other factors” (Caballero Alarcón, 2018, p. 182). Several publications (Sosa Walder, 2015; Rodríguez, 2015; Caballero Alarcón, 2018; Fois, 2021) agree that the internal tensions of coloradismo within the UNA were among the factors that led “UNA No Te Calles” (UNA don’t shut up) to burst into the public space, as a protest that

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triggered the demands of all departments, starting initially only at some of them. Demands were increasing, and, in addition to the demand for transparency, there were calls for greater student participation in the political decision-­making spheres, amendment of the university bylaws, restructuring of positions granted without a competitive examination, and elimination of political maneuvers involving university revenues, among other elements. The measures were quickly covered by the media, together with the uncovering of a series of dealings and corrupt practices that further increased the rejection against Froilán Peralta (university president and supporter of one of the factions in the conflicting Colorado factions) and his powerful entourage. In addition, there were also complaints of teachers mistreating students, negative pedagogical practices, abuse, and violence, among other claims that aimed to improve student life within the educational and institutional process. Rodríguez (2015) identifies the causes which led to the uprising, including media disclosure of the open and deliberate corruption of the university president’s administration (fraudulent hiring, overpayments, etc.), as well as the partisan use that the ANR made of university money (allocations destined to UNA that were used to finance activities of the Colorado Party). Media coverage of popular demonstrations is usually biased by stigmatizing features, especially when it comes to peasants claiming their right to land or students who decide to take over public spaces. However, with respect to UNA No Te Calles, the media did not follow this tendency. This could be seen in the detailed coverage of corruption cases denounced by different social actors, among them, the students; the support for the marches led by the students, and their direct protest actions. Newspapers such as ABC Color, which covered the joint action between high school and university students under the title “Universitarios se unen a movilización de estudiantes secundarios” (Universities bring together a mobilization of secondary students), or in television channels such as Telefuturo, which headlined “Histórica manifestación de estudiantes de la UNA” (Historical demonstration of UNA students), had no intention of blaming the demonstrators. Rodríguez (2015, p. 71) addressed this media coverage by describing the period during which intense events were exposed, including the

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constant coverage organized by students themselves, followed by a decrease in the impact of news, and the beginning of a questioning process based on, the lack of clear and precise guidelines regarding goals and lines of action. In other words, for the press, the movement had achieved goals such as the resignation of the university president and certain deans, and the delay of the intervention planned by the National Council of Higher Education. However, it did not manage to propose a course of action that would allow maintaining the obtained social power. Under these conditions, the struggle could not be sustained for long.

The author suggests that this loss of journalistic coverage coincided with problems within the movement. “The fluctuations regarding citizen interest around ‘UNA no te calles’ directly depended on the changing nature of contextual conditions, the degree in which its objectives were understood, and the meaning that their achievements had for the majority” (Rodríguez, 2015, p. 72). Arturo Cano (interview, November 2021) remarked that although exposure on television and in the media was emotional, and crucial to gain support for the student struggle, the organizations within UNA had been denouncing these maneuvers for a long time, and working to ensure that what ended up being promoted as a discovery by newspapers and television channels, would have supporting documents and would be sustained. This particular protest highlighted the importance of social networks since the name UNA No Te Calles was preceded by a hashtag and published on virtual platforms, becoming a form of activism but also of support, being replicated in different parts of the world where solidarity with the protests was expressed. Constantly publishing the events made it possible to dismantle the university president’s attempts to destroy documentation that existed in the occupied building, as well as to publicly expose his intention to infiltrate the movement with the aim of dismantling it. In other words, the strategic and sustained use of networks served as a specific form of protest and collective action, but also as a virtual control over dynamics that were occurring in situ, and as an active form of denunciation and exposure. Guillén (Personal interview, 2021) emphasizes the role of the media in the coverage and rapid flow of information, and also the role of networks, in the speed at which processes and decisions are made known. Along the same

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lines, she described her appearance on television and radio at the time of the collective actions as a random event arising from the presence of journalists near the place where she was holding a discussion and making denouncements in a state of shock and exhaustion. As Rodríguez (2015, p. 73) indicates “a substantial part of the dynamism, the creativity, the flexibility of its organization and the unusual strength that the UNA mobilization acquired in a very short time had as a conditioning factor the massive use of the Internet and mobile phone networks. The viral dissemination of images and ideas made communication between them easier, helping to protect documents, avoiding their destruction, and exposing those who wanted to do so. The weak intention of the Public Prosecutor’s Office to protect university interests and punish the culprits was also exposed”. Cano and Guillén (interviews, November 2021) pointed out that public universities, and mainly UNA, due to its size and importance, have not been immune to the political disputes and the economic-financial power structures of coloradismo. Regarding what influenced the decision to deepen protest measures, Sosa Walder (2015) and Fois (2021) highlight the importance of strategies employed by high school students, who began that year with public and massive sit-ins and ended with the Public and Private Schools National March, demanding quality education and improvements in school facilities. This mobilization was mentioned by our interviewees (Guillén, Cano, Corvalán, and Couchonnal, interviews, November 2021) as a crucial element also in the construction of this movement.

UCA Takeover (2017) The Catholic University of Asuncion is a privately managed institution, dependent on the Catholic Church, which played a key role in the creation of an academic and student space during the Stroessner dictatorship. UCA and UNA became hotbeds of democratic ideas and the center of social thought around the democratic transition. According to a document issued by the group that decided to initiate the takeover, the crisis unleashed in 2017 was rooted in the appointment of Presbyter Narciso Velázquez as the University president, and the consequent measures he took, which tended toward the erosion of labor rights (teaching and non-teaching), and the disruption of the university community’s channels of dialogue. The highest point of the confrontation was reached after the dismissal of José Antonio Galeano, Dean of the Faculty

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of Humanities, alleging that upon retirement from his teaching position, he also had to leave the political position of Dean. Elisa Bordón, Vice-­ Dean of the institution, was also removed. The dialogue tables did not work, and students denounced that the authorities’ interventions were top-down, contradicting the role played by the institution during the dictatorship. Corvalán (interview, November 2021) remarks that there is a similarity between the role of democratic resistance played by UCA during Stroessner’s regime and the increasing dictatorial behavior it adopted in times of democracy. Couchonnal (interview, November 2021) added that this process reached a point where the University ceased to be a hotbed of progressive ideas, being replaced by other centers of study. The takeover became the strategy chosen by a group of students whose motto was “For democracy inside and outside the University”. Elements of this more conservative trend gradually consolidated within UCA are, for example, refusal to engage in dialogue with the Feminist Platform of University Women who denounced cases of harassment at UCA (Fois, 2017); refusal to accept student participation in decision-­ making bodies; the continuous announcements of the Church (many of them signed by UCA authorities) against “gender ideology”, inaction when faced with the evidence of teachers’ sexual harassment of students2; the progressive convergence of the Church and the University’s senior authorities to the Colorado governments, with a special emphasis on the supportive relationship between Monsignor Valenzuela, a key actor in the management of the UCA conflict, and former president Horacio Cartes, among others. Couchonnal (Personal interview, 2021) described one of the meetings with Valenzuela, who warned them that their case will be a lesson for other young people and that the consequences of the takeover will be exemplary. In this context, there was a group of students—mostly from the Law School—that did not support the takeover or the demands, actively working against the situation. This group was supported by the authorities, while those who led the occupation of the building were openly condemned by them (Couchonnal, personal interview, 2021, Fois, 2017; 2  A renowned case is that of young Belén Whittingslow, who was systematically harassed by Cristian Kriskovich, a lawyer and professor at UCA.  Kriskovich also participated in the defense of another priest accused of sexual harassment by a young catechist from his church. UCA ignored Whittingslow’s complaints, and she ended up abandoning her career, threatened by her harasser, who also sued her for slander and defamation.

