This article assesses the state of Indigenous rights in Paraguay through the year 2022 to show how latent authoritarianism and agrarian oligarchies threaten to roll back ongoing efforts to support the country's democratic transition. Recent civil society efforts to map Indigenous lands and make georeferenced data about those lands free to access online presuppose that greater transparency about the location and extent of titled and claimed lands will protect communities from dispossession and violence. Mapping efforts like these create demo-cartographic imaginaries—attempts to envision democratic futures through the promise of transparency captured in counter-mapping practices. Combining a case study with observations from field research, it is argued that tensions between the demo-cartographic promise and the resurgent authoritarianism evident in open violence against Indigenous peoples reveal much about how land is simultaneously a site of oligarchic power and the seed of social discontent to challenge that power.
AnthiasPenelope2017Limits to Decolonization: Indigeneity, Territory, and Hydrocarbon Citizenship in the Bolivian Chaco. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
2.
AyalaÓscar2014“Los derechos de los pueblos indígenas en tiempos de una impronta empresarial para el estado,” pp. 65–77 in BozzanoEnrique GautoCáceresSoledadBattilanaLorena (eds.), Derechos Humanos en Paraguay 2014. Asunción: Coordinadora del Derechos Humanos de Paraguay.
3.
AyalaÓscarCabelloMaría Julia2006“Entre la realidad y los avances de la justicia internacional,” pp. 359–370 in BozzanoEnrique GautoCáceresSoledadBattilanaLorena (eds.), Derechos Humanos en Paraguay 2006. Asunción: Coordinadora del Derechos Humanos de Paraguay.
4.
BaraccoLuciano2018“Globalization, governance, and the emergence of indigenous autonomy movements in Latin America: The case of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua.”Latin American Perspectives45 (6): 37–52.
5.
Barrios-CáceresMario J.2018“Resulta imperative revertir el patrón de muerte y amedrentamiento como respuesta a las reivindicaciones territoriales: Derechos de los pueblos indígenas,” pp. 53–66 in AmarillaÓscar AyalaCorvalánRamónGonzálezRebeca (eds.), Derechos humanos en Paraguay 2018. Asunción: Coordinadora del Derechos Humanos de Paraguay.
6.
Barrios-CáceresMario J.2021“Un año de violencia, exclusión y desalojos contra comunidades indígenas. Derechos de los pueblos indígenas” pp. 55–68 in Óscar AmarillaAyala (ed.) Derechos humanos Paraguay 2021. Asunción: Coordinadora del Derechos Humanos de Paraguay.
7.
BhoolaUmila2018“Report of the Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, Including its Causes and Consequences on her Mission to Paraguay.”United Nations Human Rights Council. https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/1639596?ln=en.
8.
BogadoMarceloPortilloRafaelVillagraRodrigo2016“Alquiler de tierras y territorios indígenas en el Paraguay.”Cadernos do LEPAARQ (UFPEL)13 (26): 106–123.
9.
BryanJoe2009“Where would we be without them? Knowledge, space and power in indigenous politics.”Futures41 (1): 24–32.
10.
BryanJoe2011“Walking the line: Participatory mapping, indigenous rights, and neoliberalism.”Geoforum42 (1): 24–32.
11.
BryanJoe2012“Rethinking territory: Making sense of Latin America’s territorial turn.”Geography Compass6 (4): 215–226.
12.
BryanJoeWoodDenis2015Weaponizing Maps: Indigenous Peoples and Counterinsurgency in the Americas. New York: Guilford Press.
13.
ChapinMacLambZacharyThrelkeldBill2005“Mapping indigenous lands.”Annual Review of Anthropology34 (1): 619–638.
CorreiaJoel E.2018a “Adjudication and its aftereffects in three Inter-American Court cases brought against Paraguay: Indigenous land rights.”Erasmus Law Review1: 43–56.
16.
CorreiaJoel E.2018b “Indigenous rights at a crossroads: Territorial struggles, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and legal geographies of liminality.”Geoforum97: 73–83.
17.
CorreiaJoel E.2019a “Soy states, resource politics, violent, environments, and soybean territorialization in Paraguay.”Journal of Peasant Studies46 (2): 316–336.
18.
CorreiaJoel E.2019b “Unsettling territory: Indigenous mobilizations, the territorial turn, and the limits of land rights in the Paraguay-Brazil borderlands.”Journal of Latin American Geography18 (1): 11–37.
19.
CorreiaJoel E.2023a Disrupting the Patrón: Indigenous Land Rights and the Fight for Environmental Justice in Paraguay’s Chaco. Oakland: University of California Press.
20.
CorreiaJoel E.2023b “Ruptures and continuities: How the global land ‘rush’ (re)produces the slow violence of racial capitalism on Latin America’s resource frontiers,” pp. 47–62 in NeefAndreasNginChanrithMoredaTsegayeMollettSharlene (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Global Land and Resource Grabbing. London: Routledge.
