Paraguay presents its national plan for Indigenous peoples

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The President of Paraguay, Mario Abdo Benítez, received this Tuesday, April 20, the National Plan for Indigenous Peoples (PNPI), seeking to establish public policies for the more than 700 native communities that inhabit the country and participated in the preparation of the document.

The work to promote the PNPI began in 2014, and three lines of action have been followed that define how indigenous peoples lived in the past, how they live now, and how they want to live in the short term, as recalled during the ceremony at the Government Palace by the indigenous representative Hipólito Acevei.

Acevei, a representative of the communities of the department of Alto Paraguay, pointed out that for the indigenous peoples, the action plan “is very profound” and represents a “search for a solution” to their problems.

The indigenous representative asked the Executive that the content not remain in the “oparei” (forgotten, in Guarani language) and commits itself to advance in a new stage for the indigenous peoples.

“We have not come to petition for a privileged attention, but to request a differentiated attention that, by natural and legal right, corresponds to us,” he expressed in the act celebrated in the Government Palace.

For his part, the head of the Indigenous Institute (INDI), Édgar Olmedo, emphasized that this document was “the product of thousands of indigenous compatriots” to achieve the construction of public policies.

Olmedo asked Abdo Benítez, present at the event, to give “legal force” to this PNPI to guarantee its compliance.

“That it may become part of a decree of the Presidency of the Republic as a legacy of this Government for the posterity of the indigenous peoples,” said Olmedo.

The National Census of Indigenous Population and Housing, with data from 2012, puts the indigenous population at 112,848 in a country with some 7 million inhabitants.

Many of these communities live in extreme poverty and marginalization, mainly due to the misappropriation of their lands and the consequent migration to urban centers.