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ABC Color, 2017). Regarding this contradiction, Fois (2017) explains that the confrontation of students from the School of Philosophy and Human Sciences versus students from the School of Law demonstrates the advancement of neoliberalism and the perception that education is a commodity instead of a right. The author construes that Law students, by requesting the termination of the occupation, and the return to institutional measures, sought to delegitimize the student struggle. Internal differences created tension around legality and legitimacy, as well as around protest and the right to make demands on behalf of the collectivity. In this sense, it is also interesting that those who led the takeover of the building were not the elected student representatives on duty, but those who had lost the election, and had withdrawn from institutional decision arenas. Their political and academic activism was committed, but was parallel to the legal representation body. The mediation for ending the takeover was conducted by students who had not been particularly mistrusted by those who conducted the takeover (or by those who rejected it), and who had elective positions of student representation. UCA students who participated in these actions were repressed and prosecuted; some of them reached an agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office that took more than four years and was in its final stage at the time of the interviews (Corvalán and Couchonnal, interviews, November 2021). One of the young women (Aurora Lezcano, interview, November 2021) decided not to accept this mediation and continued with the trial against the authorities, represented by attorney Guillermo Ferreiro, who has also previously defended peasants, protesters, and students persecuted for participating in social and collective action instances (Corvalán and Couchonnal, interviews, November 2021).

Struggle for Zero Fees (2020) Paraguay constitutionally guarantees “integral and permanent” education (National Constitution 1992, Art. 73) and provides that “the State shall promote secondary, technical, farm and agricultural, industrial, and higher or university education, as well as scientific and technological research. The State is essentially responsible for organizing the educational system, with the participation of the different educational communities. The system shall involve public and private sectors, as well as school and out-of-­ school environments” (National Constitution 1992, Art. 76).

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The higher education system, governed by the Higher Education Law, is a hybrid of public and private institutions and determines their autonomy and self-sufficiency. Private universities establish their fees according to the institution, prestige, seniority, and career (reporting, as in the UCA case, as previously described, a staggered and sustained increase detrimental to many students who, consequently, cannot pursue their education), while public universities are not completely free of charge, as they collect fees through different mechanisms, making it more difficult for people in more vulnerable economic situations to access and remain in university, making it even more difficult for them to pursue a university degree. These fees are generally charged for administrative processes and vary between national universities and their faculties, and are generally threefold: entrance course, enrolment and the right to take exams. According to the National Report of Paraguay, the fee represents “about 10% of public universities’ budget” (Robledo Yugueros, 2016, p. 9). This student movement claim was characterized by two features. Firstly, the struggle for zero fees became notorious in the media and outside the university in the context of quarantine due to the global irruption of COVID-19, which brought about mobility restrictions, less availability of resources, greater difficulty for political mobilization, and an increase in the cost of education (due to the new demand for electronic devices enabling access to meetings and courses, as well as the internet service involved). This made it difficult to organize assemblies and collective strategies for debate and consensus building. The scarcity of resources characteristic of disadvantaged groups is evident in a context of collective action and social movements (Tarrés, 1992), aggravated by the uniqueness of a pandemic scenario of isolation, and economic and mobility recession. Secondly, this dispute strongly divided the student movement, which fought in parallel, for two different zero-fees projects, with dissimilar public intervention strategies and different demands. Each of our interviewees represents one of these lines. The approved bill, defended by a group of students represented, among others, by Nicolás Prono, states that “free education is granted in the same way to those who are in a situation of vulnerability” (Article 1. Law No. 6628), which must be based upon a set of requirements established in Presidential Decree 4734. This includes graduating from public or private schools provided that they are officially subsidized, or being able to prove their financial vulnerability to the Ministry of Social Development. Students who wish to obtain free education, having attended a private

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secondary school, must prove their low-income socio-economic status. In addition, only those who graduated from high school no more than five years ago may apply for free tuition. In no case is zero-fees automatic; it must always be substantiated by documentary requirements (even in the case of graduates from public schools within five years of the end of high school). This contradicts the law originally presented by another group of students proposing universal and free education, as is the case in other countries across the region, without the need to certify poverty or provide specific documentation. Restrictions to the principle of universality and the principle of ease and incentive were evident in the approved bill.

Perspectives and Reflections In this section we present analyses derived from the interviews conducted, the documentation collected, and the conceptual work described in the theoretical framework. In the first part, we detail the review of the results and lessons learned from the moments of struggle; in the second part, the meaning these struggles had within the historical sequence of social and student movements in Paraguay; and in the third part, the construction of national and international networks. Results: Lessons Learned and Challenges Created by Protest Actions The UNA No Te Calles was a complex process with demands that were broadened as the collective action gained prominence. In terms of tangible results, several student rights were won, such as the resignation of the corrupt university President and the amendment of the bylaws, although equal participation of the student body was not achieved, nor was the purging of existing nepotic and authoritarian practices within the National University of Asuncion, and other universities. One of the most interesting elements was the expansion of such claims to other national universities and institutes of higher education, which acted as a sounding board for the demands that, having started at the UNA, were in fact also shared by students from other universities. The marches in conjunction with high school students and other actors were significant, both socially and in the media. The protests were replicated throughout the country, which added legitimacy to the initial measure, and a larger geographical coverage, showing that corruption,

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nepotism, and abuse from authorities, were a general trend and not a random situation. The protests (which, beyond the number of people, were of great importance in the Paraguayan social context) were sustained, and the measures were voted in the Assembly, giving the process a participatory and democratic character. The prosecutor’s attempts to hunt down the protestors were quickly put aside, due to student resistance, to the sheer extent of their claim, and to the widespread support they enjoyed within society and in the media. As stated above, given the open rejection by the university authorities and the Catholic Church (which is still very powerful in Paraguayan politics), as well as the persecution by the justice system, the disputes occurred with students from another faculty, and the consequences on the careers of the young people involved, the process regarding the UCA takeover was probably the most hostile for students. The claims were not answered by the institution, and those who actively participated in the action were attacked, and many suffered subsequent persecution and prosecution, which continues even today against some of the people directly involved in the takeover. However, the interviewees (Corvalán, Couchonnal, and Lezcano, interviews, November 2021) report that, despite the outcome, they highlight the speed of the events, and how they were encouraged to quickly learn about activism, as well as to develop creativity and spontaneity in addressing the problems that arose regarding, for example, gender roles and care practices within the takeover itself (avoiding the assumption that women should provide food and assistance within the occupied building), as well as self-care, especially after a report of abuse in the context of the occupation, which forced students to improvise ways to remedy the situation and prevent future incidents, jointly developing a protocol on gender violence (Corvalán, interview, November 2021). Regarding the fee, the group that succeeded in mobilizing its interests to pass its bill had a greater perception of triumph, as we were able to confirm in the interview with Nicolás Prono (interview, November 2021). The student, who used to be President of the UNA Student Federation in 2019 and 2020, described the strategies used as institutional and less creative than those of the student opposition that fought for universal free tuition. Meanwhile, Vivian Genés (interview, November 2021), representative of the other group, stated that the most difficult thing was connecting with other students in a pandemic and context of isolation, and having to confront another sector of students with more political contacts, which

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forced them to develop highly visible strategies, such as chaining themselves to a public building—strategically choosing the clothes they would wear and the “staging” of each action—, or developing performative actions in front of State agencies with the risk of being attacked by the police and other security forces. Just like UCA students, Genés (interview, November 2021) also faces a court trial, not because of her participation in the struggle for zero fees, but because of a later protest in front of the National Pantheon of Heroes, in a mobilization against the government party. The young woman, having led a historic struggle for free education, was easily recognized by the media and the prosecution, who have repeatedly acted openly and explicitly against social movements, targeting specific sectors such as peasant leaders, young people, and/or students. Struggle as a Historical Continuity Beyond the organization to which they belonged at the time of making the decisions that led to the intensification of struggle measures, all the interviewees agreed that their participation in the mobilizations described above was a continuity of the struggle, a long-term struggle, preceding and anticipatory, that paved the way for them or provided them with strategies and tools. Camila Corvalán (interview, November 2021) even identified resistance precedents in the dictatorship, and, from there, she related the trajectories of student resistance in which the students of the Catholic University of Asunción were protagonists. Likewise, both Corvalán and Couchonnal (interviews, November 2021) stated that the UCA takeover was part of a process influenced by UNA No Te Calles, but, at the same time, it served as both input and experience for the measures taken regarding the autonomy of the (at present) UNA School of Social Sciences. Both interviewees consider that this process is also part of a continuous trend that included the UCA process. In this sense, Cano also (interview, November 2021) remarked that, in the context of the mobilization for UNA, UCA students supported the measures and were essential at the time of collectively elaborating strategies and evaluating risks and possible actions. In addition, UCA interviewees confirmed that from that historic takeover—which they internally call “the re-takeover” because they consider it to be a second action after another, of shorter duration, which took place years before—they not only left experiences to other organizations, but

