MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Paraguay and Bolivian Indians plight in the limelight

The director of the British-based organization Survival this week urged the Paraguayan government not to authorize a Brazilian livestock company to operate on lands of the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode Indians while in Bolivia a UN mission discovered Indian communities subjected to forced labour.

Yaguarete Pora S.A., has requested authorization from Paraguay’s Environment Ministry to operate in the area where Indians of that tribe live, most of whom have had no contact with civilization.

“We urge Paraguay’s government not to allow Yaguarete to work the Totobiegosode’s land,” Survival’s Stephen Corry said in a statement.

“To do so would violate their rights under international law and the U.N.’s Declaration on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights, and may well destroy them as a people.”

Yaguarete is the owner of these lands, but the Asuncion government took away their operating license last year after satellite photos were published showing rainforest destruction and following pressure from several local organizations.

According to Survival, Yaguarete blocked an investigative team of the Paraguayan ministry from entering the area.

A Paraguayan group that supports the Totobiegosode, GAT, is speaking out against the Paraguayan government giving Yaguarete a new license, because if it does, the tribe will be exterminated.

The Brazilian company recently announced its proposal to maintain an “eco-reserve” in part of the jungle, a move described by Survival as “green-washing of the most outrageous kind.”

Some Totobiegosode that have been contacted are demanding legal ownership rights to their lands, according to Survival, an organization dedicated to defending the rights of indigenous peoples.

Up to now only a few very small areas remain protected, while most of the jungle is being cut down to make way for livestock.

In Bolivia a mission dispatched by the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues reported that it had verified the existence of Indian communities in the east of the country subjected to forced labour.

The team, which came to Bolivia at the invitation of the government of Evo Morelas, “concludes that there exists indigenous forced labour in some regions of Bolivia, particularly in the Chaco regarding the Guarani people.”

According to the release, the situation of the Guaranis is a violation of the U.N. conventions signed and ratified by Bolivia. In addition, it constitutes a violation of other international treaties signed by Bolivia “such as the Agreement on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, the basic accords on forced labour, child labour, work discrimination and union freedom.”

“The mission also found evidence that the weak presence of the state in the Chaco has left the indigenous communities in a situation of high vulnerability,” the document added.