1.Roundup-Ready military - Ignacio Chapela
2.The US Military Descends on Paraguay
3.Help the Peasants of Paraguay Resist Genetically Modified Soybeans 4.Violent repression of peasant mobilisation in Paraguay! (refers to events this week) 5.THE SOY REPUBLIC BURNS
Excerpt: "National armies are now protecting GMO-, export-oriented soybean plants against the diverse ecosystems of the region, but also against the citizens of those countries who insist on rejecting them. Infusing the CIA and the US military into this formula simply adds deadly power to an already raging fire." (item 1)
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1.A deadly environmentalist force: Roundup-Ready military
by Ignacio Chapela
[Comments regarding item 2]
The US military are establishing bases and new collaborations with the Paraguayan military. Many ask why.
With the excuse of fighting terrorism, the presence of these forces in a US friendly territory may yet give some measure of discomfort to the neighbouring governments of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Bolivia, all of whom continue to build opposition to US hegemony in the hemisphere.
One thing is clear, however: internal military and paramilitary repression has found an immediate use in promoting the spread of GMO soy. Herbicide resistant transgenic soy has brought to this South American region a form of agriculture that is incompatible with campesino or indigenous ways of life. Instead of changing agriculture to fit people, the landscape is being cleansed through violence to make it fit mechanized, high-input, monoculture soybean production. National armies are now protecting GMO-, export-oriented soybean plants against the diverse ecosystems of the region, but also against the citizens of those countries who insist on rejecting them. Infusing the CIA and the US military into this formula simply adds deadly power to an already raging fire.
In reading these news, one should not forget that the international market for soybeans is being artificially inflated, not least by the new craze to exploit globalized sources of biofuels.
So it is that the Pentagon is finding a new cause in common with environmentalists.
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2.The US Military Descends on Paraguay
Benjamin Dangl
The Nation, 12 July 2006 [excerpts only] http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060717/dangl
Quotes:
""The US military is advising the Paraguayan police and military about how to deal with these farmer groups....
""The US troops talk with the farmers and get to know their leaders and which groups, organizations, are working there, then establish the plans and actions to control the farmer movement and advise the Paraguayan military and police on how to proceed...."
"They are teaching theory as well as technical skills to Paraguayan police and military. These new forms of combat have been used internally"
"The most recent case of this violence is the death of Serapio Villasboa Cabrera, a member of the Paraguayan Campesino Movement, whose body was found full of knife wounds May 8. Cabrera was the brother of Petrona Villasboa, who was spearheading an investigation into the death of her son, who died from exposure to toxic chemicals used by transgenic soy producers. According to Servicio, Paz y Justicia (Serpaj), an international human rights group that has a chapter in Paraguay, one method used to force farmers off their land is to spray toxic pesticides around communities until sickness forces residents to leave."
"Paraguay is the fourth-largest producer of soy in the world. As this industry has expanded, an estimated 90,000 poor families have been forced off their land. Campesinos have organized protests, road blockades and land occupations against displacement and have faced subsequent repression from military and paramilitary forces.
According to Grupo de Reflexion Rural (GRR), an Argentina-based organization that documents violence against farmers, on June 24, 2005, in Tekojoja, Paraguay, hired policemen and soy producers kicked 270 people off their land, burned down fifty-four homes, arrested 130 people and killed two."
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3.Excerpt from 'Help the Peasants of Paraguay Resist Genetically Modified Soybeans'
As a result of the rapid expansion of genetically modified soybeans into the area, peasants and indigenous people in Eastern Paraguay have become the targets of land evictions, pesticide poisoning and assassinations.
While Brazilian, Italian and Canadian Mennonite farmers have been the beneficiaries of the global soy boom in Paraguay, the majority of people living in the area only see the worst side of the monocultural invasion.
This is particularly acute in the department of Caaguazu, where three indigenous communities have been forcibly displaced, a dozen peasant communities have disappeared, and the very last of the trees will soon be replaced by fields of beans.
In the last three years alone, hundreds of protesters have been arrested in clashes with police, and six have been killed by military and paramilitary groups protecting the soybeans. With 2006 shaping up to be a very poor harvest, the danger of confrontation over land resources is even more serious than usual.
GMO Soy Growers commit Massacre in Paraguay http://www.activistmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=383&Itemid=56
Canadian Anthropologist Witnesses GMO-related Shootings in Paraguay http://www.activistmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=392&Itemid=56
Soybeans and Guns in Rural Paraguay http://www.activistmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=486&Itemid=56
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4. Subject: [the Soya Case] Violent repression of peasant mobilisation in Paraguay!
Press release of CLOC-VIA CAMPESINA (in Spanish below)
From: an This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
To: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
In Paraguay yet another violent repression occurred yesterday, 19th of July [2006] at 10:30 in the morning in the southern department of Caazapa, ordered by de president Nicanor Duarte Frutos.
More than 1000 peasants of the MCNOC closed off a road to require the fulfilment of their demands to the government.
The government answered with violent repression. There are 51 arrests, including several children and one pregnant woman. 8 persons got seriously injured and had to be taken to the hospital in the department south of Caazapa, Guaira. During the repression two children disappeared: Alicia Gonzalez (7) and Cesar (11).
More than 200 demonstrators were brutally tortured for more than 2 hours.