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also understood the importance of adopting feminist practices and of inaugurating new spaces, such as the Platform of Feminist University Women (PUF) of Paraguay, or other articulations that bring together diverse social sectors with different but complementary demands. Along the same lines, Cano (interview, November 2021) confirmed that his long-standing experience, due to his previous participation in activism since high school, was strengthened by his university trajectory, also contributing to his current participation in another political space, no longer as a student, but maintaining his demands for social justice, equality, the right to quality education and healthcare, among others. None of the interviewees continues to be part of university political action, and some have even gone through, as in the case of Corvalán and Couchonnal (interviews, November 2021), traumatic experiences regarding their return to the university space because they were attacked there, as well as expelled; their relatives were beaten by security forces, and they themselves were also victims of power abuse by other students (supported by the university administration) and the authorities. Despite this, they all recognize the importance of the student movement, how essential this participation was for their construction as political subjects, and the weight of this experience in their life decisions. Guillén (interview, November 2021) indicated that she will continue to participate but from the “alumni” sector, being the only one of the interviewees who stated that she will continue her activism within the university, although from another place. Domestic and International Support All the interviewees mentioned that they received support from different national political organizations, while all of them, aside from Prono, announced that they received support from organizations of high school students, peasants, and diverse movements. Even in the case of UCA and UNA, the movements struggling for land and agrarian reform made food donations to sustain and support the building takeover and occupation. In particular, Corvalán, Couchonnal, Cano, and Guillén (interviews, November 2021) remarked how important it was for them, at the height of the struggle with the university authorities, to receive the support of this variety of organizations, many of which are also persecuted by prosecution authorities, and often demonized by the media. In addition, all four of them pointed out that they also received support from university

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organizations from other countries in the region, expressed in letters, petitions, communiqués, signature gatherings, and notes in support of their actions, repudiating the hostilities perpetrated by the authorities and security forces, and demanding the fulfillment of the students’ demands. In this sense, the historicity of the movement and its imbrication with other movements on a domestic, regional, and international scale is confirmed. These alliances or support came from ideologically related spaces or with a similar conception of rights and guarantees. Regarding the possibility of having received support from national political parties, all interviewees suggested that there were contacts but that they were forced to differentiate their party activism (as in the case of Prono, in the Colorado Party, or Aurora Lezcano, in the Febrerista Revolutionary Party) from student activism. However, Prono (interview, November 2021) stated that it is difficult to consider the possibility of student leadership at UNA without being a member of the Colorado Party; while Lezcano (interview, November 2021) argued that party interference in student agendas continues to be frowned upon to this day. With this contradiction, one of the problems seems to be outlined, relating to the partisan presence of the ANR within the internal power structure of the universities, and the warning system generated around the participation of other parties in student movements.

Conclusions This research consisted of a qualitative comparative case study, incorporating a theoretical elaboration, and a specific analysis of the Paraguayan experiences through bibliographic reconstruction, the study of documents and legislation, and in-depth interviews. We inquired about the theories available to address social movements and collective action, the limitations of these models for the Latin American experience, and the conceptual proposals that serve to understand the Paraguayan case. Three historical moments within the struggle of university students in Paraguay were analyzed here: the UNA No te Calles movement, 2015; the UCA takeover, 2017; and the struggle for full tuition-free university education, 2020. These particular phenomena are part of a historical framework built over decades, and were characterized by their politicization, by the implementation of a protest repertoire that pursued visibility—through more conventional measures, such as protests and marches, media appearances, and “sit-ins”; but also through more innovative or radical ones,

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such as the takeover of buildings, performative and artistic actions, etc., and by sustaining a collective trajectory shared with other spaces of mobilization, struggle and resistance. In the interviews conducted, we traced continuities and elements in common within the three moments analyzed, as well as some counterpoints. Among the first ones, we found the shared idea that the experience was enriching for the lives of its protagonists, and for the political construction of the movement, even despite the traumatic scars caused by State violence, repression, or the judicialization of the protest. In addition, we identified, on the one hand, the revalorization of national struggles with other social movements, and regional struggles as well, expressed in support and concrete actions of assistance and solidarity; and, on the other hand, the idea that they led processes that constitute a link in a long history of mobilization, and that were not isolated or autonomous, but connected and interwoven. Among the counterpoints and disagreements, we highlight the role of the Colorado party and its domination within partisan politics, as well as the acceptance or rejection of party interference in university life. While all interviewees said that the university struggle is autonomous and external to the disputes of traditional and renewed parties, their interest in joining the collective actions regarding the three analyzed moments was demonstrated, and even situations of direct pressure were described. The struggle led by Paraguayan university students stands out for its historicity, inasmuch as it is rooted in a progressive elaboration that precedes and continues. It is also characterized by the tendency to go beyond representative bodies; for example, through the coexistence of two or more opposing groups that think about the same issue in different ways, as could be observed in the UCA takeover, and the struggle for zero fees. While both sectors have the potential of sharing demands and claims (that not always coinciding), their interpretation of the means to achieve them is different. The efforts of a group to break with some dynamics typical of university institutions (deficient democracy, corruption practices, and prebendalism, among others) may be seen by the other sector as “too creative”, or even outside the institutional action scope (Cano, interview, November 2021). Likewise, the actions of the others may be seen by the opposition group as alien to students’ problems or external to what happens at the grassroots (Genes, interview, November 2021) and they may even be accused of being subservient to political parties as well as university and national authorities (Cano, interview, November 2021).

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Returning to the ideas modeling this comparative analysis, we affirm that the university student mobilization in Paraguay shows a high degree of politicization reflected in a preponderant symbolic dimension in its strategies, including the development of performative activities, positioning issues in social networks and in the media. The Paraguayan student mobilization mirrors conditions of Latin American social mobilization such as denouncing inequalities in highly fragmented societies and questioning a state structure that does not guarantee full access to citizens’ rights. The demand for democracy inside and outside the university sphere; the abolition of a regime of silence, corruption, and violence; and social, political, and educational practices that truly lead to equality, are, at the same time, demands of the university student sector, as well as of other social movements in the country and the region, which shows the existing intertwining between students and the social context they inhabit, but also the networks and connections that cut through the Paraguayan popular camp.

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Tarrés, M. (1992). Perspectivas analíticas de la acción colectiva. Estudios Sociológicos, 10(30), 735–757. Tarrow, S. (1998). El poder en movimiento: los movimientos sociales, la acción colectiva y la política. Alianza Universidad. Tejerina, B. (1998). Los movimientos sociales y la acción colectiva. De la producción simbólica al cambio de valores. In P. Ibarra & B. Tejerina (Eds.), Los movimientos sociales. Transformaciones políticas y cambio cultural (pp.  111–138). Editorial Trotta. Tilly, C. (1998). Conflicto político y cambio social. In P.  Ibarra & B.  Tejerina (Eds.), Los movimientos sociales. Transformaciones políticas y cambio cultural (pp. 25–42). Editorial Trotta. Torres Grössling, G. (2005). El movimiento estudiantil desde los ‘80. In M. Palau & A.  Ortiz (Eds.), Movimientos sociales y expresión política. BASE-IS, CEPAG/SPP. Touraine, A. (1988). Movimientos sociales e ideología en las sociedades dependientes in Teoría de los movimientos sociales. Cuadernos de Ciencias Sociales, 17. FLACSO. Touraine, A. (1995). Producción de la sociedad. IIS—UNAM/IFAL/Embassy of France. Velázques Seiferheld, D. (2020). Educación, memoria y autoritarismo. Historia y memoria del stronismo en la educación paraguaya (1989–2019). Revista Nuevo Mundo Nuevos Mundos. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.4000/ nuevomundo.79615

Conclusion: Mobilize, Repress, Repeat Laureen Elgert, Charmain Levy, and Valérie L’Heureux

The Paraguayan state is often described as authoritarian and patriarchal, and unrepresentative of Paraguayan society. Shifts toward democracy are shallow, slow to take, and constantly challenged by the political and economic elites who have the most to lose. As described in the chapters of this book, Paraguay’s long history of authoritarian institutions has inspired both collective action and social movements, and has placed severe

L. Elgert Department of Integrative and Global Studies, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA, USA e-mail: [email protected] C. Levy (*) Department of Social Sciences, Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO), Gatineau, QC, Canada e-mail: [email protected] V. L’Heureux Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. Levy et al. (eds.), Social Movements and the Struggles for Rights, Justice and Democracy in Paraguay, Social Movements and Transformation, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25883-1_12

