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

Abstract

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.