Indigenous groups on Wednesday demonstrated in Paraguay’s capital against a law that makes it a crime to invade private property, and the protest escalated into violence that authorities said saw seven police officers injured, four vehicles set on fire and other acts of vandalism.
The police command said that one officer was hit by an arrow shot by archers from an ethnic group not yet identified.
Television coverage showed the commander of a police station about 300m from the Paraguayan Congress building lying on the ground and being hit by demonstrators with stones and sticks.
Photo: AP
Prosecutors said those protesters could not be identified as indigenous.
The unrest began when the 80-member Paraguayan Chamber of Deputies approved an amendment to the land invasion law that would increase the penalty to six years in prison from four for those who illegally occupy private property.
Indigenous groups often invade properties to press their demands that land be given to farmers.
Photo: EPA-EFE
National Peasant Federation president Teodolina Villalba said in the Guarani language in a telephone interview that “the modification of the law will not be a solution, because thousands of poor compatriots need a piece of land to cultivate.”
The group is the largest in Paraguay representing farmers, some of whom own land, but others who do not.
It seeks justice for indigenous people whose lands were taken away and given to others while Alfredo Stroessner was the nation’s president from 1954 to 1989.
The nation’s Truth and Justice Commission, created to investigate human rights violations during the Stroessner regime, presented a 6,000-page report in 2006 saying that nearly two-thirds of land allocated during the regime’s agrarian reform campaign went to people close to the government.
None of those people were poor, the commission said.
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
RSS