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constraints on formal political participation. Indeed, we argue that these dynamics have produced a broad pattern of mobilization, repression, and renewal that has repeated itself since the transition to democracy from dictatorship in 1989. Of course, Paraguay’s shaky and uncertain transition to democracy is embedded in inequality, chronic underdevelopment, and severe repression in Paraguay’s long history of wealth concentration, underdevelopment, and repression shaped by domestic and foreign influences that have shaped the landscape since at least the war between Paraguay and the Triple Alliance (Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay) from 1864 to 1870, which intensified during the Stroessner dictatorship (1954–1989), and has become consolidated with the embedding of neoliberalism and extreme political power in the twenty-first century. The 1990s were characterized by a democratic consensus and expansion of citizen participation in Paraguay and the region. The dictatorship’s political party, however, continued to rule the country and hold onto authoritarian practices and institutions, perpetuating high levels of poverty and inequality, and limiting the growth of a very small educated middle class. In the sometimes-seeming hopelessness of Paraguay’s long-lasting democratic deficiency and eroded concepts of citizenship, however, social unrest and collective action have sparked demands for change. Periodic responses come from Paraguayan social movements, powered by considerable expertise in dealing with authoritarian regimes and arbitrary state repression in contexts of underdevelopment, destitution, and high inequality (Foweraker, 1995). Such movements represent the socially and politically marginalized and excluded, and have charted distinct pathways toward a more equitable and inclusive country. Clearly, the historical trajectory of Paraguay, steeped in authoritarianism, political instability, and extreme concentration of wealth, makes it clear that social, economic, and political dynamics in the country have provided a tremendous impetus for mobilization, but also have proven a heavy-handed challenge to social movements, creating these oscillations of mobilization and repression. It is impossible to ignore how these factors shape the resources, composition, and strategies of social movements.

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Mobilize: Recent Waves of Protest Increasingly, robust demonstrations, protests, and social movements are experiencing a certain resonance among the general population that has been pushed to its economic limits. It was a response to the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with an economic and political crisis, including allegations of corruption against the government and President Mario Abdo Benitez, that pushed thousands of protesters into the streets in March 2021 (Carneri & Londoño, 2021). These protests lasted for more than 30 consecutive days, from March 5 to April 12, and took place in various parts of the country. In contrast to previous years, protests since 2020 have lasted for much more extended periods and consist of multiple flare-ups, rather than being one-time events. In addition to the mobilizations in March 2021, numerous protests have taken place throughout the year in various parts of the country. In addition to the increased frequency, longer duration, and multiple sites of protests, collective action, more generally, is increasingly characterized by progressive and transsectoral alliances. Contemporary protests have represented remarkable and possibly unprecedented transsectoral, intergenerational, and intersectional solidarity. Most of the people participating in the protests were self-organized or were part of organizations that did not claim to be the organizers of the protests (Villalba, 2021b). In addition, in recent years, solidarities between social movements are built on a growing number of intersectional claims. Take, for example, the way in which environmental change, which affects different segments of the Paraguayan population, also serves as a connector for protests. The Chaco deforestation, the pollution and disappearance of the Guarani aquifer, the extension of lands occupied by soybeans and cattle-ranching, and the ensuing violent relocation of indigenous people and landless peasants are currently affecting the Paraguayan society as a whole. The March 2022 and more recent protest mobilizations, for example, have shown a high level of unity among peasant, indigenous, and grassroots organizations, demanding a reduction in fuel prices, the abolition of the repressive laws that criminalize social struggle, and official government support for peasant families facing the devastation caused by the current drought. Unionized workers, teachers, indigenous people, peasants, community organizations, truck drivers, and other social sectors have mobilized in concert, with various unified demands related to the inadequate pandemic response, government corruption, and the increasing cost of living. Such

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intersectionality and intersectionality bring more strength and support to social movements than ever before. Modern social movements are also more multigenerational than their antecedents, as the student movement has provided the first experience for thousands of young people in collective action. Most of the protesters were young people between 18 and 25 years of age, from Asunción and districts of the Central Department, although there was also greater age diversity in the protests in other parts of the country. Many student movement activists have gone on to participate in other social movements (feminist, LGBTQ+, labor), bringing with them new perspectives, collective actions, and organizational capacities. The forms of protest included sit-­ ins, rallies, marches, barricades, caravans, graffiti, artistic activities, as well as street and road closures (in different parts of the country). The repertoire of collective actions included rallies, marches, road and street closures, caravans, and artistic activities, among others. Questions remain around whether these social movements can gain traction in order to advance their demands and claims. Can this most recent wave of collective action be transformed into political results, and, ultimately, a change in government? The political institutions remain embedded in the patrimonial state and clientelist networks that proved almost impossible to change during the Lugo government. How might a new progressive government be different now?

Repress: Violence, Criminalization, and Censorship This mid- and post-pandemic wave of social movements has not gone unnoticed by the Paraguayan state. In what has become the expected fashion, the political elite’s response has been to crack down on protest and social movement discourse in a myriad of ways. The immediate state response to March 2021 mobilizations was characterized by the excessive use of force by police officers, the arrest of organizers and activists, as well as the ill-treatment of detainees. This demonstrates the continued democratic deficit, ensuring that citizens are not protected from arbitrary violence of the state which continues to be used by its elites to protect them from social movement opposition. As we have seen in the chapters, this is especially true regarding the peasant movement and the LGBTQ+ movement. A large part of the state’s response to public protest has been to criminalize the collective actions and tactics traditionally used by protesters in

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Paraguay. For example, as the chapters in this book discuss, occupying land has been a tried-and-tested means for campesinos to protest some of the continent’s most unequal distribution of land and what some claim to be upwards of eight million hectares of tierras malhabidas in the country. Towards the end of 2021, the so-called Zavala-Riera Law made it illegal to ‘invade’ land and increased the maximum penalty for trespassing from six to ten years. The law was championed by a legislator, Fidel Zavala, and a Colorado senator, Enrique Riera, to protect private property and to chastise the occupations, which they charge is a ‘business’ for NGOs and left-­ leaning politicians.1 Road blockades are another common means of protest in Paraguay and have been used to great effect by truckers and taxi drivers in both rural and urban Paraguay. As part of the March 2022 protests blocked roads for almost ten days in Ciudad del Este, on Paraguay’s border with Brazil, demanding the government provide more fuel subsidies to reduce the price of fuel for consumers. While the government conceded, Riera also began the process of illegalizing road blockades and implementing punishments for doing so, invoking counter-demonstration measures taken during the dictatorship. CODEHUPY tweeted: “Senator Enrique Riera announced the presentation of a bill aimed at criminalizing road closures, just as the Stroessner dictatorship did in 1970” (El Senador Enrique Riera anunció la presentación de un proyecto de ley que tiene por objeto la penalización de los cierres de ruta, tal como en 1970 hacía lo propio la dictadura stronista…) (@codehupy99, April 18, 2022). Artists and scholars also warn that the state has embarked on a program of censorship to repress public critique and collective action. Indeed, public art has been a growing response to injustice and corruption. For example, Cardozo argues that with the end of the dictatorship, ‘the downtown area of Asuncion… has become a center for protest, with numerous political graffiti pieces painted on public and private property” (2019, p. 606). While graffiti, by its nature, resists censorship, other art and expression are more vulnerable. In December 2022, for example, an open-air photo exhibition curated in Asunción by the art collective, El Ojo Salvaje, to commemorate International Human Rights Day was dismantled by the municipality. The photos displayed were chosen to represent the theme “the right to social protest”. The offending photograph featured an individual burning a placard featuring the name of City Mayor Óscar 1  https://www.abc.com.py/especiales/anuario-abc-2021/2021/12/29/ley-zavalainvasion-de-tierras-paso-a-ser-un-crimen/

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Rodríguez‘s political party, the ANR (the National Republican Association), better known as the same ‘Colorado Party’ of the dictatorship. Denying accusations of censorship, the municipality claimed that the photograph panels posed a danger to pedestrians. Several organizations, including CODEHUPY, a co-organizer of the exhibition, denounced what they saw as censorship.

