The Guardian Weekly (2022-01-14)

The Guardian Weekly 14 January 2022

I

n 1972, Catholic missionaries

entered the Chaco forest of

northern Paraguay and forced

Oscar Pisoraja’s family, and their

nomadic Ayoreo people, to leave with

them. Many died from thirst on the

long march south. Settled near the

village of Carmelo Peralta on the Par-

aguay River, dozens more died from

illnesses. Still, the survivors kept up

some traditions – hunting for armadil-

los; weaving satchels from the spiky

caraguatá plant. “We felt part of this

place,” says Pisoraja, now 51.

Today, his community – and other

indigenous peoples across the Chaco, a

tapestry of swamp, savanna and forest

across four countries that is South

America’s largest ecosystem after the

Amazon – are confronting a dramatic

new change.

On 13 December , Paraguay’s

president, Mario Abdo Benítez , visited

Carmelo Peralta to launch construction

work on a $103m bridge that will cross

the Paraguay River to Brazil. On the

Paraguayan side, the bridge joins a

$445m highway – already half-fi nished

• carving a strip of asphalt for 550km
  east to west through the Chaco.
  In 2024, when both are completed,
  the massive infrastructure project
  across the Chaco, the Bioceanic
  Corridor , will connect cattle ranchers
  and soya bean farmers in Brazil and
  Paraguay with their lucrative Asian
  markets, via northern Argentina and
  Chile. Space is also being left for a
  parallel freight railway.
  But campaigners say the corridor is
  a nightmare, accelerating destruction
  of the Chaco – the fastest-vanishing
  forest on Earth – and piling deadly
  pressure on its native inhabitants,
  including some who shun the out-
  side world. “It’s the fi nal nail in the
  coffi n for the Chaco and all its peo-
  ples,” says Miguel Lovera, director of

Iniciativa Amotocodie , a Paraguayan

conservation organisation.

Paraguay’s Chaco is home to more

than a dozen indigenous peoples. But

the Ayoreo are particularly exposed to

the changes brought by the highway:

many live along its path, and already

face severe poverty and social margin-

alisation. Leaders from the 11 Ayoreo

communities near Carmelo Peralta

say the road poses many threats , from

accidents and rapid social changes to

increased illegal deforestation of trad-

itional hunting and foraging grounds.

The new road makes travelling to

hospitals easier, its supporters say.

Until work began in 2019, the surround-

ing Alto Paraguay region – an area the

size of Austria – had no asphalt road.

Buses sometimes get stuck for weeks

along muddy tracks , with stranded pas-

sengers having to be airlifted to safety.

Local consultations with indigenous

communities were rushed, argue s

PA R AGUAY

Road to ruin

Last refuge

of Ayoreo

people

under threat

Bioceanic Corridor in the

Chaco cuts through fastest-

vanishing forest on Earth

and its fragile communities

By Laurence Blair

 A hut in

the Ayoreo

Totobiegosode

community of

Chaidí

 A member of

the Yakye Áxa

community passes

in front of a truck

transporting

lumber

Photographs by

Santi Carneri

26 Spotlight

South America

550

Length in

kilometres of

the new $445m

highway through

the Paraguayan

side of the Chaco

‘It’s the fi nal nail in the

coffi n for the Chaco

and all its peoples.

They’ve been duped’