21.
Corte Suprema de Justicia2003Digesto normative sobre pueblos Indígenas en el Paraguay: historia e la legislación 1811–2003. Asunción: Corte Suprema de Justicia, División de Investigación, Legislación y Publicaciones.
22.
CraibRaymond B.2004Cartographic Mexico: A History of State Fixations and Fugitive Landscapes. Durham: Duke University Press.
23.
CruzMeliquiades2020“Oral narratives in the Rincón Zapoteco: A cartography of processes,” pp. 19–34 in SlettoBjørnBryanJoeWagnerAlfredoHaleCharles (eds.), Radical Cartographies: Participatory Mapmaking from Latin America. Austin: University of Texas Press.
EngleKaren2010The Elusive Promise of Indigenous Development: Rights, Culture, Strategy. Durham: Duke University Press.
27.
Ezquerro-CañeteArturo2016“Poisoned, dispossessed and excluded: A critique of the neoliberal soy regime in Paraguay.”Journal of Agrarian Change16 (4): 702–710.
28.
Ezquerro-CañeteArturoRamónFogel2017“A coup foretold: Fernando Lugo and the lost promise of agrarian reform in Paraguay.”Journal of Agrarian Change17 (2): 279–295.
29.
FriggeriFélix Pablo2021“Primitive accumulation, mafia capitalism, and the campesino population in Paraguay.”Latin American Perspectives48 (1): 126 –144 .
30.
GlauserMarcos2009Extranjerización del territorio Paraguyo. Asunción: BASE Investigaciones Sociales.
31.
GlauserMarcos2018“Entendiendo las respuestas de un pueblo indígena del Chaco Paraguayo a la desposesión territorial.”Gestión y Ambiente21 (2): 86–94.
32.
GlauserMarcos2019Angaité’s Responses to Deforestation: Political Ecology of the Livelihood and Land Use Strategies of an Indigenous Community from the Paraguayan Chaco. Marburg: Curupira.
33.
GriffithsTom2015Situación territorial de los Pueblos Indígenas del Paraguay. Asunción-Oxford: FAPI-Forest Peoples Programme.
HaleCharles2005“Neoliberal multiculturalism: The remaking of cultural rights and racial dominance in Central America.”Political and Legal Anthropology Review28 (1): 10–28.
37.
HaleCharles2011“Resistencia para que? Territory, autonomy and neoliberal entanglements in the ‘empty spaces’ of Central America.”Economy and Society40 (2): 184–210.
38.
HaleCharles2020“Using and refusing the law: Indigenous struggles and legal strategies after neoliberal multiculturalism.”American Anthropologist122: 618–631.
39.
Harder HorstRené D.2010The Stroessner Regime and Indigenous Resistance in Paraguay. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
40.
HetheringtonKregg2011Guerrilla Auditors: The Politics of Transparency in Neoliberal Paraguay. Durham: Duke University Press.
41.
HetheringtonKregg2012“Tierra malhabida y el engaño de la institucionalidad.”Nova Polis5: 31–54.
42.
HetheringtonKregg2018“Peasants, experts, clients, and soybeans: The fixing of Paraguay’s civil service.”Current Anthropology59 (18): 171–181.
43.
HetheringtonKregg2020The Government of Beans: Regulating Life in the Age of Monocrops. Durham: Duke University Press.
44.
HitchcockRobert K.FlowerdayCharlesBabchukWayne A.2017“The case of the Aché: The genocide debate continues unabated,” pp. 3–44 in TottenSamuelTheiraultHenryvon Joeden-ForgeyElisa (eds), Controversies in the Field of Genocide Studies. New York: Routledge.
IralaAbel2021“Comunidades campesinas e indígenas violentadas y desalojadas,” pp. 118–123 in PalauMarielle (ed.), Con la soja al cuello 2021. Asunción: Base Investigaciones Sociales.
50.
KleinpenningJan. M. G.2009Rural Paraguay 1870–1963. Madrid: Ibero-Americana Vervüert.
LiTania Murray2007The Will to Improve: Governmentality, Development, and the Practice of Politics. Durham: Duke University Press.
53.
LouisRenee PualaniJohnsonJay TPramonoAlbertus Hadi2012“Introduction: Indigenous cartographies and countermapping.”Cartographica: The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization47 (2): 77–79.
54.
LuceroJosé A.2003“Locating the ‘indian problem’: Community, nationality, and contradiction in Ecuadorian Indigenous politics.”Latin American Perspectives30 (1): 23–48.
55.
Martínez-NovoCarmenSchlossbergPavel2018“Introduction: Lasting and resurgent racism after recognition in Latin America.”Cultural Studies32 (3): 349–363.
