The economic and political situation in Paraguay is going through a series of crisis between what is complex and what is concrete. During July and in the beginning of August, there were a series of struggles that caused the accumulation of a general unrest of the masses, while at the end of July a true scandal was revealed: the secret treaty of Itaipu signed by Mario Abdu and Jair Bolsonaro, behind the working people´s backs; a secret agreement that could have ended up in a tax raise for the Paraguayan people, that would also allow the Brazilian president to benefit his private energy companies with the direct purchase of energy from Itaipu. This situation left Mario Abdo Benitez on the brink of a political trial that did not prosper thanks to the help of his coreligionist Horacio Cartes, former president of the Republic who has a personal history linked to drug trafficking. The secret treaty or mafia between both governments revealed the possible loss of 250 million until the renegotiation date in 2023. The Paraguayan working class was already living some crises in the beginning of the year, like the increase of gas prices and the basic family basket, already not being able to make ends meet, thus revealing the Paraguayan state´s repression of the cost of life.
Between the miserable increase of the minimum wage (that works as ceiling and not as floor) and the disproportional increase of gas prices, bus fares and the basic basket, came the crisis in the education sector.
The budget of the Ministry of Education and Science for 2020 does not include a raise of investment in educational quality. On the contrary, it forecasts a deficit of 91.258.070.560 guaranies, of which 92% will be destined to salaries, a true demonstration that education is not a national cause as minister Eduardo Petta used to say.
With only 3,7% of GNP destined to education (while the UNESCO recommends 7 to 9,8% through 2030), Paraguay continues being one of the countries that invest the least, a situation that keeps us in a regretfully behind when compared to the other countries of the region.
The
poor increase of the minimum wage, the disproportional raise of the gas prices,
bus tickets and the basic basket and the crisis in the education sector places
Paraguay among the many countries that contribute to the global disorder that
oppresses the working class. In addition, the absence of state actions against
organized crime cannot be ignored.
Paraguay has become a sort of headquarters for organised crime. Ignoring the
need to confiscate wrongly appropriated lands for an agrarian reform, state
policy is militarising the country with the supposed goal of eradicating organised
crime, to install fear in the republic, so it is able to repress the centres of
struggle of rural workers who fight for an agrarian reform. So this is slowly
mobilizing the working class at a national level, yet we must not forget that this
crisis that the people are going through is generally the same as that of the
sister countries, and that is why Paraguay is not at all from an economic recession.
According
to the Monthly Indicator of Economic Activity of Paraguay (IMAEP), the economic
activity in our country was reduced by 2.8% in June this year, while growth
expectations of the GNP were reduced over the year (5 days, 2019).
Just in the first trimester, Paraguayan trade closed with alarming numbers, not
only in agribusiness but also in other sectors such as meatpacking; for
example, among the sectors with the highest income loss in their sales abroad
are grains and their derivatives (oil, cereals, soy flour, etc.) lowering by
20.1 to 28.2 % (see quarterly BCP report)
Another sector that we mentioned is meatpacking, where the Central Bank of Paraguay
(BCP) reported a serious fall in the inter-annual variation of 23.7% in its
exports, unlike the previous years. Its main destinations still are Russia and
Chile but with a smaller exports (Ultima Hora, 2019). The slowdown is spreading
more than previously expected, out of the eight consumer categories that the
BCP monitors, six have started to show negative and therefore alarming
variations.
The
aggravation of the fall in sales and production leads to a crisis for the
working class, reducing costs and even the staff of employees and therefore
results in an increase in unemployment.
We must continue highlighting the class struggle so as to dispute against the
positions that mitigate the current situation in Paraguay, a position held by
the government linked to the capitalist sectors that continue harassing the
working class of Paraguay.
With the development of the capitalist crisis, not only will the number of unemployed workers increase, but it will also allow the agglomeration of the masses in those conditions. The material living conditions of workers, force them to unite and look for alternatives.
That
is why we are building Alternativa Socialista, a new anti-capitalist,
internationalist, feminist and eco-socialist political alternative that promotes
the mobilization and struggle of the workers and the people for a socialist
government to advance in the search for solutions for the whole working class.
Mario Larroza