VZCZCXYZ0020
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHAC #0451/01 1981332
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 171332Z JUL 09
FM AMEMBASSY ASUNCION
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7992
INFO RUCNMER/MERCOSUR COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHSJ/AMEMBASSY SAN JOSE PRIORITY 0083
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC PRIORITY
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0123
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 0193
RHMFISS/HQ USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL PRIORITY
RHMFISS/USSOCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY

UNCLAS ASUNCION 000451 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
PASS TO WHA/OAS, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR CCASTRO, TMCCARTER AND 
KCOOK, AND STATE FOR WHA/BSC MDASCHBACH, DRL FOR 
LCAPAROARIZA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM ELAB EIND SOCI PA
SUBJECT: CHACO INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES STRUGGLE UNDER SEVERE 
CONDITIONS 
 
------- 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1.  (SBU) During a June 18-19 visit to the indigenous 
communities of the Paraguayan Chaco, PolOff observed very 
poor living conditions exacerbated by severe drought.  Local 
indigenous leaders said that although many indigenous workers 
earned less than minimum wages and no benefits, they had no 
knowledge of forced labor conditions.  They indicated, 
however, that the Paraguayan government failed to fulfill its 
legal obligations to the Yakye Axa and Sawhoyamaxa Exnet 
indigenous communities in compliance with two Inter-American 
Court of Human Rights sentences.  Local leaders reported that 
Chaco indigenous communities face an urgent crisis that has 
received scant attention outside Paraguay -- the lack of 
water caused by severe drought conditions.  President 
Fernando Lugo's government has taken some action to fulfill 
its obligations to the Chaco indigenous communities, but 
further action is needed to improve their living conditions. 
END SUMMARY. 
 
------------------------------------ 
TOUR OF CHACO INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶2.  (SBU) PolOff visited the indigenous communities of the 
Paraguayan Chaco June 18-19 and observed very poor living 
conditions exacerbated by severe drought.  He also discussed 
indigenous human rights and labor conditions with local 
leaders.  PolOff visited the Guarani Occidental, Nandeva and 
Nivacle communities in Laguna Negra, a Guarani indigenous 
settlement northwest of Filadelfia; the Tesenpo-o Exnet 
indigenous community in Loma Plata; the Barrio Obrero Exnet 
community in Filadelfia; and the Yakye Axa and Sawhoyamaxa 
Exnet communities near Pozo Colorado.  (NOTE:  The Guarani 
indigenous group is one of five Paraguayan linguistic 
families; the Exnet is a subgroup of the Maskoy, another 
linguistic family.  END NOTE.)  PolOff also met Wilmer Stahl, 
Anthropological Advisor for the Indigenous-Mennonite 
Cooperation Services Association (ASCIM), a local indigenous 
rights NGO. 
 
------------------------------ 
SIZING UP THE CHACO INDIGENOUS 
------------------------------ 
 
¶3.  (U) The Paraguay government's 2008 Indigenous Census 
describes the Chaco indigenous as diverse and living and 
working under varied conditions.  The Census indicated that 
Paraguay had 108,000 indigenous persons as of 2008, with 
approximately 46,000 living in the Chaco.  Official data and 
studies suggest that most live in the Central Chaco near 
three population centers located along the corridor of the 
east-west Trans-Chaco Highway -- Villa Hayes, Filadelfia-Loma 
Plata, and Laguna Negra.  Local leaders confirmed that most 
indigenous work independently (over 20,000); for Mennonite 
cooperatives in the Central Chaco (5,000-10,000); or for 
independent ranchers in the Southern Chaco (1,000-2,000). 
The few indigenous persons who live in the Northern Chaco 
reside primarily in neighborhoods surrounding Paraguay River 
port towns. 
 
------------ 
LAGUNA NEGRA 
------------ 
 
¶4.  (SBU) During his tour of the Guarani Occidental, Nandeva, 
and Nivacle indigenous communities in the Laguna Negra 
settlement, PolOff spoke with "Antonia," a Guarani Occidental 
leader.  She noted that thousands of Guarani indigenous 
persons live in small communities scattered throughout the 
settlement.  She said these communities own their own land 
and cultivate cash crops such as sesame.  The communities' 
wells produce salty water suitable for agricultural purposes 
but inadequate for human consumption.  Antonia said that 
local communities either buy fresh water from Mariscal 
Estigarribia Municipality with the money they earn or rely on 
assistance from ASCIM.  She said local communities lack 
electricity and telephone service -- despite repeated 
 
requests that the government provide these services.  Each 
community had a school, small health clinic supported by the 
Health Ministry, and access to fresh water stored in large 
water tanks. 
 
