Kuetuvy's Many Problems

The Aché of Kuetuvy are very uneasy. These last few years have been nothing but trouble and this tendency doesn't seem to be abating.

Kuetuvy is a community that has been facing many problems since its founding in 2000, when the approx. 150 people broke away from the Chupa Po’u community and settled back on their ancestral land, and among of their problems have been poverty, bad education, but most prominently land issues. You see, when Kuetuvy was established, the land (known as Finca 470) was in the hands of the SEAM (Department of Environment). Successive governments and presidents of SEAM promised to give the land to the Aché, but it never happened.

So last year the Aché went to Asunción and protested for weeks in front of the SEAM headquarters and got Congress to approve a law giving the land to them, the rightful owners. President Lugo vetoed the law.  The Aché kept on and ran the bill through Congress again. It was approved a second time and Lugo couldn’t do anything about it. But the problems didn’t end there.  The President of the SEAM refused to sign the papers and so the title was not given for another 16 months. But then the shootout between the Carperos and the police which left 17 dead triggered Lugo’s impeachment and Vice-president Federico Franco became the new president. Nearly all of Lugo’s ministers resigned, including the president of the SEAM, and in their places came people more sympathetic to the Aché. At last, two weeks ago President Franco officially presented the land title to the leader of Kuetuvy in a grand ceremony in the Presidential Palace. But their problems are still not over.

A few months ago a group of campesinos (landless peasants) invaded Kuetuvy’s land, alluding to some bogus fiscal surplus, and they say that many of the armed Carperos (extremely radical landless peasants) who were at the shootout joined them later. The Aché want to kick them out but the Carperos have threatened to kill them if they come close. These campesinos enjoy broad impunity from the law and take advantage of this by cutting down the Aché’s forest and illegally selling the hardwoods. They are advancing from three separate camps and the cacique Martin Achipurangi said that some have already come to a few kilometers from the community. Meanwhile there has been no concrete legal or police action against them, despite various denouncements.

But here’s the rub. There is a fear that Franco’s government may lack the political will to uphold the Aché’s claim in this very explosive scenario. The last thing that they need is any blood spilt that would turn the whole international community against Paraguay, not to mention what the radicals here would do, endangering the stability of Franco’s government. Kuetuvy happens to be very close to Campos Morombí, the place where the shooting took place, and the campesino families that were involved demand restitution of land for what happened. And with campesinos already there and much money to be made on logs and Indian land, Kuetuvy is a very alluring site. The government is receiving a lot of pressure from many different special interest groups to answer the campesino’s wants in order to preserve the peace. And despite all the discourse of upholding Indians rights, when push comes to shove native peoples always are in danger of getting the short straw.

The Aché need this land. Kuetuvy has 4.650 hectares (11.490 acres) of land, of which more than 70 to 80% is virgin forest, one of the last reserves of importance in the country. I was in the community last week when they had their yerba mate harvest. The Aché of Kuetuvy have a partnership with an American-Argentinian company called Guayakí, which sells organic yerba mate products in the States. They’ve been helping the Aché plant organic yerba in their forest and selling it later. Last week the Aché had a great time, pulling together to harvest the leaves amidst jokes and raucous laughter. We were invited, as were many other people, and after a long and tiring trip we arrived very early in the morning… or very late in the night. I forget which. When we woke up and walked around, I again noticed things that I notice every time that we’re there. Precarious houses made of bamboo slats and odds and ends, the children with skin rashes due to inadequate use of water and, as we walked through the fields, farmland filled with half burned stumps and logs and the crops coming up from the sandy soil amongst weeds.

For years the Aché have practiced Slash-and-Burn agriculture: clearing land, using it for 2 or 3 years and then having to give it up because in the absence of modern farming techniques and equipment the ever present exotic weeds take over. So then they are forced to clear more land and the cycle repeats. This method is more destructive than logging or intensive agriculture. I’ve seen many, many acres with weeds and grasses as tall as a man and still more land being cleared for farming. But what can a man do against such an impetuous force of nature with only a hoe and a machete? And he gains from this barely enough food for the year and hopefully something on the side to sell. Because of this many go out and work day shifts for neighbors who pay terrible wages but it gives enough money for immediate needs, even though it weakens the community by diminishing the available workforce. But the Aché don’t want this. They want a different alternative, a more sustainable alternative. What they want is a method that will create a sustainable economy that will conserve the forest. In that respect Guayakí is already a great step in that direction.

But conserving the integrity of their land is vital for this. That is why so much is at stake here. Yesterday we had encouraging news. President Franco was in the nearby city of Curuguaty for a ceremony and some of the Kuetuvy leaders, Martín Achipurangi, Margarita Mbywangi, Emiliano Beijiwagi and others, went there. God opened doors and they got to talk to the president. He proved to be very receptive and promised to take action against the Carperos, and later that day a military helicopter flew over the campesino camps, so praise God! We hope that things will start changing.

The aché truly need this land. The forest is one of their last links to their culture and they want to use the already cleared land for better agriculture in order to keep the forest. They want to produce better crops that will give more food and money so that they may lift the community; they want to build secure houses and not suffer from the cold and rain that gets through flimsy bamboo walls every year; they want to have better education for their children; they want to manage their land better and sustainably; in short, they want a better life. We recognize these things take time. Time, determination, mistakes, patience and self-sacrifice, and especially people who are willing to give up their time and go shoulder to shoulder with them. If adequate steps are taken and the learning process begins with God’s help they will make it. That is what is happening at Kuetuvy now.

Gope cho djavu krampima. 
           (There endeth my words)