Paraguay. New threats from the military against indigenous communities in Amambay – Latin American Summary

Latin American Summary, June 2, 2022.

Through a video, Hilario Ibarra, leader of the Paĩ Tavyterã indigenous community near Cerro Guasu, Amambay, denounced new death threats and other harassment by the FTC in the region where the attack took place on September 2, 2020. double infanticide of Lilian Mariana and María Carmen (11) and the disappearance of Carmen Elizabeth «Lichita» (14), on November 30 of that same year.

STATEMENT

This indigenous community has held during 2021 meetings with social and Human Rights organizations from Argentina and Paraguay, in relation to the complaints of forced disappearance established before Paraguayan jurisdictional bodies and before the United Nations.

These community meetings have been key in the reconstruction of the events that occurred at the end of 2020, when the disappearance of Carmen Elizabeth Oviedo Villalba occurred and the subsequent arbitrary arrest of her aunt Laura Villalba, today held in the city of Encarnación and the awaiting Oral Trial. The stories of the Paĩ Tavyterã communities, together with the testimonies produced before United Nations organizations by the survivors of the operations carried out by the FTC, are fundamental pieces that clearly point to the Paraguayan State as being responsible for executions, torture and the enforced disappearance of girls. It is in this context that this new denunciation of the indigenous community takes place.

“I am Hilario, leader of this community. I make this video because these military started to create problems again. They’ve been after me since last year, and I don’t know why. So that’s why I’m making this video, because they threaten my family and me,” said Hilario Ibarra, leader of the indigenous community formed at the foot of Cerro Guasu.

In the video, Ibarra also denounces threats about possible arbitrary arrests and torture against members of the community. “They told me they have to catch me. I want to know why they persecute me, that’s why I make this video. They only persecute those of us from Cerro Guasu. I am the leader of the Cerro Guasu community. It is not right for those of us who are here to be persecuted. They threaten to torture my family. They have to have proof to do this. They cannot persecute indigenous people without proof, they persecute those who work. Recently they persecuted and beat up one who works here. That is why I make this video to find a lawyer who wants to help us and we are going to send it online so that it is known, because what they do is not right, ”he detailed.

“They also threaten to seize indigenous people who don’t have IDs, and most of the indigenous people don’t have IDs. If they do anything to me and my family they will be responsible (the military). They cannot continue persecuting the indigenous people, those who work. We indigenous people have nothing to do with it, we are poor, we suffer. In Cerro Guasu there is no one to help us”, ends the complaint video.

Background

The threats have been repeated systematically since the incursions of FTC troops in the region, and were repeated after the visit made to the community by an international Human Rights mission in March 2021. On that occasion, the residents They denounced that the communities in the area are intimidated, they are not allowed to go out to get their means of survival, that is why they desperately ask that their word be spread as a means of protection. “We don’t know what they want to do to us, if they want to rape us or kill us,” said Estelvina Armon, who together with her husband Hilario Ibarra recorded a video in the Jasuka Vendá community on March 20, 2021.

June 2, 2022

They sign:

International Campaign Where is Lichita? / Permanent Assembly for Human Rights – Matanza. Pablo Pimentel / Nora Cortiñas, Mothers of Plaza de Mayo — Founding Line / Adolfo Perez Esquivel – Nobel Peace Prize / Secretary of Migrant Workers and Refugees – Union of Workers of the Popular Economy / American Coordinator for the Rights of Peoples and Victims of the Political Prison / Popular Rebellion Movement / Rosario House of Memory / Boli Lescano Column / La Dignidad Popular Movement – ​​Confluence / Agency for Freedom / Paraguay Resists in Madrid and Barcelona / Organization of Peasant and Indigenous Women (CONAMURI) / Communist Party Paraguayan / Party of the Movement to Socalism (Paraguay) / Heñoi / Leonardo Pérez Esquivel, Sociologist. From Sweden: Solidarity Network with Latin America RESOCAL / Bolivian Cultural Association “Tiwanaku” / National Federation “Víctor Jara” / Cultural Integration Association – ADIC / Radio Sweden FM / Swedish-Ecuadorian Friendship Association / Solidarity Association with El Salvador / Peruvian Cultural Center / Argentine-Swedish Friendship Association / Cubans for Cuba.