This all happened after 9 days of enduring mobilisations with roadblocks, land occupations and the enforcement of various encampments. The government is not open for conversation, so the peasants will continue mobilising and maintain the occupations.
The organisations demand halt to the repression and a release of the now more than 60 arrestees. They demand an immediate response to the demands of the MCNOC. ... Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Organizaciones del Campo -
CLOC-CONO SUR-VIA CAMPESINA
Organizaciones componentes en Paraguay MCNOC, MCP, OLT, y CONAMURI
La SecretarÃa Operativa de la CLOC CONO SUR informa a todas las organizaciones de la CLOC - VIA CAMPESINA, a la opinión publica nacional
e internacional y al mismo tiempo condena y repudia otra SANGRIENTA
REPRESIÓN ocurrido esta mañana a partir de las 10:30 en el distrito de Ñumi Departamento de Caazapa por orden del Presidente Nicanor Duarte Frutos.
Más de 1000 (mil)campesinos y campesinas de la Mesa Coordinadora Nacional de Organizaciones Campesinas MCNOC cerraron la ruta para exigir al gobierno el cumplimiento de las demandas.
La respuesta fué una violenta represión
Hay 51 detenidos y detenidas en la Jefatura policial de Villarrica entre ellos varios niños y una embarazada.
8 compañeros/as heridos de gravedad se trasladó en el hospital de Villarrica Departamento de Guairá.
ValentÃn MartÃnez de 62 años con traumatismo de cráneo segun informaciones está siendo trasladada a Asunción
Desapareción de 2 niños durante la represión: Alicia González de 7 años y César de 11 años.
Asi mismo entre los detenidos estan los compañeros Evelio Ramón Giménez y Seferiano Rojas dirigentes de la MCNOC
Mas de 200 compañeros y compañeras fueron salvajemente torturados por más de 2 horas, desnudos, boca para abajo los cazcos azules, policÃa y la montada se ensañaron contra los humildes labriegos
Hoy cumplimos 9 dÃas de intensas movilizaciones con cortes de rutas,
ocupaciones de tierra y reforzando varios campamentos de sin tierra,
hasta el momento el gobierno no da ni una apertura de conversaciones por lo tanto la resistencia seguira con la medida de fuerza.
De todos los hechos criminales que desato el gobierno contra las organizaciones campesinas e indigena responsabilizamos al gobierno de Duarte Frutos.
Exigimos el cese de las represiones, la libertad de los detenidos que ya suman más de 60 personas.
Exijimos al gobierno respuesta inmediata a las demandas de la MCNOC.
GLOBALICEMOS LA LUCHA... GLOBALICEMOS LA ESPERANZA!!!
CARÃCTER EXIGENCIAS Y REIVINDICACIONES AL GOBIERNO
CONTRA LA POLITICA ECONOMICA NEOLIBERAL DEL GOBIERNO Del PRESIDENTE NICANOR DUARTE FRUTOS
EN DEFENSA DE LA SOBERANÃA NACIONAL
EXIGIMOS LA RENEGOCIACIÓN DEL TRATADO DE ITAIPÚ Y SU UTILIZACIÓN PARA ÃREAS SOCIALES VÃA PRESUPUESTO General de Gastos
a) En forma urgente
w Exigimos el cumplimiento asumido por el gobierno nacional, con
los productores algodoneros.
w Ejecución del Programa de Desarrollo Integral para combatir la
extrema pobreza de las comunidades indÃgenas, presentado a la SAS por la ONAI-MCNOC, respectivamente y reaprobado en la mesa de conversación
w Crédito para 30.000 productores/as, a través de un fondo
especial para la producción de autoconsumo y de renta en forma diversificada.
w El arraigo de los 14 nuevos asentamientos.
b) A corto plazo
w La aprobación del "Plan de Reactivación Productiva de la
Agricultura Familiar Campesina e IndÃgena", presentado en el mes de septiembre del 2004 al MAG,
w Creación de un Fondo de Contingencia a los Productores para prevención en casos de desastres naturales (sequÃa, helada, inundación, quema, entre otros)
w Crear un espacio para discutir precios base de la producción agrÃcola
w Discutir ampliación presupuestaria en el área social para el próximo 2006/07.
w Arraigo para los nuevos asentamientos.
w Reprogramación del crédito agrÃcola, ya sea en banca pública o privada
w Recuperación de las Tierras Mal Habidas y la construcción de nuevos asentamientos.
w Legalización de los Asentamientos campesinos e indÃgenas de Hecho.
w Compra de Tierras para nuevos asentamientos campesinos e indÃgenas.
c) A mediano plazo w La ejecución del plan de Reactivación Productiva de la Agricultura Familiar Campesina e IndÃgena.
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5.THE SOY REPUBLIC BURNS [excerpts only]
Mostly unseen by American and European eyes, a massive transformation of the South American landscape is taking place. A new bread-basket for the world is being constructed in what used to be the wild and native lands of the Amazon basin. Monocultures of soybeans, specifically GM varieties of this crop, are the foundation for this transformation.
The social costs of the establishment of the Soy Republic, comprising Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, are staggering, yet invisible to Northern media.
A recent report from Grupo de Reflexion Rural (GRR) details cases of murder, mass evictions, land-grabs and bloody confrontations from the advancing front of the Soy Republic.
Full article: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6584