MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Paraguay's 300.000 landless families wait for new president

Elected President Lugo will takes offices next Friday

Land distribution promises to become the main immediate challenge for Paraguay's elected president Fernando Lugo who takes office on Friday. An estimated 300.000 peasant families are expecting to be given a lot of land and their organizations are impatient.

The former Catholic bishop achieved a landmark last April when his catch all coalition defeated the hegemonic Colorado Party which has ruled Paraguay for over six decades and among his many electoral promises was land distribution, although he did warn a national survey has to be undertaken to have an inventory of properties. However a survey of such magnitude (400.000 kilometers) needs a foreign loan, at least two years and much patience plus the fact that since 1989, with the fall of dictator Alfredo Stroessner, there is no more fiscal land in the government's registry. But peasant organizations are tired of waiting. "Lugo promised us that on taking office he would give us the land, be it by expropriation at no cost or through a direct purchase from proprietors" said Luis Aguayom chairman of the peasant organizations coordinating office. Thousands more, including the indigenous population are camped outside large farms hopefully waiting for Lugo, at one time "the bishop of the poor" to be instated. Generating jobs is another challenge for the incoming government. Paraguay with 6 million people, the majority of which below 35 has a long tradition of expelling work-age population: from 2003 to 2008, at least 60.000 left for Spain and a similar number to Argentina and United States, according to Police records. The Paraguayan Episcopal Conference estimates at least 1.5 million Paraguayans are residents in Argentina's Buenos Aires province. The Catholic Church and several local universities have data showing that 41% of Paraguayans live below the poverty line and 19.7% in extreme poverty. This is mainly because Paraguay's economy has three main sources of income: soy and beef exports from farms belonging to big landowners; energy generation from South America's two largest dams which are managed by neighboring Brazil and Argentina and remittances from Paraguayans overseas, which last year totaled over 500 million US dollars. However Lugo inherits an economy which has experienced sustained growth in the last five years, 6% in 2007, pushed by international prices for commodities. Official statistics show official unemployment at 13.5%, but the private sector and trades unions work on the assumption it is above 20%.