Repeat: Continued Challenges to Strengthening Democracy Continued challenges to strengthening democracy in Paraguay, include inequality, governance crises, and lack of rights and recognition for all people. Such challenges continue to inspire and mobilize social movements to support and advance the struggles for rights, justice, and democracy. Persistent Inequality Although inequality has declined over the last decade, from a Gini coefficient of around 57% in the early 2000s to just over 46% in 2020, inequality in wealth and distribution and access to resources remains a serious problem in Paraguay, as in Latin America more generally. Inequality has been exacerbated by the country’s high level of economic dependence on large-­ scale soy farming and soybean exports. Since the beginning of the millennium, soybean production and exportation have become the economy’s ‘cash cow’ in continuity with a path dependency on the dominant agricultural model of monocultures and Western (and now BRICS economies) needs. Whole, unprocessed soybean, together with hydroelectricity from the Itaipu dam, accounts for nearly half of the country’s exports. The soy industry plays into a larger trend that features an international division of labor that pigeon-holes Paraguay into producing and exporting primary materials. As Fogel has pointed out in his chapter that agricultural mechanization, without industrialization, has locked Paraguay into a development model that generates wealth while creating few jobs. As more soy is grown on fewer, larger farms (Elgert, 2016), rural people are displaced to the city, where there are few opportunities and little economic or educational support. The dependence on agricultural development for national economic growth has eluded any sustainable

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alternatives for most urban-based workers. Most of them work in the service sector—both formal and informal—which limits their organization into associations and unions. This, in turn, limits their struggles for decent working conditions and salaries. Nevertheless, the incremental progress won by the domestic workers demonstrates not only their tenacity but also how they contribute to reshaping and expanding the limits of traditional labor unions. The effects of large-scale soy monocultures on the environment as well as small farmers have been disastrous and make for a difficult, if not impossible, adaptation to climate change. The increase in temperature on the South American continent has caused long droughts and fires with huge economic losses. CAF-Latin American Development Bank ranks Paraguay as one of the countries most vulnerable to the climate emergency in the region (CAF, 2014). Agricultural production in Paraguay has been devastated and, as if this were not enough, inflation is hitting the purchasing power of the low-income population due to the constant increase in the prices of food, medical drugs, and all fuels. The government offers no durable solution to the population, only populist promises. The pandemic only worked to exacerbate inequality by highlighting chronic problems, corrupt management, and the underfunding of the health, and social welfare systems. As with other South American countries, the Paraguayan government and health system administrators lacked the capacity, knowledge, and will to deal with the crisis. Contrary to other regional governments, there was little policy of distribution or redistribution to help the population face the hardships brought on by the pandemic (Costa, 2020). The national government demonstrated itself as a weak state administrator to provide support and protection to all of its citizens who, in the end, were left to their own devices. Ongoing, Evolving Government and Governance Crises Recent political developments could affect the context within which Paraguayan social movements evolve and make their claims. First, Fernando Lugo, the former Paraguayan president as well as senator representing Frente Guasu, suffered a stroke and a brain hemorrhage during the summer of 2021, underwent surgery, and remains in a coma at the time of this writing (ABC Color, 2022). Even if his health does improve, the situation demonstrates the fragility of the Left’s dependence on certain charismatic figures despite the arrival of a new generation of activists from the

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student, feminist and LGBTQ+ movements. The progressive forces of the left have united in the Concertación 2023, or Concertación Opositora, a coalition of parties opposed to the Partido ANR/Colorados. While this represents promising, ongoing resistance, the Concertación does not extend to the legislative elections. In addition to ousting the Colorados, the parties on the Left have opted to put their best efforts into making gains in the legislative elections in order to influence the future government’s decisions and public policy. At the same time, the Left more generally becomes increasingly fragmented, splitting along lines of philosophy, mission, and sometimes the ambitions of charismatic leaders. Even in the context of greater intersectionality and sectoral unity for some purposes, divisions resulting in many multiples of union centers, student groups, and campesino organizations, make the progressive forces in Paraguay weaker, not stronger. The second political development is the split of the Colorado Party into two factions: one represented by the Movimiento Colorado Añetete, and the other by Honor Colorado, led by former President Horacio Cartes. This split reflects the Colorado Party’s internal conflict, and how the party will choose its presidential candidate for the 2023 elections. Regardless of which candidate wins the primaries, we can count on both a continuity in the traditional elite rentier state model, and the party’s continued efforts to repress social movement opposition and any promotion of an alternative societal model to the larger population. The Paraguayan political scientist Sara Mabel Villalba argues that, (…) considering the presidential aspirations of more than one party leader and the inability to seek reelection, a reorganization of the internal forces within the Colorado Party is expected. (…) As for the opposition, heterogeneous and diverse, its chances will depend on alliances and finding a figure that can arouse the interest of voters and capitalize on citizens’ frustrations—visible on social networks and in protests—which has yet to translate into votes. In short, nothing is certain ahead of the 2023 general elections. (Villalba, 2021a)2

It remains to be seen if Paraguay’s democracy can encompass and manage the divisions within the Colorado party and between the Colorados

2

 https://nacla.org/colorado-party-strengthens-its-power-paraguay

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and the opposition without any stakeholder resorting to violence to settle their differences and animosities. Adding to the governance crisis are the criminal gangs and narcotraffickers that have introduced newer elements of power, control, and corruption into the Paraguay landscape. In this circumstance, the repressive operations are also part of the war between narcotraffickers and their political connections and affinities with certain members and sectors of the Colorado party. Paraguay has been the largest producer of cannabis for a long time but has emerged recently as the main route for cocaine coming from Bolivia and going to Europe. Since then, the First Capital Command (Primeiro Comando da Capital, or PCC), an important Brazilian gang, has started to control Paraguayan prisons as well as being responsible (or at least heavily suspected) for a series of paid killings, such as that of the former Tacumbú prison director, the mayor of Pedro Juan Caballero and Paraguay’s the leading criminal prosecutor, Marcelo Pecci, during his honeymoon in Colombia (Ferguson & Dalby, 2022). A large part of the security apparatus and the judiciary system have been penetrated and co-opted by organized crime groups. In August 2022, the US State Department placed ex-president Horacio Cartes and Vice-­ President Hugo Velázquez Moreno on the United States corruption list. There is a longstanding tradition of Colorado party elected officials’ involvement in the trafficking of illicit and stolen goods, but the infiltration by narcotraffickers of government institutions points to a loss of government control, a weakening of the state, and a veritable governance crisis. Rights and Recognition Another challenge to strengthening democracy is the ongoing lack of rights and recognition for some Paraguayan constituents, including indigenous groups, women, and LGBTQ+ communities. For example, gains for LGBTQ+ rights were made during the Lugo era, in step with other countries in the region. The Lugo government reversed the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy in the police force, and discrimination on the basis of sexual identity, was banned. But the return to power of the Colorado party, after just four years of progressive rule, is feared to have sent the country back to dictatorship-era policies and attitudes. This reversion is signaled, for example by impunity for the perpetrators of violence against the LGBTQ+ community, and a fervent acceptance of anti-gay rhetoric couched in crisis discourses of (male-female) family values and non-binary

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gender as a threat to children. Women’s rights, likewise, continue to be subsumed by the culture of machismo and reproductive freedoms are stubbornly resistant to progressive change. Indigenous communities have also suffered, historically and currently, from a lack of rights and recognition. Recently the Ayoreo communities in Paraguay’s Chaco forests were featured in the film, Nothing but the Sun (Apenas el Sol) (2020), in which filmmaker Mateo Sobode Chiqueno, an oral historian, recounts the group’s stories which he has been documenting for over 40 years. The fate of the Ayoreo people has raised growing concerns at the national, regional, and international levels. The building of a 340-mile highway and a bridge crossing the Paraguay River to and from Brazil, marketed as the “Bioceanic Corridor”, is at the center of the recent controversy, as it will speed up the already alarming deforestation of the region as well as endanger those indigenous communities already struggling for their survival (Blair, 2022a). In February 2022, Survival International, alongside a dozen indigenous organizations in Latin America, alerted the international community on this issue: “Leading Indigenous organizations from across South America have made an unprecedented public appeal for urgent action to prevent the genocide of one of the most threatened uncontacted tribes in the world” (Survival International, 2022).3 As elsewhere, the pandemic, and the pandemic response, exposed and exacerbated the lack of rights and recognition of many minority groups. Pandemic impacts posed disproportionate (and underestimated) difficulties for indigenous communities located in Paraguay, including forced evictions and travel restrictions (Blair, 2021) that have prevented them from returning to their communities, hunting grounds, and more generally curtailed access to resources and necessities. The joint report by the Federación por la Autodeterminación de los Pueblos Indígenas (FAPI), Tierraviva, and Amnesty International Paraguay (2020) contends that the lockdown has had a strong impact on the livelihood situation of indigenous peoples and that the quarantines and other restrictions on the freedom of movement of indigenous communities have had significant economic, social, and cultural implications for these communities. This response is more broadly embedded in the processes of historical dispossession of indigenous people and of their territory in this country (Correia, 2019). 3

