What happened in Curuguaty?
Seventeen dead. A president ousted. Eleven campesinos in prison. Here are quick answers to important questions about the Curuguaty Massacre and trials.
- What is Curuguaty, exactly?
Curuguaty is the name of a city and district in northeastern Paraguay, a small, landlocked nation in the heart of South America with a population of nearly seven million. (I should point out that Paraguay and Uruguay are actually different countries.) Paraguay shares two of the largest hydroelectric dams on the planet with two of its neighbors, Argentina and Brazil, and is one of the world’s top exporters of soy. Paraguayans speak Spanish and Guarani, an indigenous language also found in parts of Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia.
3. So what happened in Curuguaty?
It’s unclear what exactly went down on June 15, 2012. What is known is this: A group of landless peasants, or campesinos, had occupied an area of land in Curuguaty known as Marina Cue. Although it appears that the land was property of the Paraguayan state, the territory had been controlled by Blas Riquelme, a powerful figure in Paraguay’s conservative Colorado party, who laid dubious claim to the land during the decades-long dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner.
Riquelme called in the Paraguayan police to evict the campesinos, and on June 15, several hundred heavily-armed officers confronted a group of about 70 campesinos, including women and children. During the process, something went wrong, and 17 people were killed — six police officers and eleven campesinos. Some of the campesino deaths occurred after the initial confrontation, which some observers have suggested could indicate extrajudicial killings on the part of the officers.
4. What does this have to do with the ensuing ouster of then-president Fernando Lugo?
I’m glad you asked. Lugo, a charismatic ex-bishop with the bad habit of fathering illegitimate offspring, was elected to office in 2008. His election was a key moment in Paraguayan democracy, ending decades of single party rule by the Colorado Party. The aforementioned dictator and staunch US ally Alfredo Stroessner led the Colorado Party for 35 years, from 1954 to 1989. After his ouster, his party maintained control of the country until Lugo’s coalition of leftist opposition parties won the presidency. The Colorado Party still controlled the congress, however, and after the Curuguaty Massacre, they swiftly impeached Lugo in a hasty maneuver widely deemed a “parliamentary coup.” His vice-president Federico Franco took the reins, and the Colorado Party returned to power the following year when Horacio Cartes was elected to the presidency. Cartes, a tobacco tycoon and wealthy businessman, has been linked to contraband and smuggling.
5. Then what happened?
After the massacre, 11 campesinos — three women and eight men — were charged with crimes related to the event. They were held in prison or under house arrest in the capital, Asuncion. The ensuing investigation and trials were plagued by allegations of irregularities and scant evidence. In 2013, the United Nation’s Human Rights Committee expressed concern about the conflict and trials, stating that “The State party should institute an immediate, independent and impartial investigation into the deaths of 17 people during the police raid in Curuguaty on 15 June 2012, and also into all the related incidents reported by the victims, particularly torture, arbitrary detention, extrajudicial executions and possible violations of due process, including in the case of the young person who was convicted and the two heavily pregnant women held in pretrial detention.”
Footage of the confrontation taken from a helicopter vanished. The deaths of the 11 campesinos were never investigated. The trials have been repeatedly suspended, and the charges against the campesinos were altered at the last minute. Five of the campesinos went on hunger strike for a month in protest against their situation.
6. What were the sentences?
On Monday July 11, 2016, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the courthouse to hear the verdict. All 11 campesinos were sentenced to between 4 and 35 years in prison. Rubén Villalba and Luis Olmedo Paredes were given 30 years (plus five years as a security measure) and 20 years, respectively, for homicide, invasion of property, and criminal association. Lucía Agüero, María Fani Olmedo and Dolores López Peralta were each condemned to six years for attempted homicide, criminal association, and abetting invasion of property. Finally, Felipe Benítez Balmori, Juan Carlos Tillería, Alcides Ramón Ramírez and Adalberto Castro Benítez were each sentenced to four years in prison.
7. Why is this case important?
Apart from the massacre’s role as the proximate cause of Lugo’s ouster and as a key test of the Paraguayan judiciary, the Curuguaty case is emblematic of many issues at play in Paraguay today. Paraguay suffers from great inequality, largely linked to control of land. About 85 percent of the land in Paraguay is controlled by just 3 percent of the population, and more than 100 campesinos have been killed in land-related conflicts in since the end of the Stroessner dictatorship. About 8 million hectares, an area larger than Panama, were illegally distributed during and after the Stroessner dictatorship.
8. Okay… now what?
Lawyers for the campesinos have said they’ll appeal the verdict and seek international assistance. Protesters have closed roads and held vigils in objection to the verdict. At the time of publication, the campesinos’ supporters, families and lawyers are refusing to leave the courthouse. As a nun with the Paraguayan Religious Conference said after the verdicts were read, “The campesinos aren’t the ones being condemned, it’s the nation. Because this is more of the same dictatorship… We won’t retreat. We’re not stupid. We know they’re condemning innocents.”
