AMERICA/PARAGUAY - The attention of the Bishops is also towards the clash between the local landless and Brazilian settlers

Asuncion (Agenzia Fides) - The Assembly n. 193 of the Episcopal Conference of Paraguay (CEP) is in progress, which analysis, among other problems of the social reality of the country, the conflict between the Brazilian soybean farmers and landless peasants of the east of the country. In the note sent to Fides it says that the Episcopal Conference has included in its agenda this year, a study of the situation of Ñacunday in the department of the High Paraná, 400 km east of Asuncion. Groups of landless Paraguayans, who call themselves "carperos" (those who live in tents), have camped out on the border region with Brazil, colliding with Brazilian farmers and settlers, known in this country as "brasiguayos". The "carperos", who since last September are still in their tents in front of the settlers’s farms in Ñacunday, ask the government to give them land, because according to them they were illegally granted to the "brasiguayos" during General Alfredo Stroessner’s dictatorship (1954-1989). The Bishops face the issue also because in these days, the National Institute of Rural Development and Land must intervene.
The Assembly also has on the agenda for the development of a protocol required by the Vatican to deal with any cases of pedophilia. The Assembly of the CEP began on March 14 and ends today, Friday the 16th. The Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Eliseo Antonio Ariotti participated during the first session of the work. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 16/3/2012)