------------------------- 
LOMA PLATA AND FILADELFIA 
------------------------- 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Exnet Tesenpo-o indigenous leaders Arce and Brigido 
Loewen told PolOff that most members of the Loma Plata and 
Filadelfia Exnet communities work for Mennonite cooperatives. 
 They said that the Mennonites pay "fair" wages and that a 
percentage of workers' salaries are set aside for community 
"assurance associations" that support their communities with 
social services such as medical care and access to fresh 
water.  During his tour of the Exnet Tesenpo-o indigenous 
community, PolOff observed homes made of aluminum sheeting, 
cardboard, tarps, and chicken wire.  However, the community 
had access to two functioning wells, electricity, a school, 
health clinic, and community center. 
 
------------------------- 
YAKYE AXA AND SAWHOYAMAXA 
------------------------- 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Yakye Axa leader Anibal Flores and Sawhoyamaxa 
leader Carlos Marecos described the bleak living conditions 
in their Exnet indigenous communities.  The 120 members of 
Yakye Axa and 150 members Sawhoyamaxa live on the shoulders 
of rural Highway 6 near Pozo Colorado without local access to 
water or food.  Flores and Marecos said their communities 
cannot drill wells because the area produces salt water; 
cannot grow crops because the soil is too sandy; and lack 
access to electricity even though power lines pass overhead. 
Although the National Emergency Secretariat (SEN) is 
obligated to provide food and water weekly to these 
communities, Flores and Marecos said that SEN delivers food 
and water monthly in small quantities -- forcing the 
communities to drink contaminated water from open cesspools. 
They said that workers typically work for local ranchers at a 
rate of just USD 3.00 - 5.00 per day excluding benefits. 
They noted that the Ministry of Education and Culture 
assigned volunteer teachers to educate local students through 
the third grade; after that, most youths work on local 
ranches. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Flores and Marecos told PolOff that the Paraguayan 
government had not yet fully compensated their communities 
according to the mandate of the Inter-American Court of Human 
Rights (IACHR).  The IACHR ruled in 2005 that the government 
had violated the rights of 64 Yakye Axa families and 
sentenced the government to remit monetary compensation and 
land to the community.  The IACHR imposed a similar sentence 
in favor of 19 Sawhoyamaxa families in 2006.  (NOTE:  The 
IACHR ruled that these families had been unjustly evicted 
from their native lands by local ranchers in the 1980s and 
held the Paraguayan government liable for compensating them 
with land, money, and other assistance.  The residents of 
Yakye Axa and Sawhoyamaxa refuse to move from their squalor 
until the National Institute of the Indigenous (INDI), the 
government's primary indigenous agency, compensates them with 
land.  END NOTE.) 
 
¶8.  (SBU) NGO Tierra Viva representatives Santiago Bobadilla 
and Jose Paniagua told PolOff June 23 that INDI fully 
disbursed the USD 350,000 the government owed to the Yakye 
Axa community, but it had not yet remitted the 16,000 
hectares of land owed to the Yakye Axa per the IACHR 
sentence.  They said that the Paraguayan Congress was 
considering a proposal to expropriate land from the 
neighboring ranch owned by prominent Colorado and owner of La 
Nacion newspaper, Osvaldo Dominguez Dibb.  However, they 
noted that the bill is still in committee.  Bobadilla and 
Paniagua said that the government owes the Sawhoyamaxa 
families USD 380,000 and that INDI would disburse an initial 
payment of USD 4,800.  They stated that the government had 
not yet remitted any of the 15,000 hectares of land it owes 
to the Sawhoyamaxa families but is looking into the option to 
purchase land for them. (NOTE:  Tierra Viva serves as these 
 
communities' legal representative in the IACHR.  The IACHR 
stipulates that the government comply with its sentences 
within three years; the government violated the statute of 
limitations in both cases.  END NOTE.) 
 
