WUNRN
PARAGUAY - PARLIAMENTARY COUP:
STRIKE AGAINST DEMOCRACY - GENDER & HUMAN RIGHTS ANALYSIS
Mujeres
resistiendo. No al golpe, Sí a la democracia.
On June 22, 2012, almost three years after
the coup d’etat in
By Gabriela De Cicco
On June 15, 2012, the Curuguaty massacre
occurred when a group of peasants took over lands belonging to a former Red
Senator enriched under stronismo. During the eviction[2], shooting resulted in 11 peasants and six policemen
being killed. This lead to the impeachment request and the quick and
undemocratic ousting of President Fernando Lugo. Following the impeachment,
Vice-president Federico Franco, who belongs to the most conservative section of
the PLRA (and according to feminist activists is also a Catholic
fundamentalist) was declared Presidente de Facto.
AWID: Was the Curuguaty massacre the only
reason leading to the Parliamentary Coup?
Line Bareiro (LB): No, the causes are
many. They are grounded in the discomfort with some of
AWID: Are some of those privileges related
to land ownership?
LB: Yes. In
AWID: What role have feminist and women’s
groups played since the coup?
LB:
Feminist resistance is very integrated
into what other civil society groups have been doing as resistance - through
marches, sit-ins and social networking presence and a large number of women
were visible in street and popular actions. A key role has been
played here by Coordinadora Nacional de Mujeres Rurales e Indígenas (CONAMURI,
National Steering Group of Rural and Indigenous Women), whose most important
historical leader, Maguiorina Balbuena, is also a vice-presidential candidate
from the Political Platform Kuñapyrenda. Groups like Cladem (PY) and Coordinación
de Mujeres
But something very challenging for the
feminist movement happened when the Women´s Minister, Gloria Rubin - a very
important feminist known for her work caring for victims and fighting against
violence - decided to stay after she was made an offer to retain her position.
AWID: What are the Minister’s arguments
for her decision to remain in office?
LB: According to Rubin, she has stayed on
because she stands for sexual orientation and for the decriminalization of
abortion. If she leaves, then the current president´s wife – who is an MP
– could carry out her own project of a Social Action Ministry that would imply
dissolving the Women´s Ministry. The current president is Catholic and a member
of a group called “We want a Dad and a Mom” that is opposed to equal rights for
homosexual persons. The Minister’s argument for staying is to hold on to her
achievements, and she already has results to show, because a month after the
coup, the Women’s Secretary became a Ministry by Law 4675 on July 25, 2012.
AWID: What are the immediate implications
of the coup and the challenges looking forwards?
LB: This has serious economic
consequences, and we are again isolated internationally when we had worked hard
to address that. Our country has already been suspended from the Unión de
Naciones Suramericanas (UNASUR, Union of South American Nations) and
from Mercado Común del Sur (Mercosur,
Southen Common Market). The only “success” of the current government is that
the Organization of American States (OAS) has not suspended
There will be elections in April 2013. The
challenge will be to have a real electoral process in the current climate. It
will most likely be a Red Party victory, and for the time being the Liberals
are happy to have achieved what votes would never have allowed them - to reach
the Presidency. Nevertheless, there is a high probability that some political
groups, like the Guasú Front and Kuñapyrenda, could get parliament seats and
become important political forces, and that would be a great change.
Towards this, Kuñaypirenda and CONAMURI,
are active in the different anti-coup fronts, to ensure women’s presence in
actions and decision-making. Kuñapyrenda wants to expand the basis of women´s
organizations, and now men also want to join the platform. It is a very creative
group, one of the few that provide political training. What is good is that
there are women in all political spaces and groups, and the requirements to
register as a political movement before the Electoral Justice have already been
met.
The other challenge is the friends who
have been in opposition to Stronist dictatorship all their lives, who
are now in favor of the coup. Paraguayan society has been seriously damaged.
The country is split into two. June 22 was a strike against developing a
culture of tolerance and Human Rights in
[1]
[2] Bareiro explains that an Eviction Protocol for land
occupations was created in
[3] “See that the Agricultural and Livestock 1991 Census
shows 81.32% of the land in the hands of 1.55% of the population, while the 2008
Census records an 85.5% of the land in the hands of 2%. According to
impoverished peasant organizations’ estimations, there are 300,000 landless
producing families. In the long period between both censuses, small land owners
(from 5 to 10 acres) lost 366,000 acres while properties above 500 acres added
9 millions acres.” (LB).
[4] In 2011 the Brazilian Parliament ratified the treaty
signed by
[5] One month after the ousting, the de-facto President
Franco is carrying out a “counter land reform”, backtracking on the small steps
forwards that had been taken earlier: “Perlas de la contrarreforma agraria”
(http://www.ultimahora.com/notas/549877-Perlas-de-la-contrarreforma-agraria).
[6]http://www.ultimahora.com/notas/546557-Europarlamentaria-que-visito-Paraguay-califica-de-racista-a-senadora-Ana-Mendoza-de-Acha
[7] The leaders in the Secretaries had Rank and treatment of
Ministries.