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Paper Short Abstract:

Campesinos from Marina Kue, Paraguay (the site of the 2012 massacre resulting in a parliamentary coup) have leveraged complex care networks and an ethic of food citizenship to secure land and livelihood from a state which often privileges the interests of soy agribusiness and narcotraffickers.

Paper Abstract:

Campesinos in the district of Curuguaty petitioned the state’s bureaucratic channels for eight years in attempts to collect a title for land in Marina Kue, eligible for reappropriation under the post-dictatorship constitution. After prolonged administrative neglect, the campesinos organized a land occupation in May of 2012. But their occupation ended after only three weeks, when three hundred heavily-armed police stormed the campsite, defending the interests of agribusiness and expanding soy monoculture. The political repercussions that followed the massacre at Curuguaty were extraordinary: right-wing politicians blamed President Lugo, who had promised land reform during his campaign, for provoking campesino violence, and removed him from office in a parliamentary coup. The massacre and its political implications thrust the small community of Marina Kue into the international spotlight and caused long-simmering disillusionment with corruption to boil over in Paraguayan civil society. “¡¿Que pasó en Curuguaty?!” emerged as a rallying cry and alliances formed among campesinos, international human rights organizations, the Catholic church, and environmental NGOs in the pursuit of public accountability. After years of work, these coalitions have achieved impressive victories—winning the acquittal of all accused campesinos in 2018 and land regularization in 2023. For a total of 16 months between 2018 and 2022, I conducted ethnographic research with these coalitions in order to examine the circumstances under which campesinos can find and maintain reliable urban allies in order to organize for their land and livelihoods.