56.
MeliàBartolomeuTelescaIgnacio1997“Los pueblos indígenas en el Paraguay: Conquistas legales y problemas de la tierra.”Horizontes Antropológicos3 (6): 85–110.
57.
Mendieta MirandaMaximiliano2018“El principio de igualdad y no discriminación: Aproximaciones a la discriminación estructural del estado paraguayo hacia los pueblos indígenas. Derecho Global. Estudios Sobre Derecho y Justicia4 (10): 153–180.
58.
MitchellTimothy2002Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity. Berkeley: University of California Press.
59.
MollettSharlene2013“Mapping deception: The politics of mapping Miskito and Garifuna space in Honduras.”Annals of the American Association of Geographers103 (5): 1227–1241.
60.
MünzelMark1973El pueblo Aché: Genocido en Paraguay. Copenhague: IWGIA.
61.
NagelBeverly1999“Unleashing the fury: The cultural discourse of rural violence and land rights in Paraguay.”Comparative Studies in Society and History41 (1): 148–181.
62.
NahuelMaría Laura2020“Participatory cultural mapping in Nvwken, Mapuche territory, Argentina: Exploring other forms of territorial representation,” pp. 163–182 in SlettoBjørnBryanJoeWagnerAlfredoHaleCharles (eds.), Radical Cartographies: Participatory Mapmaking from Latin America. Austin: University of Texas Press.
63.
NicksonAndrew R.1988“Tyranny and longevity: Stroessner’s Paraguay.”Third World Quarterly10 (1): 237–259.
64.
OffenKarl H.2003“The territorial turn: Making black territories in Pacific Colombia.”Journal of Latin American Geography2 (1): 43–73.
65.
PalauTomásHeikelMaría Victoria1987Los campesinos, el Estado y las empresas en la frontera agrícola. Asunción: PISPAL-BASE/ISEC.
66.
PelusoNancy Lee1995“Whose woods are these? Counter-mapping forest territories in Kalimantan, Indonesia.”Antipode24 (4): 383–406.
67.
PerreaultThomas2003“Making space: Community organization, agrarian change, and the politics of scale in the Ecuadorian Amazon.”Latin American Perspectives30 (1): 96–121.
68.
PuigSalvador Martí i2010“The emergence of Indigenous movements in Latin American and their impact on the Latin American political scene: Interpretive tools at the local and global scales.”Latin American Perspectives37 (6): 74–92.
69.
ReedRichardRenshawJohn2002“The Aché and Guaraní: Thirty years after Maybury-Lewis and Howe’s report on Genocide in Paraguay.”Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America10 (1): 1–18.
70.
RichardsPeter D.2011“Soy, cotton, and the final Atlantic Forest frontier.”The Professional Geographer63 (3): 343–363.
SlettoBjørn2009b “‘We drew what we imagined’ Participatory mapping, performance, and the arts of landscape making.”Current Anthropology50 (4): 443–476.
74.
BjørnSlettoBryanJoeWagnerAlfredoHaleCharles (eds.) 2020Radical Cartographies: Participatory Mapping from Latin America. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Tauli-CorpuzVictoria2015“Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: The situation in Paraguay.”United Nations Human Rights Council. https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/803354?ln=en.
VanegasFarid Samir Benavides2012“Indigenous resistance and the law.”Latin American Perspectives39 (1): 61–77.
82.
Vásquez-LeónMarcela2010“Free markets and fair trade, collective livelihood struggles and the cooperative model: Two case studies from Paraguay.”Latin American Perspectives37 (6): 53–73.
83.
VeitPeterSarsfieldRyan2017Land Rights, Beef Commodity Chains, and Deforestation Dynamics in the Paraguayan Chaco. Washington, DC: USAID Tenure and Global Climate Change Program.
84.
VillagraRodrigo2018“Diagnóstico socio-jurídico de tierras y territorios indígenas en Paraguay.”Suplemento Antropológico53 (1): 129–182.
85.
2021“The situation of Indigenous peoples in Paraguay,” pp. 277–296 in ChirifAlberto (ed.), Towards the Conquest of Self-Determination: 50 Years Since the Barbados Declaration. Copenhagen: International Working Group on Indigenous Affairs.
86.
WainwrightJoelBryanJoe2009“Cartography, territory, property: Postcolonial reflections on indigenous counter-mapping in Nicaragua and Belize.”Cultural Geographies16 (2): 153–178.
87.
WeisskoffRichard1992“The Paraguayan agro-export model of development.”World Development20 (10): 1531–1540.
88.
WoodDenisFelsJohn1992The Power of Maps. Guilford Press.
89.
YasharDeborah J.2012Contesting Citizenship in Latin America: The Rise of Indigenous Movements and the Postliberal Challenge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
