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.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
RSS