 https://preview.survivalinternational.org/news/12725

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Moving Forward This book has presented and analyzed key social movements in contemporary Paraguay, their claims, challenges, victories, and means of mobilization. Those represented here are not alone—there are many other social movements in Paraguay that merit attention from domestic and international academic publics, including the environmental movement, the human rights movement, the urban/housing movement, and others. Paraguay offers a rich context and a plethora of case studies detailing the organizations involved in social struggles, and their different campaigns and actions throughout the past decades. It is only through a variety of empirical case studies can the study of Latin American social movements grow, and scholars and activists can better understand the complex and nuanced dynamics of the different struggles for hegemony in a complex society. One point is clear throughout the different chapters of this volume. Paraguayan social movements are a formidable force and integral player in society and politics at both the national and subnational levels. We cannot understand Paraguayan society, politics, and governance, without recognizing the different roles and dynamics that social movements have, and continue to bring, to public life. Although lasting social change and departures from an authoritarian and oligarchic past seem slow, tedious, and at times impossible, Paraguay is in a different place today than it was thirty years ago when it began its journey toward formal democracy. In any society, change is rarely linear or straightforward. The voices and collective actions of social movements in Paraguay exist to represent those without a voice, to call attention to and name the injustices they experience, and to provide solutions to them that benefit all of society, making it more inclusive, equitable, and just.

References ABC Color. (2022, August 10). Fernando Lugo sufrio un ACV y esta en coma inducido. ABC Color. https://www.abc.com.py/nacionales/2022/08/10/ lugo-­sufrio-­acv-­y-­esta-­en-­coma-­inducido-­confirman/ Blair, L. (2022a, January 5). Rocky road: Paraguay’s new Chaco highway threatens rare forest and last of the Ayoreo people. The Guardian. https://www. theguardian.com/global-­development/2022/jan/05/rocky-­road-­paraguays-­ new-­chaco-­highway-­threatens-­rare-­forest-­and-­last-­of-­the-­ayoreo-­people

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Blair, L. (2021, November 21). Indigenous community evicted as land clashes over agribusiness rock Paraguay. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian. com/global-­d evelopment/2021/nov/21/paraguay-­e victions-­l and­indigenous-­agribusiness Cardozo, M. L. (2019). Downtown Asunción, Paraguay: A democratic place for graffiti in response to rural injustices. ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, 18(3), 606–641. Carneri, S., & Londoño, E.. (2021, March 7). Paraguay’s president faces mass protests and calls for impeachment as cases rise. New York Times. https://www. nytimes.com/2021/03/07/world/paraguay-­covid-­protests.html CAF. (2014). Vulnerability index to climate change in the Latin American and Caribbean region. CAF. http://scioteca.caf.com/handle/123456789/509 Correia, J. E. (2019). Unsettling territory: Indigenous mobilizations, the territorial turn, and the limits of land rights in the Paraguay-Brazil borderlands. Journal of Latin American Geography, 18(1), 11–37. Costa, W. (2020, April 12). Paraguayans go hungry as coronavirus lockdown ravages livelihoods. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/global-­ development/2020/apr/12/paraguay-­coronavirus-­hungry-­social-­inequalities Elgert, L. (2016). ‘More soy on fewer farms’ in Paraguay: Challenging neoliberal agriculture’s claims to sustainability. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 43(2), 537–561. Ferguson, S., & Dalby, C. (2022, June 28). Prosecutors, Mayors and Prison Directors  – Paraguay’s Frightening Assassination Problem. InSight Crime. https://insightcrime.org/news/prosecutors-­p rison-­d irectors-­m ayors­paraguay-­assassination-­problem/ Foweraker, J. (1995). Theorizing social movements. Pluto Press. Survival International. (2022). South American Indigenous groups unite to demand urgent protection for uncontacted tribe. Retrieved September 20, 2022, from https://www.survivalinternational.org/news/12725 Tierraviva, FAPI and Amistia Internacional Paraguay. (2020). Paraguay y covid 19: pueblos indígenas entre el hambre, el riesgo y la indiferencia. http://www. tierraviva.org.py/paraguay-­y-­covid-­19-­pueblos-­indigenas-­entre-­el-­hambre-­el-­ riesgo-­y-­la-­indiferencia/ Villalba, S. M. (2021a). The Colorado party strengthens its power in Paraguay. NACLA, October 21. https://nacla.org/colorado-­party-­strengthens-­its-­power-­paraguay Villalba, S. (2021b). Crisis sanitaria, movilización social y concentración de poder. In CODEHUPY (Ed.), Derechos Humanos en Paraguay 2021. CODEHUPY.

Index

A ABC Color newspaper, 244 Abortion, 76, 167 Acknowledgment approach, 65 Activist Beyond Borders, 134 Advocacy coalitions, 134 Agrarian capitalism, 47 Agrarian class conflict, 46 Agrarian reform, 11, 13, 48, 64, 89 Agrarian Reform Law, 68 Agribusiness firms, 71 Agrochemicals, 7, 69 Agroecological feminism, 72 Agroecology, 61 Agroecology rebellion, 70 Alegre, Efraín, 39 Amendment crisis, 14 Anarchist women, 160 Ancestral territory reoccupation, 84 Anglican Church, 90 Anti-gay rhetoric, 269 APC rainbow, 37 Apenas el Sol (movie), 270

Aprender a querer campaign, 164 Articulación Feminista Mercosur (AFM), 140 Asociación de Empleadas del Servicio Doméstico del Paraguay (ADESP), 140 Authentic Radical Liberal Party (PLRA), 116 Ayoreo people, 270 B Bañados swamp, 3 Beijing Platform for Action in Paraguay, 164 Beijing UN Conference on Women, 164 Benitez, Mario Abdo (President), 263 Berlin Wall, 107 Bernardo Aranda death, 187 Bioceanic Corridor highway, 270 Bipartisanship, 29 Body and land question, 69

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. Levy et al. (eds.), Social Movements and the Struggles for Rights, Justice and Democracy in Paraguay, Social Movements and Transformation, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25883-1

273

274 

INDEX

Bolivian cocaine, 269 Boomerang pattern, 133, 163 Boomerang strategy, 98 Bordón, Elisa, 247 Brazilian soybean growers, 47, 55 Broad Front Party (PFA), 37 Bus fares for students, 215 C Campesina movements, 64 Camp Leader training camp, 224 Campo Flores Anglican mission, 90 Capital intense labor, 46 Cartes, Horacio (President), 12, 39, 49, 76, 120, 243, 247, 268 Catarsis Colectiva Feminista, 166 Catholic Church, 5, 94, 167, 246 Catholic University of Asunción (UCA), 234, 243, 246 Censoring discourses, 189 Censorship, 265 Center for Analysis and Dissemination of the Paraguayan Economy (CADEP), 49 Central General de Trabajadores (CGT), 117 Central Obrera y Transporte del Paraguay (COTP), 121 Central of Workers of the Paraguayan State (CESITEP), 117 Centro de Documentación y Estudios (CDE), 140 Centro Obrero Regional del Paraguay (CORP), 110 Chaco deforestation, 263 Chaco region, 84 Chaco War, 29, 89, 110 Chiqueno, Mateo Sobode, 270 Christian Agrarian Leagues, 5, 29, 45 Citizen security policy, 171 Citizenship male rationality, 201

Civil society demands, 9 Civil society feminists, 168 Clientelist network, 5 Climate change, 16 CNT-Legítima, 121 Coalition tensions, 66 Colegio Cristo Rey, 223 Colegio Fernando de la Mora, 226 Colegio Nacional de Comercio N°1, 215 Colegio Nacional de Comercio N°2, 226 Colegio Nacional de Niñas, 215 Colegio Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, 226 Colegio Presidente Franco, 215 Colegio República Argentina, 226 Collective bargaining freedom, 120 Collective identity, 87, 99 Colonia San Juan del Yhovy, 55 Colonial capitalism legacies, 67 Coloradismo, 243, 246 Colorado governments, 33 Colorado Party, 29 Committee for the Prevention of Violence against Women, 172 Committee of Women for Peace, 160 Commodity boom, 52 Communist movements, 110 Concertación Opositora, 268 Concertación 2023, 268 Concerted mobilizations, 263 Confederation of the Working Class (CCT), 119 Confederation of Workers of Paraguay (CTP), 110 Conscientious Objection Movement (MOC), 222 Conscientizaçao, 63, 67 Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT), 49 Conservative backlash, 164

