Henryk Gaska: Ni cantos ni llantos. Los “oídos sordos” de la Itaipú Binacional y su impacto a las comunidades Avá Guaraní in Paraguay, 51–57

Abstract

In the language of the traditional inhabitants of these lands, itaipú means “stone that rings, stone that sings.” For the Avá Guaraní settlements that disappeared under the waters of Lake Itaipú, and also for the communities that absorbed the displaced, it became the stone of tears. Unfortunately, the direction of the Itaipú Binacional turns a deaf ear to the demands for compensation raised by the Indigenous, to the songs and cries of the communities affected by the construction of Itaipú hydroelectric power station. First, I shall analyze the dispossession claims raised by the Avá Guaraní communities. Indigenous as well as indigenist organizations, such as the Asociación de Parcialidades Indígenas (API), the Asociación Indigenista del Paraguay (AIP) and the Equipo Nacional de Misiones de la Conferencia Episcopal Paraguaya (ENM), have complained to the corresponding authorities of the Paraguayan state about the dispossession and destruction of the traditional habitat of the Avá Guaraní in Alto Paraná. The representatives of the state – then Enzo Debernardi, general director of the Paraguayan side of Itaipú, and Dr Antonio Colmán Rodríguez, legal director of that institution – ignored the complaints, arguing that the authorities were complying with all the laws and other legal regulations of the country. In doing so, they implied that the Itaipú Binacional would not take any responsibility for the indigenous people affected by the project. In the second part, I shall examine the effects of the displacement of the Avá Guaraní, which were also disastrous for the communities that absorbed the evicted people, including forced relocation settlements. Whether for its religious, social, economic, or political effects: forced relocation in communities like the Acaraymi and the Kirito was negative in all aspects.

[Paraguay, Avá Guaraní, Itaipú Binacional, development, dispossession, historical debt].