At dawn on 15 June 2012, the peasant community of Curuguaty, in the department of Canindeyú, Paraguay, was in a state of tension due to a land conflict. A police operation resulted in a tragedy that would mark the history of this South American country.
The “Marina Kue” case, or Curuguaty massacre, refers to a clash in which 17 people were killed: 11 peasants and 6 police officers. The police entered the territory with a search warrant, but attempted to carry out a forced eviction instead, which led to confrontation.
Hugo Valiente, a lawyer, human rights defender and a member of organisations that worked on the Curuguaty massacre case, said that within a week, the case escalated into the political domain.
This eventually led to the impeachment of President Fernando Lugo, against whom it was instrumentalised.
Darío Acosta, a peasant from the area and human rights defender, witnessed the massacre.
“On the day of the massacre I was there with my family and with all the relatives of those killed and imprisoned in Curuguaty. And since then, I have been part of a commission to confront this deplorable event,” he said.
Among the people who died were two brothers of Martina Paredes, for whom the massacre not only took lives but also shaped the course of her own existence. For Paredes, this injustice drives her and compels her to continue the struggle for justice.
A group of peasants from Curuguaty, Paraguay, standing near a cross to mark the massacre that occurred in this location on 15 June 2012. © Darío Acosta
From the beginning, justice leaned to only one side.
“No policemen were investigated. The deaths of the peasants were not investigated, it was assumed they had died in the legitimate use of force,” Valiente said.
“Hours after the massacre there was already a narrative of an ambush, and the Public Prosecutor’s Office adjusted the evidence, even in violation of due process, to sustain that narrative,” he added.
Paredes said that many fellows were imprisoned because of the struggle for land.
Hugo Valiente (right), a Paraguayan human rights defender, during the official visit of the former Rapporteur on toxics and human rights, Marcos Orellana, to Paraguay. © Hugo Valiente
Years later, social and legal pressure opened a crack of justice for the peasants criminalised for the massacre.
“The trial was finally annulled by the Supreme Court of Justice, the peasants were acquitted, and they were released,” Valiente said.
The news brought hope back to the families.
“We secured the freedom of the men and women imprisoned in the Curuguaty case. Without guilt nor regret. That is the most important thing, to have the freedom to be with the family,” Paredes said.
But this was not the end of the story. The acquittal had consequences.
“The judges who acquitted the peasants were subjected to impeachment. One of the judges was forced to resign and another one received a sanction,” Valiente said.
The struggle for land and against impunity
“The land told a story, which is an X-ray of Paraguay’s history and of injustices built around inequality in the distribution of wealth,” Valiente said.
The Curuguaty massacre took place in the context of a historic land conflict in Paraguay, one of the countries with the greatest inequality in its distribution. “Marina Kue”, now renamed “San Oscar Romero”, was an estate whose lands were originally State-owned and destined for agrarian reform.
“The Curuguaty case is symbolic of many other land conflicts in Paraguay, where poor peasant and indigenous communities face the joint powers of agricultural business and the State,” said Jan Jarab, UN Human Rights Representative for South America.
Jarab added that these conflicts often end in forced evictions of entire communities — a trend that has been growing in the last years.
“Paraguay is a country of concentrated landownership, it is one of the countries with the most unequal land distribution in the world,” Valiente said. “The [Stroessner] dictatorship appropriated and illegally distributed among its economic allies some 11 million hectares of land, an area similar in size to Panama.”
With agrarian reform unfulfilled, many peasants, finding themselves dispossessed, occupied land to survive.
Acosta said that they defend the land because for peasants and small farmers the land is fundamental.
For us the land means bread, it means life, because from it we take everything for our daily living.
Darío Acosta, Paraguayan peasant and human rights defender
Paredes agreed.
“Having land means that we have food, that we have shelter and that we have a community. That represents our dignity, our identity and the daily sustenance of the family,” she said.
The peasant struggle did not end in the courts. The land, the root of the massacre, remained at the centre of the dispute, but a decade later, there have been results.
“Eighty per cent of the land has already been legalised in favour of the occupants, more than 160 people have already been granted it and are paying their first instalment for the title,” Acosta said.
Darío Acosta (left) and Martina Paredes (right), with another member of the Curuguaty community, show the receipt for the first land payment towards their land titles. © Darío Acosta
For Jarab, an important milestone was the enactment in 2023 of the law that officially transfers “Marina Kue” to the peasants.
The progress in obtaining land contrasts with the lack of justice.
“It is still missing that they investigate who killed the peasants. We do not know how our relatives died,” Paredes said.
According to Valiente, the hope of the victims’ families is that the case will move forward in the Inter-American human rights system.
The international perspective
UN Human Rights played an important role by establishing direct contact with the community, increasing its visibility, and building bridges with key State institutions such as the Ministry of Public Defence.
Jarab said that this contributed to the fact that the criminal cases against a number of peasants were finally dropped, and the underlying land problem largely resolved.
Through the UN we can also make our case known worldwide. The visit of the UN Human Rights Representative to our community was very important.
Darío Acosta, Paraguayan peasant and human rights defender
For Valiente, the statements made by UN Human Rights on the case and the existence of international human rights bodies make it possible to break through the barriers and overcome adversity caused by the lack of justice at the local level.
“Only united can we achieve our rights,” Acosta said.