 INDEX 

275

Constitution for All movement, 115 Constitution of 1870, 110 Constitution of 1992, 53, 91, 114, 183 Convention 169 on the Rights of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, 93 Convention 189 on domestic workers, 133 Coordinación de Mujeres Campesinas, 68–69 Coordinadora de Organizaciones Juveniles del Paraguay (COJPY), 222 Coordinadora Nacional de Productores Agrícolas (CONAPA), 45 Coordinadora por los Derechos Humanos del Paraguay (CODEHUPY), 166 Coordination of Women of Paraguay (CMP), 160 COVID-19, 143, 249 Crescencio González settlement, 51, 54 Criminalization of social struggles, 35 Criminalizing occupations, 56 Curuguaty massacre, 11

Domestic workers legal discrimination, 130 Domestic workers organizational constraints, 132 Domestic workers politicization, 146 Domestic workers trade unions, 130

D Decidamos NGO, 218, 222 Deforestation, 56, 92, 270 Democratic Center, 29 Democratic Congress del Pueblo (CDP), 35 Dictatorship’s legal framework, 185 Divorce legalization, 183 Domestic labor ethnic composition, 131 Domestic labor rights, 68 Domestic violence, 162 Domestic workers coalition, 134

F Febrerista Revolutionary Party (PRF), 30, 37, 254 Federación Nacional Campesina (FNC), 6, 18 Federación Obrera Regional Paraguaya (FORP), 109 Federación por la Autodeterminación de los Pueblos Indígenas (FAPI), 270 Federation of University Students of Paraguay (FEUP), 31, 214 Feminicide, 11, 171

E Ecologically oriented agriculture, 51 Economic stagnation, 7 Education censorship, 197 Education for all movement, 214 11 de mayo settlement, 55 El Ojo Salvaje, 265 Enclosure, 45, 85 Environmental laws violation, 47 Equality and citizenship, 182 Equipo Feminista de Comunicación, 166 Ethnocultural collective, 54 Evangelical churches, 167 Evictions, 54, 56 Exclusion techniques, 200 Exile, 5 Expanding memberships, 9 Extractivism, 8, 18, 44, 46

276 

INDEX

Feminine Union of Paraguay, 160 Feminist agroecology, 62 Feminist analytical frameworks, 64 Feminist education, 166 Feminist institutionalization, 164 Feminist ministers, 168 Feminist movement autonomy, 165 Feminist Movement for Asunción, 160 Feminist movements definition, 159 Feminist Platform of University Women, 247 Feminist renewal, 167 Feminist rural movements, 64 Femocrats, 168 Food sovereignty, 8, 53, 66 For democracy inside and outside the University slogan, 247 Franco, Federico (Vice-president), 39 Franco, Rafael (Colonel), 29 Franco’s program, 12 Freedom of speech, 220 Freire, Paulo, 67 French feminism, 72 Frente Estudiantil Secundario (FES), 216 Frente Guasu, 10, 50, 267 Frente Social y Popular, 9 Frutos, Nicanor Duarte (President), 36, 118 Fumigation of crops, 39 Fundación Casa de la Juventud, 223–224 G Galeano, José Antonio, 246 Garrote Law, 56 Gender and sexuality violence, 182 Gender-based violence, 171 Gender-disruptive bodies, 191 Gendered issues, 64 Gender ideology, 167, 197

Gender ideology prohibition, 197 Gender platform, 66 Gender stereotypes, 186 General strike of 1958, 29 General strike of 1961, 111 General strike of 1994, 34, 118 General strike of 2015, 120 Genocide, 270 Global crisis, 52 Globalization, 8, 97 Global market cash crops, 71 Glyphosate fertilizer, 69 GMOs, 46, 48, 50, 53 González Macchi, Luís A. (President), 33 Grassroots education, 62 Grupo de Acción Gay y Lésbico (GAC-L), 165 Grupo Interinstitucional Impulsor de la Política de Cuidados del Paraguay, 146 Grupo por los derechos de las lesbianas (Aireana), 165 G-20, 50 Guarani aquifer, 263 Guerra Guasu, 4 H Hashtag actions, 245 Hegemonic sexual scripts, 198 Heroic manhood stigma, 190 Heteronormativity, 192 Homosexuality, 188 Honor Colorado, 268 Huber Duré settlement, 54 I Impeachment, 168 Independent Movement (MI), 30 Indigenous claims, 89

 INDEX 

Indigenous collective memory, 101 Indigenous communities, 3 Indigenous discrimination and mistrust, 68 Indigenous legal claims, 91 Indigenous mobilizations, 85 Indigenous ontology, 87 Indigenous-State relations, 89 Indigenous structural discrimination, 90 Inflation crisis, 267 Institute of Rural Welfare, 92 Institutionalization of women’s oppression, 72 Institutionalized sexism, 174 Institutional politics, 11, 12 Institutional violence, 13 Instituto Paraguayo del Indígena (INDI), 91 Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM), 170 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACoHR), 96 Interlocking systems of oppression, 65 Inter-movement solidarity, 15 International allies pressure, 134 International cooperation, 146 International debt crisis, 31, 107 International Monetary Fund (IMF), 32 International organizations, 16 Intersectionality, 14, 22, 67 Inter-Union Movement of Workers (MIT), 31, 34, 113 Itaipu hydroelectric dam, 30, 266 J Jesuits, 5 Jóvenes en torno al Lago, 222 Judicial system reform, 52 Juventud Que Se Mueve, 228

277

K Kill it all agro-chemicals, 53 K-12 education, 197 L Labor Code of 1961, 111 Labor Code of 1993, 34, 115 Labor institutional frameworks, 110 Labor intersectionality, 132 Labor rights movement, 140 Lafuente, Marta, 227 Land eviction, 48 Land illegal appropriation, 47 Land occupations, 6, 48 Las Ramonas, 166 Las Virginias, 166 Latifundio agrarian model, 3 Latin American feminists, 72, 164 Law 213/93 on domestic labor, 139 Law 904 on Indigenous legal status, 91 Leadership training, 221 Learning to love campaign, 164 Legal equality, 200 Lesbophobic violence, 166 Lezcano, Ayoreo, 254 LGBTQ+ community, 181 LGBTQ+ discrimination, 184 LGBTQ+ police repression, 184 LGBTQ+ rights, 168 Liberation theology, 5 Ligas Agrarias Cristianas, 45 Lugo, Fernando (President), 10, 35, 70, 109, 143, 168 Lugo government alliance, 38 M Male-dominated campesino movements, 64 Mandatory unionization, 114

278 

INDEX

Marches, 53 March First Organization (OPM), 30 Mar del Plata meeting, 164 Marina Kué Curuguaty settlement, 11, 56 Mario Palmieri death, 187 Massacre of peasants, 48 Mennonite cooperative Chortitzer Komitee, 94 Mercosur Social y Solidario, 222 Mesa de Trabajo Estudiantil, 227 Military tutelage, 184 Minimum wage law, 142 Misogynistic discourse, 167 Modernization narrative, 50 Monsanto, 7 Moral code, 186 Movement for Secondary Organization (MOS), 214 Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), 5 Movimiento Campesino Paraguayo (MCP), 45 Movimiento Colorado Añetete, 268 Movimiento de Objeción de Conciencia (MOC), 219 Movimiento Juvenil Campesino Cristiano (MJCC), 222 Movimiento Popular Tekojoja (PPT), 37 Movimiento por la Obtención del Boleto Estudiantil (MOBE), 218 Multi-scalar mestizo movement, 74 Multisectoral Women’s Network of Paraguay, 160 Muñoz, Cristina, 170 N Narcotraffickers, 269 National Central of Workers (CNT), 34, 110, 115

