Hear Our Pledge

Hear Our Pledge

Paraguayan Students in the U.S. Standing for Change in Paraguay

In the last weeks, Paraguayan students have woken up to the corruption that is crippling their education system.

Systematic corruption is a reality in Paraguay. Most — if not all — of the government agencies and institutions have histories of corruption. In fact, Transparency International ranked Paraguay among some of the most corrupt nations — in a ranking of 175 nations, with the most corrupt countries in the highest ranks, Paraguay ranks as 150.

The education system in Paraguay, apart from being corrupt, is also extremely poor. According to the World Economic Forum — a ranking including 144 nations, with Finland as the 1st place holder — Paraguay lies in the 140th place with regards to the quality of primary education. In the same ranking, Paraguay holds the 120th place for quality of secondary education.

But the destiny of this nation — our nation — started to change three weeks ago.

It all started on September 8, when Paraguayan newspapers published information that exposed the blatant corruption of the Dean of Universidad Nacional de Asuncion (UNA), Enrique Froilán Peralta Torres. He was involved in acts of nepotism and institutionalized corruption within the country’s main public university.

On September 16, students from the College of Engineering of UNA made the public request for the removal of the university’s Dean.

Finally, the next day, students started to express their discontent with the current state of affairs of the Paraguayan education through peaceful protests. Students from UNA began a march across their campus requesting the dismissal of the dean. On September 18, more than ten thousand high school students marched through downtown Asuncion, demanding a better management of the yearly government expenditure on primary education.

The evident opposition of Enrique Froilán Peralta Torres to the request led the students to take stronger measures. On September 21, thousands of students camped across campus — they refused to leave until the dean, Froilán Peralta Torres, would agree to resign.

Finally, after ten days — today, October 1, 2015 — Froilán Peralta has been sent to prison; nonetheless, students continue to remain vigilant at UNA’s campus. During the last ten days, the students have resisted university employees who attempted to burn files and destroy evidence of several corrupted practices. In addition, the students have exposed the corruption of other authorities and faculty who supported the former dean.

The events in UNA and the different students’ protests across the country are of extreme significance in a country that, for almost 60 years — with 35 of them under a dictatorial regime — has remained silent and indifferent to authorities’ dishonest and oppressive actions.

But things can change, and change is occurring there now.

Under the mottos #UNANoTecalles (“UNA, do not be silent”) and #ParaguayNoTeCalles (“Paraguay, do not be silent”), people are being inspired to get involved and spread the information about this corruption and abuse of power.

However, the fight is and will still be long. Our legal system is extremely corrupt, and several precedents of impunity have occurred (i.e. the massacre of Curuguaty, and the fire in Ycua Bolanos that killed almost 400 people). None can be certain that the prosecutions against Froilán Peralta and the other authorities of UNA will lead to just and fair outcomes.

Our only certainties are the students’ mobilizations, and the sharing of their voices — our voices.

We are a group of Paraguayan students attending college and graduate programs in the United States, and we publicly express our support to the Paraguayan students from Universidad Nacional de Asuncion (UNA), Universidad Del Este (UNE), and Universidad Nacional de Caaguazú (UNCA), and to the high school students who are — even today, even now — standing against corruption and in favor of a better and more transparent educational system.

From the East coast to the West coast, we make our claims visible, and we stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters at home.

Alongside of these students in Paraguay, we dream of a better country, a better educational system, and honest and transparent institutions.

We want the world to know what is happening in Paraguay. We hope that the international press and different entities will help us observe — and scrutinize — the legal processes that are being initiated against UNA’s authorities. We call upon other nations, agencies, movements, and individuals to join us as we fight against corruption in our universities, institutions, and government agencies.

We say, Paraguay matters — our voices matter. Listen.