This is what peasant leader Lidia Ruiz, member of la Via Campesina in Paraguay, said in an interview with Real World Radio in the context of one of the most traumatic events in the history of the struggle for land in Paraguay.

On Friday 15th, eight police officers and eleven rural workers who were occupying fields of a former senator of the Colorado Party in Canindeyu department, were murdered during the eviction.

A statement issued by the National Coordination of Struggle for the Recovery of Ill-gotten Lands concluded that the massacre that took place in Campo Morombí was as a consequence of a “historical class conflict in the Paraguayan society which is the result of land grabbing and accumulation imposed by the three branches of the State”.

The lands in question were granted in a “fraudulent way” to Blas N. Riquelme, businessman and former senator of the Colorado Party, as a “supposed subject of the Agrarian Reform”, according to the document.

The organizations also rejected the appointment by President Fernando Lugo of Ruben Candia Amarilla as Minister of Interior. He has a background of “persecution and criminalization of the social struggle” carried out during his mandate as General State Attorney, during the supposed "struggle against the EPP" (the Paraguayan Peoples Army).

“We demand President Fernando Lugo to cease fire and to withdraw immediately all military and police forces from the area, and to ensure humanitarian treatment with the presence of an inter-institutional committee”, added the Coordination.

Meanwhile, Lidia Ruiz said that the main issue behind this massacre in Canindeyu is land grabbing and the "huge inequality" faced by peasants in terms of access, in a country where 55% of lands is in the hands of 2% of the population.

“These are deaths of the working class, a consequence of the model of looting”, said Ruiz, who added that the different Paraguayan governments have consolidated a “servile” State model that benefits transnational corporations.

She also questioned Lugo’s administration for appointing Candia Amarilla, who “helped the implementation of the Plan Colombia in Paraguay, contributing to the deepening of the criminalization of movements”. “The organizations will still be repressed”, she said.

With reference to the attack that took place on Friday, she said that police and military officers have enclosed the place and it was reported that there could be more dead and injured people in the forest. “Their relatives weren’t allowed to go in, and some of them ended up arrested just for asking”, she denounced.

According to Ruiz, the Paraguayan organizations are permanently meeting and claiming the presence in the area of Human Rights organizations, because clearly the State "cannot control itself". “In addition, the massive communication media have only one perspective. The voices of the peasants are not heard”, she concluded.

Photo: baserribizia.info