The Indigenous World 2026: Paraguay

Written on 22 April 2026. Posted in Paraguay

According to the results of the 2022 National Census of Indigenous Peoples, there are approximately 140,206 Indigenous individuals in Paraguay, representing 2.29% of the country's total population. These people identify as one of the 19 recognized Indigenous Peoples, broken down into five linguistic families: Guaraní (including the Aché, Avá Guaraní, Mbya, Pai Tavytera, Guaraní Ñandeva and Western Guaraní), Maskoy (with peoples such as Toba Maskoy, Enlhet Norte, Enxet Sur, Sanapaná, Angaité and Guaná), Mataco Mataguayo (Nivaclé, Maká, Manjui), Zamuco (Ayoreo, Ybytoso, Tomarâho) and Guaicurú (Qom).

Chapter V of the 1992 National Constitution recognizes Indigenous Peoples as cultural groups that pre-existed the formation of the Paraguayan State, guaranteeing them fundamental rights such as ethnic identity, community ownership of their lands, political participation and an education that respects their specific cultural features.

In addition, Paraguay has a solid legal framework that supports Indigenous rights, having ratified the main international human rights instruments, both in the universal and Inter-American systems.

This article is part of the 40th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. Find The Indigenous World 2026 in full here

Administrative mutilation to the detriment of Indigenous Peoples

On 16 July 2025, the Paraguayan Indigenous Institute (INDI) announced on social media that its headquarters in Asunción were to close, transferring care of Indigenous Peoples to three regional offices that are, for many people, difficult to reach. The decision was made without consulting the 19 Indigenous Peoples, despite ILO Convention 169 having been ratified by Paraguay, and despite the provisions of the National Constitution and current laws. Particularly serious was the violation of Article 29 of Law No. 904/81, the Statute on Indigenous Communities, which establishes that INDI must have its legal domicile in Asunción, thus ensuring equitable and centralized access to its administrative and representative functions.

The leaders of the Indigenous communities have historically gone to Asunción to make representations to INDI and, on the same trip, visited other nearby public institutions. The unilateral decision to close the headquarters ignores this practice and generates a disproportionate barrier that restricts not only access to INDI but also to all state institutions.

Decreased public budget for ancestral land purchases

Against this backdrop, the gradual and ominous decrease in state budget for institutions in charge of recovering the lands and territories of traditional Indigenous habitat was reflected, in 2025, in the purchases of truly insignificant plots of land for return to the ancestral domain.

Trend in INDI’s budget for lands over the past 3 years.

Source: Prepared by Adriana Agüero, based on PGN Laws No. 7050/2023, No. 7228/2024 and No. 7468/2025.

It should be noted at this point that there was some resistance: the PYG 26,000,000,000 (approx. EUR 3.4 million) for 2023 was effectively obtained due to pressure from Indigenous organizations,^[1] compared to the approx. PYG 3,000,000,000 (approx. EUR 400,000) which, since 2020, has barely enabled them to scrape by in terms of land purchases.

Nonetheless, in addition to the negative perception of institutional performance and budget cuts, land acquisitions in traditional Indigenous habitats are now minimal: in the last three tax years, up to May 2025, INDI acquired a negligible area of just 107 hectares in total for restitution to Indigenous communities.

Interests under the National Green Finance Strategy

Indigenous Peoples need the forest to live but the government is focused on making the forests disappear, spreading a discourse that backwardness is necessarily linked to the persistence of common natural resources. The Minister of the Interior publicly wondered if the Indigenous lands were “productive”,^[2] without distancing himself from the interests of the business community. This constitutes a disregard for the specific legal nature of the collective property of Indigenous Peoples and a blindness to their important role in preserving biodiversity.

Environmental licences for silvopastoral exploitation or charcoal production projects are granted without the knowledge or consent of Indigenous communities. At the macro level, the design and participation processes in the Green Economy have not been inclusive of the 19 Indigenous Peoples either.

Furthermore, these policies insist on adopting false solutions, which aggravates the situation: deforestation has not been halted and the poisoning of the soil and watercourses has not been decisively addressed. It is in this context that the government’s discourse relies mainly on “low tax pressure” and “competitiveness”, centred on a presumed sustainability that does not exist,^[3] as well as on the intention that foreign business capital should be the driving force behind the country's economy. This is without mentioning the existence of lands and territories that are traditional Indigenous habitats or the necessary guidelines for their protection and preservation.

