Return to search

Subversive Subsistence: Paraguay's Threat of Rural Insecurity and the Criminalization of Campesino Resistance

In Paraguay's rural northeast, small-scale farmers, called campesinos, are targeted by the military as sympathizers for El ejército del pueblo paraguayo (EPP), an alleged terrorist group comprising only 15 - 80 members nationwide. Since 2013, President Cartes' administration has used a threat of rural insecurity to militarize campesino settlements that are peacefully resisting displacement from foreign agroindustry. This thesis considers perspectives from campesinos both living in the countryside and imprisoned in the national penitentiary to examine effects of increased militarization. Testimonies demonstrate that a discourse of rural terrorism serves as a legitimizing mechanism to criminalize and eliminate campesino movements as obstacles to agroindustrial expansion.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/626141
Date January 2017
CreatorsRamírez, Jacobo Xavier, Ramírez, Jacobo Xavier
ContributorsVásquez-León, Marcela, Vásquez-León, Marcela, Osborne, Tracey N., Oglesby, Elizabeth A.
PublisherThe University of Arizona.
Source SetsUniversity of Arizona
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext, Electronic Thesis
RightsCopyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.

Page generated in 0.0128 seconds