Paraguayan People's Army

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The Paraguayan People's Army (Spanish: Ejército del Pueblo Paraguayo, EPP) is a guerrilla movement that has become known in Paraguay through armed attacks, bombings and kidnappings since it was founded in March 2008 .

The EPP describes itself as Marxist-Leninist. It is said to have emerged from the left-wing Patria Libre party and operate primarily in the north of the country. Most of the violent attacks by members of the EPP occur in the department of Concepción and in the neighboring departments of Canindeyú and San Pedro. The EPP is believed to have around 50 members.

Origins

The EPP was officially founded on March 1st, 2008. However, their origins go back a long way in the past.

After the military dictatorship was overthrown by General Alfredo Stroessner (1953-1989) in 1989, there was a democratic change in Paraguay - the censorship of the media was lifted and the democratic constitution was promulgated in the early 1990s.

After the collapse of the dictatorship in 1990, Alcide Oviedo Brítez, who would later become the leader of the EPP, studied theology at the Catholic University of Asunción. Here in 1992 he met the left-wing Juan Arrom Suhurt, founder of the left-wing political party Moviemiento Patria Libre (MPL). Oviedo Brítez was finally excluded from studying theology in 1992 and began to be more and more interested in the revolution. Together with his wife Carmen Villalba and Juan Arrom Suhurt, he finally formed the core of a left-wing radical cell that developed into the EPP.

ideology

Alcide Oviedo Brítez laid out the ideology of the EPP in a 150-page book that he wrote while in prison. In the book he describes the goal of the EPP as the "Francist revolution of the 21st century", based on the dictator José Rodríguez de Francia, who ruled Paraguay from 1814 to 1840. The EPP wants to replace the “bourgeois-liberal parliamentary system” with a “regime of people's congresses”. The EPP's political program says: “The Francismo of the 21st century is not committed to the democracy of the rich. On the contrary, he wants to destroy them and build a revolutionary, serious and militant democracy of the people in their place. "

Conflicts

Since its inception in 2008, the EPP has held more than 85 property damage cases and its actions have claimed over 50 lives. The organization has grown rapidly since its inception and is increasingly aggressive. In 2015, a German couple was kidnapped and killed by guerrilla fighters in the Yby Yaú district . The two had previously lived in Paraguay for around 30 years and owned a farm there.

present

The conflict between farmers' organizations, the EPP, indigenous peoples and the landless on the one hand and the Paraguayan government on the other continued in 2017. The peasant organizations and the landless demanded extensive agricultural, social and political reforms. In 2017, there were numerous protests in the capital Asunción and other parts of the country. Rioting between protesters and the police resulted in the death of one protester and around thirty injured. Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes subsequently announced that he would not run for a second term. In 2017, the attacks by the EPP were less severe than in the previous year.

On February 25, 2017, the EPP released a hostage after her family complied with the EPP's demands. The demands related to the distribution of food to indigenous communities in Río Verde in the department of San Pedro. On April 26, the EPP attacked a security guard on a farm near Arroyito in the department of Concepción. EPP members left a CD condemning the use of security guards on farms and the cultivation of soy. On May 29, President Cartes dismissed the head of the Joint Task Force, a military unit used against the activities of the EPP, and appointed Héctor Alcides Grau, its seventh commander in four years. Between August 21 and September 1, EPP members kidnapped two farmers in San Pedro department. At the end of the year, the group held five people hostage.

The conflict between the EPP and the farmers' organization in 2017 was rated as conflict level 3 by the conflict research institute at Heidelberg University. The conflict research institute distinguishes between five intensity levels: level 1 describes a political conflict that is classified as a dispute, level 2 a political conflict that is classified as a non-violent crisis, level 3 a political conflict that is classified as a violent crisis, and level 4 a political one Conflict that is classified as Limited War and Level 5 a political conflict that is classified as War.

A political conflict is classified as a violent crisis (level 3) if physical violence against people - or against property, if physical harm to people is accepted with approval - is used sporadically by at least one of the actors.

classification

The establishment of the EPP in 2008 can be seen as part of a general socialism movement that covered large parts of Latin America in the 2000s: Starting with Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, who won the presidential elections in Venezuela in 1998, and against in the “Bolivarian Revolution” incited the US and western capitalism. Especially in South America, more and more socialists ruled in the following years, which also led to economic growth. Left parties in countries such as Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina won majorities in parliamentary and presidential elections. Since 2013, support for left-wing parties has been steadily declining among the South American population.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kohn, Alice (2013): Paraguay's new president puts the military on the march against guerrillas. Online: https : // Amerika21.de/2013/08/85106/militaereinsatz-paraguay
  2. ↑ AP / AFP (2015): German couple killed in Paraguay by guerrilla kidnappers. Online: https://www.dw.com/en/german-couple-killed-in-paraguay-by-guerrilla-kidnappers/a-18225293?maca=en-TWITTER-EN-2004-xml-mrss
  3. ↑ McDermott, Jeremy (2015): The Paraguayan People's Army: A new rebel group or simple bandits ?. In: Perspectivas 2/2015. Online: https://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/la-seguridad/11155.pdf , p. 3
  4. ↑ McDermott, Jeremy (2015): The Paraguayan People's Army: A new rebel group or simple bandits ?. In: Perspectivas 2/2015. Online: https://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/la-seguridad/11155.pdf , p. 4
  5. ↑ Yagoub, Mimi (2014): Attacks Sign of Growing EPP Strength in Paraguay Despite Security Crackdown. Online: https://www.insightcrime.org/news/brief/attacks-sign-of-growing-epp-strength-in-paraguay-despite-security-crackdown/
  6. ↑ AP / AFP (2015): German couple killed in Paraguay by guerrilla kidnappers. Online: https://www.dw.com/en/german-couple-killed-in-paraguay-by-guerrilla-kidnappers/a-18225293?maca=en-TWITTER-EN-2004-xml-mrss
  7. ↑ HIIK (Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research) (2017): Conflict Barometer 2017. Online: https://hiik.de/konfliktbarometer/aktuelle-ausgabe/ , p. 129
  8. ↑ HIIK (Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research) (2017): Conflict Barometer 2017. Online: https://hiik.de/konfliktbarometer/aktuelle-ausgabe/ , p. 9
  9. ↑ Walter, Jan D. (2016): South America is fed up with socialism. Online: https://www.dw.com/de/s%C3%BCd Amerika-hat-den-sozialismus-satt/a-19514893