------------------------------------------- 
LABOR CONDITIONS AMONG THE CHACO INDIGENOUS 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Local leaders told PolOff that although many 
indigenous workers earned less than minimum wages and no 
benefits, they had no knowledge of forced labor conditions. 
Wilmer Stahl, a local indigenous expert and author of a 
groundbreaking 1979 study on indigenous labor conditions -- 
the first of its kind -- stated that a May 28 United Nations 
report inaccurately depicted forced labor conditions among 
the Chaco indigenous as a widespread phenomenon.  He stated 
that most Chaco employers -- including the Mennonites -- now 
pay indigenous workers at least minimum wage, with a 
percentage of indigenous' salaries set aside to support local 
indigenous "assurance associations" that offer indigenous 
workers benefits such as health care.  (NOTE: Stahl also 
noted that employers match workers' contributions in these 
arrangements.  END NOTE.) 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Stahl asserted that recent reports by the ILO, UN, 
and Tierra Viva focus heavily on practices formerly employed 
by large, private ranches in the Southern Chaco.  He noted 
that allegations of debt bondage originated from a 
traditional Paraguayan contractual arrangement known locally 
as "livery" that pays workers reduced wage and food 
concessions based on family size -- an arrangement he 
confirmed ranchers used to strengthen employees' ties to the 
ranches.  Stahl also stated that accusations of ranchers 
restricting indigenous' freedom of movement were exaggerated 
and stemmed from the fact that ranchers use fences and gates 
with locks to protect their properties -- which some 
indigenous workers interpreted as restrictive.  Stahl said 
that most -- if not all -- of these ranches eliminated these 
practices in recent years in the face of increased 
international scrutiny and the introduction of Ministry of 
Justice and Labor (MJT) inspectors who began monitoring Chaco 
ranches for potential labor abuses.  (NOTE:  Bobadilla and 
Paniagua said that MJT inspectors from Asuncion and Irala 
Fernandez, a rural Chaco outpost, plan to inspect 17 ranches 
this year.  END NOTE.)  Stahl asserted that the indigenous' 
"nomadic" tendencies and increased scrutiny over ranchers' 
treatment of the indigenous prompted many ranchers to replace 
indigenous workers with non-indigenous laborers.  This 
contributed to a large number of displaced, unemployed, and 
disgruntled indigenous workers who are migrating to 
autonomous indigenous communities and squatting in Asuncion's 
parks. 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Indigenous leaders in Laguna Negra, Loma Plata, 
Yakye Axa, and Sawhoyamaxa stated the Chaco indigenous 
receive low wages but that they were not aware of any cases 
of forced labor.  Flores and Marecos noted that indigenous 
workers generally enjoy freedom of movement while working on 
nearby ranches and that ranchers pay workers in cash sans 
debt bondage arrangements.  The Loewens in Loma Plata 
strongly denied that local indigenous workers were subject to 
forced labor conditions, insisting that indigenous workers 
received fair wages from local employers.  "Antonia" said 
that indigenous persons in Laguna Negra worked independently 
and asserted that forced labor conditions did not exist in 
her settlement. 
 
¶12.  (SBU) The Paraguayan government adamantly denies the 
existence of forced labor among the Chaco indigenous, and 
sent Justice and Labor Minister Blasco to the June 
International Labor Conference in Geneva, Switzerland to 
argue Paraguay's position on the issue.  Tierra Viva's 
Bobadilla and Paniagua told PolOff that there have been no 
cases of forced labor since 2005 and admitted that 
allegations of forced labor among the indigenous have been 
largely based on a 1994 study by Tierra Viva and a 2005 ILO 
study.  They stated the labor situation changed in the Chaco 
and that indigenous workers face greater challenges in 
finding work and earning adequate compensation with benefits. 
 
 
------------------------------ 
INDIGENOUS THIRSTING FOR WATER 
------------------------------ 
 
¶13.  (U) Local leaders reported that Chaco indigenous 
communities face an urgent crisis that has received scant 
attention outside Paraguay -- the lack of water caused by 
severe droughts.  Portions of the Paraguayan Chaco have been 
dry for over six months, and the problem is worsening in 
spite of the government's attempts to provide water to local 
indigenous communities via water trucks.  (NOTE:  The 
Embassy's Humanitarian Assistance Program donated ten water 
tanks to drought-ravaged Chaco communities in November 2008. 
Because much of the water table in the western Chaco is too 
salty for human consumption, the indigenous communities 
cannot drill wells and must rely on water trucks to deliver 
fresh water.  END NOTE.)  Chaco indigenous communities have 
many needs -- including access to land, jobs, food, medical 
care, electricity, telecommunications -- but indigenous 
leaders underscored that water is by far the most pressing. 
 
------- 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶14.  (SBU) President Fernando Lugo's government has taken 
some action to fulfill its obligations to Chaco indigenous 
communities, but further action is needed to improve their 
living conditions.  The recent focus on forced labor among 
the Chaco indigenous appears to be exaggerated and 
unsubstantiated.  The indigenous themselves consider that 
land, financial assistance and water are their most pressing 
needs.  The Lugo administration has been hamstrung by the 
ineffectiveness of agencies such as INDI and SEN.  While the 
UN reports have helped bring international attention to the 
plight of Paraguay's indigenous, they have also had the 
unintended consequence of forcing the government to devote 
limited resources to a problem that may not exist at the 
expense of more important issues.  END COMMENT. 
Fitzpatrick