Social Movements and the Struggles for Rights, Justice and Democracy in Paraguay

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Introduction: Social Movements in a Paraguayan Context

   • Valérie L’Heureux, Laureen Elgert, Charmain Levy

   Pages 1-26

3. Paraguay in the Twenty-First Century: From the Rise of Progressivism to Conservative Rearticulation

   • Ignacio González Bozzolasco

   Pages 27-42

4. Peasant Movements in Paraguay

   • Ramón Fogel

   Pages 43-60

5. A Movement-in-Motion: CONAMURI and the Making of a Feminist Agroecology

   • Jamie C. Gagliano

   Pages 61-82

6. Understanding Indigenous Movements in Paraguay: The Case of the Xákmok Kásek Community and the Scales of Resistance

   • Andréanne Brunet-Bélanger

   Pages 83-106

7. The Paraguayan Labor Movement at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century

   • Ignacio González Bozzolasco, Raquel Rojas

   Pages 107-127

8. Work, Gender, and Labor Organizing: Paid Domestic Workers’ Unions in Paraguay

   • Raquel Rojas

   Pages 129-153

9. The Feminist Movement in Paraguay: No Way but Forward

   • Charmain Levy, María Molinas Cabrera

   Pages 155-179

10. State Violence Against LGBTQ+ setting the Boundaries of Citizenship in Paraguay

    • Marco Castillo, Mirta Moragas Mereles

    Pages 181-207

11. The Movement for the Right to Education in Paraguay: Student Actors and Disputes over Youth Subjectivities in a Society of Inequality

    • Luis Ortiz

    Pages 209-232

12. The Organization and Struggle of University Students in Paraguay: Student Movement Demands for Socio-educational Rights

    • Magdalena López, Jorgelina Loza

    Pages 233-259

13. Conclusion: Mobilize, Repress, Repeat

    • Laureen Elgert, Charmain Levy, Valérie L’Heureux

    Pages 261-272

14. Back Matter

    Pages 273-282

    PDF

Paraguay is an under-examined, but remarkably fascinating country, where war, dictatorship, and elite capture have produced cycles of popular mobilization and repression. Yet, its social movements are less known to international audiences. This book analyzes Paraguay’s principal social movements since the transition to democracy and examines how, in the context of a weak state, authoritarian political elite, and a deficient democratization process, they contribute to progressive policy, socio-economic development, and democracy. Using critical perspectives in sociology, anthropology, geography, and political science, we bring together scholars, activists, and practitioners of social critique and community organizing. They reflect on movements involving peasant, indigenous and agrarian rights to land and livelihoods, LGBTQ and feminist struggles, labor union struggles, and student demands for access to quality education and social development, while exploring how the particularisms of Paraguay result in differences from other Latin American movements and how overarching regional tendencies may explain the similarities.

This volume is the first English-language book on social movements in Paraguay. As such, it aims to provide a deeper understanding Paraguay’s principal social movements since the transition to democracy. This volume contributes to analyzing how social movements within the context of aweak state, authoritarian political elite, and a deficient democratization process contribute to progressive public policy, socio-economic development, and democracy. In addition, this book focuses on how Paraguayan social movements are similar to or different from their Latin American counterparts, how the particularism of Paraguay explains these variations and how overarching regional tendencies explain the similarities.

The contribution of this volume is twofold: to provide new empirical examples in the study of Latin American social movements and theircontribution to development and democracy, as well as to validate or challenge social movement theories by employing empirical studies of Paraguayan social movements. Each chapter delves into the background to a specific movement, while closely analyzing the movement in the post-Lugo era (2012-2021). Together the chapters in this book contribute to a better understanding of social movements in Paraguay and Latin America thus dialoguing with the existing literature and social movement theories and considering how such studies can further our understanding of social movements in Paraguay and in Latin America in general. Finally, the study of different social movements within the Paraguayan context takes into consideration the links that each movement has forged with other such movements in Latin America, including the contributions that Paraguayan social movements have made to regional networks.

• Paraguay
• Latin American social movements
• Labor organizing
• Peasant movements
• Educational social movement
• Student movements
• Women's movements
• LGTBQ+
• Indigenous rights

“This superb collection on Paraguayan social movements offers us an unparalleled account not only of why Paraguay’s democratization can appear more formulaic than functional, but also of more broadly of how democracy seeps into any crack afforded it and works to slowly fracture the authoritarian edifice.”

—Sean Burges, Assistant Professor, Global and International Studies, Arthur Kroeger College of Public Affairs Carleton University

“Paraguay has long been treated as an enigmatic country. But it really is not. Insightful inquiries on this country, as offered in this edited volume, underscore the point. They reveal a complex yet discernable political process. Levy, Elgert and L’Heureux’s collection of twelve essays does so by exploring Paraguay contentious politics. The editors have assembled a group of Paraguayan and international scholars, activists and practitioners, who examine various progressive social movements in this country, namely, among the peasantry, labor,indigenous people, women, LGBT+ community, and students. Challenging the status quo in Paraguay has been a daunting task, given the weight of the country’s conservative inertia. This impetus is embedded in the nation’s deep structural inequities, authoritarian legacies, patriarchal traditions, and in the nature of its political regime: a feeble democracy established in the 1990s under the aegis of the political party that sustained the country’s previous autocratic rule. This book highlights the quest for social justice, freedom and substantive rights amid this conservative momentum. It does so by offering a sympathetic yet clear-eyed assessment of these social movements. As the studies show, in such settings, the struggle to effect change must, first and foremost, stir efforts to break with the past.”

—Miguel Carter, PhD, DEMOS – Center for Democracy, Creativity and Social Inclusion.

• Department of Social Sciences, Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO), Gatineau, Canada

  Charmain Levy

• Department of Integrative and Global Studies, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, USA

  Laureen Elgert

• Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

  Valérie L'Heureux

Charmain Levy is Tenured Professor in social sciences at the University of Québec in Outaouais (UQO), Canada, where she lectures in International Development Studies.. Her research specialties include feminist studies, political sociology, urban citizenship, social movements and Latin American Studies on which she has published numerous articles and chapters.

Laureen Elgert is Associate Professor of environmental policy and international development at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA. Laureen worked in the Mbaracayu Biosphere Reserve in Paraguay’s Interior Atlantic Forest where she helped facilitate the emergence of local and regional governance institutions.  Her research interests include the politics of sustainability indicators, expertise, and environmental discourses.

Valérie L'Heureux is a PhD candidate in social and cultural analysis at Concordia University, Canada, and is interested in the strategies and influence of transnational social movements, the politics of radical internationalism, and relational ethics. She holds a BA in International Studies and an MA in Political Science. Her research interests include Paraguayan politics, the G20, communication rights and public-private partnerships.

Policies and ethics