Among the flimsy wooden shacks built by families from Asunción who had to move away from the banks of the Paraguay River
due to its flood,
there is no sign of the electoral campaign for the presidential elections next Sunday.
"I'm not interested.
We're not going to vote
," says Albino Cubas, 41, in the Tacambú neighborhood on the outskirts of the capital, speaking on behalf of his family.
"There is no serious proposal for poor people", expresses bitterly this man who has just returned from his duty as a private security guard.
Electoral graffiti in a marginal neighborhood in Asunción.
Photo: Norberto Duarte / AFP
Along with his wife, two teenage daughters and a boy, Cubas has been living on municipal land
for more than a month ,
forced by the floods caused by the rise in water from the Paraguay River.
They all sleep in one room.
The Asunción mayor's office gave them
two chemical toilets
, which they share with 10 other families, of the 60 that have temporarily taken refuge in the 10-hectare property filled at a height of five meters with sand extracted from the natural channel.
"The politicians come and
promise anything
. There is no candidate who can serve us. We are not going to vote," he repeats a few days before the elections in which
the young economist Santiago Peña
, from the ruling Colorado Party (conservative), will face each other. and
the opposition leader Efraín Alegre
, at the head of a center-left coalition.
Santiago Peña, candidate for president of Paraguay.
Photo: EFE
On the outskirts of Asunción, families who arrived more than 50 years ago with children and grandchildren already born on the banks of the river mix with other more recent inhabitants, migrants from the north who bought their rights from those who joined the city.
They are dedicated to recycling garbage, domestic work, caring for the elderly and the sick, and also fishing.
Ephraim Alegre.
Photo: Juan Manuel Foglia
The rise of the villas
The 2022 census confirmed the increase in the population of this type of villas.
"During the pandemic we had 2,500 families registered. Today we are above 3,000," reveals the grassroots leader of the Tacambú neighborhood, Víctor Hugo Fernández.
In contrast, the rise of the river favors the prosperous fluvial transport of agricultural products.
The other face
The 2022 census confirmed the increase in the population in villas: Photo: Norberto Duarte / AFP
With some 3,000 vessels for transporting soybeans and grains,
Paraguay has the third
largest fleet of barges in the world, after China and the United States, according to the International Maritime Organization.
In the shipyards near Asunción, everything from the simplest boats to self-propelled ships and high-tech pushers are built.
Guillermo Ehreke, director of the Center for River and Maritime Shipowners, assures that
business is increasing
and that bulk carriers flying the Brazilian flag and Bolivian minerals also circulate along the
Paraguay-Paraná waterway that
flows into the Río de la Plata .
two countries
"Paraguay has two countries:
one that produces and enjoys well-being
and the other that has its
problems to make ends meet
. There is an important difference between a certain social level that has its entire life insured and another that has to row it day by day "Ehreke says.
Ángel Devaca Pavón, dean of the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the Catholic University, maintains that "we live in a social and political democracy, but
not an economic one
."
A grandmother rests in the middle of a mountain of garbage in a marginal neighborhood of Asunción.
Photo: Norberto Duarte/ AFP
Attracted by the low tax level, which does not exceed 10%, Argentine, Brazilian, Uruguayan, American and now also European businessmen are entering
this cheap and safe market to do business.
An average of 10 million tons of soybeans
, 4 million tons of corn and 2 million tons of rice
leave annually through the waterway , according to the Chamber of Grains and Oilseeds.
The reduction of these differences has even been called for by Pope Francis.
"We cannot and must not accept poverty and hunger in nations that enjoy all the generous contributions of nature:
pure water, suitable land, clean air
," Francisco said in a message to a forum of Paraguayan judges that met in March. in Asuncion.
"If the judges do nothing to prevent poverty from existing in a naturally rich country, the doors are opened to new totalitarian discourses," he added.
Despite the deficiencies, the Gini index, which measures inequality,
has experienced an improvement
in recent years, going from 52.3 in 2011 to 42.9 in 2021, according to the World Bank.
For 2023, the Central Bank of Paraguay forecasts a GDP increase of 4.8%.
But poverty reaches
24.7% of the 7.5 million inhabitants
and extreme poverty 5.6%, according to the 2022 household survey by the National Institute of Statistics.
Hugo Olazar writes from Asunción via AFP
ap
look too
The electoral campaign in Paraguay, shaken by an accusation by the United States for corruption
With little enthusiasm, Paraguay enters the countdown to elect a new president