National Concertation (CN), 37 National Confederation of State Officials and Employees (CONFEE), 118 National Confederation of Workers (CONAT), 118 National Congress occupation, 216 National Constituent Convention, 52 National Coordinating Table of Peasant Organizations (MCNOC), 35 National Coordination of Agricultural Producers (CONAPA), 31, 35 National Coordinator Committee of Rural and Indigenous Women Workers (CONAMURI), 165 National Coordinator of Rural and Indigenous Women Workers (CONAMURI), 62 National Department of Labor (DNT), 110 National Electricity Administration Council (ANDE), 112 National Encounter Party (PEN), 37 National Executive Commission and a National Leadership, 224 National Federation of Secondary Students (FENAES), 219, 220 National Institute of Rural Development and Land (INDERT), 55 National Peasant Federation (FNC), 43, 45, 48 National Plan for Equal Opportunities for Women, 169 National Policy on Care, 130 National Professional Promotion Service Council (SNPP), 112 National Republican Association (ANR), 29, 110 National Union of Student Centers of Paraguay (UNEPY), 223

 INDEX 

National University of Asuncion (UNA), 243 National Workers Bank (BNT), 112 Nationhood hetero moral code, 196 Native/creole seeds, 73 Neighborhood organizations, 9 Neoliberal agri-food regime, 46 Neoliberal policies, 47 Network of Women Municipal Councilors of Paraguay (RMMP), 162 Networks of Labor Activism (NOLA), 134 Ni una menos movement, 158, 175 Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), 97, 134, 142, 164 Nothing but the Sun (film), 270 O Official trade unions, 108 OGM seeds, 39 Oligarchic state, 13 108 Bernardo Aranda case, 187 Organización Nacional Estudiantil (ONE), 225 Organization of American States (OAS), 12 Organization of Education Workers of Paraguay (OTEP), 216 Organized crime, 269 P Pacifist women, 160 Paid domestic work, 131 Panambi Assuncion based organization, 194 Pandemic, 249 Paraguayan Communist Party (PCP), 30

279

Paraguayan Confederation of Workers (CPT), 29, 34, 111 Paraguayan Feminist Center, 160 Paraguayan labor market, 123 Paraguayan League for the Rights of Women, 160 Paraguayan Peasant Movement (MCP), 31, 35 Paraguayan Workers’ Federation (FOP), 110 Paraguayan Workers’ Union (UOP), 110 Paraguay geopolitics, 2 Paraguay Guarani ancestry, 3 Paraguay Pyahurã Party (PPP), 51 Parliamentary coup, 46 Partido del Movimiento al Socialismo (P-MAS), 37 Paseo La Galeria, 3 Patience is over campaign, 227 Patriotic Alliance for Change (APC), 37 Patronage, 6 Peasant mobilizations, 54 Peasant movement criminalization, 48 Peasant soybean farms, 49 Peasants’ resistance, 53 Peasants unemployment, 49 Pecci, Marcelo, 269 Pedro Juan Caballero, 269 Peralta, Froilán, 244 Permanent Board of Conciliation and Arbitration, 112 Pesticides, 51, 56, 70 Pink Tide political wave, 13, 144 Plenary of Trade Union Centrals, 121 Police control narratives, 195 Police violence, 189 Political graffiti, 265 Political transition limitations, 184 Popular Democratic Movement (MDP), 31

280 

INDEX

Popular feminism, 165 Popular Social Front, 9 Por Ellas Law, 172 Post-neoliberalism, 36 Post-Stroessner period, 6 Precarious organizations, 165 Pride parades, 200 Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), 269 Private sector trade unionism, 108, 122 Privatization, 33, 48, 85 Professional feminists, 165 Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), 37 Prono, Nicolás, 249 Protest domino effect, 86 Public and Private Schools First National March (MNCPP), 223 Public morality, 192 Public-Private Partnership Law (PPP), 121, 223 Public Sector Inter-Union Table (MISP), 120 Public space disruption, 190 Q Quotas for political participation, 162 R Religious fundamentalism, 167 Religious institution, 243 Relocation of indigenous, 263 Repression, 5, 45, 56 Reproductive rights, 68, 167 Republican Workers’ Organization (ORO), 110 Revolutionary feminists, 160 Revolutionary government, 29 Riera, Enrique, 197, 265

Riot Grrrls, 166 Riquelme, Blas N. (Senator), 11 Road blockades, 57, 83, 265 Rodríguez, Andrés (President), 33 Rodríguez, Óscar, 265–266 Roundup Ready, 7 Rubín, Gloria, 170 Rural wage campaign, 53 Rural women constraints, 64 Rural women’s organizations, 166 S Salary Council, 112 Salazar Ranch, 95 Same-sex marriage, 167, 185 Sanapaná Nation, 83 School in Fernando de la Mora (CETEC), 223 School occupations, 14 Schools authoritarian practices, 225 Secretariats for Women and Youth, 123 Seed banks, 73 Seed exchanges, 74 Seed-saving project, 70 Semilla róga, 63, 70, 73 Sentata, 217 Sex education, 76 Sex education policy, 168 Sex social regulation, 182 Sexual abuse, 194 Sexual dissidents, 193 Sexual minorities, 188 Sex workers, 194 Sex zones, 193 Shelter for women, 171 Silvino Talavera’s death, 69 Sindicato de Trabajadoras del Servicio Doméstico del Paraguay (SINTRADESPY), 144

 INDEX 

Sindicato de Trabajadoras Domésticas de Itapúa (SINTRADI), 142 Sindicato de Trabajadoras Domésticas del Paraguay (SINTRADOP), 140 Single Central of Workers (CUT), 34, 115 Single Registry of Domestic and Gender Violence (RUVIG), 172 Sit-ins mobilization, 246 Social and Popular Block (BSP), 37, 119 Socialist movements, 110 Social movement networks, 13 Social movements agenda, 10 Social movements coalition, 143 Social networks war, 167 Social Security Institute (IPS), 112 Solidarity Country Party (PPS), 37 Somos anticorrupción citizen movement, 44 Soup kitchens’ network, 44 Soybean agribusiness, 52 Soybean extractive model, 53 State violence, 13, 48, 185 State violence legitimation, 186 Stigmatized sexualities, 189 Strikes, 138 Stroessner, Alfredo (President), 4, 29 Stronismo, 30 Structural adjustment, 32 Student institutions, 234 Students marches, 175 Student spring, 226 Student ticket bill, 217 Student union autonomy, 214 Suffragettes, 160 Surveillance, 193 Sustainable production, 51 Systematic inequalities, 6 Systemic state racism, 90

281

T Targeted violence, 189, 196 Tax exemption, 50 Teachers abuse and violence, 244 Tekojoja People’s Movement, 9 Tierras malhabidas, 5, 11 Tierraviva a los Pueblos Indígenas (NGO), 96, 270 Torture, 190, 194 Trade union corporatism, 113 Trade union fragmentation, 108, 138, 144 Trade union pluralism and atomization, 116 Trade union repression, 111 Trade unions gender-blind perspective, 132 Trade unions-micro-­ organizations, 116 Trade union tripartite negotiation, 119 Trade union women participation, 123 Traditional gender roles, 198 Transgender people, 168 Transnational Advocacy Networks, 134 Transnational protest, 97 Trans women, 194 Triple Alliance war, 4, 29, 89 Truck drivers demonstration, 57 Truth and Justice Commission (TJC), 184 25 de Febrero settlement, 95 29 de Junio settlement, 57 U UCA takeover, 246 UNA No Te Calles, 44, 234, 244, 250 Unequal power relations, 65 Union Gremial del Paraguay (UGP), 109 Unionization, 114, 136

282 

INDEX

Unitary Central of Authentic Workers (CUT-A), 117 United States corruption list, 269 Untitled Indigenous land, 89 UN Women’s Decade, 160 Urban-based workers, 267 Urban farm occupations, 54 Urbanization, 156 V Valenzuela, Monsignor, 247 Velázquez, Narciso, 246 Velázquez Moreno, Hugo (Vice-­ President), 269 Via Campesina NGO, 53 Violence against Women (VAW), 158 Virtual platforms activism, 245 Voces del Futuro Center, 223 W Washington Consensus, 13, 32, 107 Wasmosy, Juan Carlos (President), 33

We are all equal campaign, 185 Women’s cultural resignation, 156 Women’s Desk and the Safe House, 172 Women’s Secretariat, 162 Women struggle divisions, 141 World Bank (WB), 32 X Xákmok Kásek community, 83 Y Yopoi, from all to all philosophy, 5 Young Christian Workers, 219 Youth organizations, 166 Youth Parliament, 219 Youth political experiences, 241 Youth rebellion, 218 Z Zavala-Riera Law, 265 Zero-fees campaign, 234, 249