Territorial conflicts in the absence of climate justice: cases during 2025

Conflicts over a lack of climate justice are escalating for Indigenous people, who are being forced to abandon their ancestral livelihoods and face problems such as indiscriminate logging of native forests, soil degradation on their own lands, fences, intimidation, criminalization, pesticide spraying, loss of biodiversity and the drying up of waterways. The following are cases that occurred during 2025:

• Possible unauthorized purchase and sale of environmental services and dispossession of the El Estribo community of the Enxet people: Apparent financial loss of more than PYG 1,400,000,000 (approx. EUR 185,000), which the El Estribo community did not receive for the sale of environmental service certificates. The criminal investigation is ongoing.^[4]
• Possible unauthorized purchase and sale of environmental services and dispossession of the Novoctas community of the Nivaclé people: Apparent financial loss of more than PYG 1,300,000,000 (approx. EUR 172,000), which the Novoctas community did not receive from the sale of environmental service certificates. The criminal investigation is ongoing.^[5]
• Mining in Paso Jovái, communities of the Mbya Guaraní people: Loss of biodiversity, unlicensed handling of contaminating substances (cyanide/mercury) and health impacts on Mbya communities.^[6]
• Dispossession of ancestral lands in judicial litigation, Mbya Guaraní people: The Hugua Po'i community was once again dispossessed due to the lifting of a precautionary measure obtained by the Tres Palmas company.^[7] Crops are at risk of being destroyed or illegally appropriated if evicted.
• Dispossession of ancestral lands through the use of violence, Ava Guaraní people: The Karapã community has denounced an escalation of attacks, which includes a forced eviction in January; fires in May; animal theft; shootings; road blockades and the use of drones to harass them. This violence was allegedly the responsibility of thugs from the Principado S.A. company, which appears to have appropriated their ancestral territory.^[8]

Other elements of climate justice that directly affect Indigenous Peoples:

• The lack of a Zero Deforestation Law for the Western Region.
• Non-ratification of the Escazú Agreement.^[9]
• The rejection of EU Regulation No 1115 on traceability of raw materials. There is resistance from the business community to traceability requirements for soybeans and other export products. The business association is continuing to negotiate for flexibility in the application of the regulations.^[10]

Unmet basic needs in Indigenous households and violation of the right to education^[11]

According to the 2022 National Indigenous Census, 38% of Indigenous people are under the age of 14, while 28.6% are between 15 and 30 years of age, accounting for 67.1% of the total Indigenous population.^[12]

Furthermore, CDIA's Statistical Bulletin entitled Niñez y Adolescencia en el Chaco Paraguayo^[13] [Childhood and Adolescence in the Paraguayan Chaco] reports that seven in every 10 homes in the Chaco has at least one unmet basic need (UBN). Households in the Chaco departments account for the highest number of UBN nationally, in a region where there are 25 times more Indigenous people than in the rest of the country.

This deprivation of basic rights (access to drinking water, electricity, food, health and a healthy environment) demonstrates that this group of children is excluded from the full exercise of their right to education. One in three Indigenous communities has no school, and their dropout rate is among the highest in the country: six in 10 students who start school in the Chaco fail to graduate.^[14]

In terms of the availability of teachers, there are some 106 Indigenous communities in the Chaco that do not have teachers, representing 33.33% of the total.

Infant mortality and maternal mortality

The Bulletin also indicates that the departments of Alto Paraguay, Boquerón and Presidente Hayes have the highest infant mortality rates in the country, with one range covering 0 to 1 year of age and the other 0 to 5 years of age.

With regard to maternal mortality, Presidente Hayes is home to 2.02% of the country's population, and is predominantly Indigenous; however, it accounts for 9.6% of maternal deaths, a percentage almost five times higher than other departments. Furthermore, four of the seven maternal deaths in 2023 in this department were girls and adolescents aged 10 to 19.

National Indigenous protest in response to the presence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Paraguay

During a hearing to monitor compliance with the rulings of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (I/A Court H.R) on two international cases brought by Indigenous communities against the Paraguayan State,^[15] on 22 September 2025, a demonstration organized by Indigenous organizations reached the Palace of Justice, in Sajonia, with the aim of raising awareness of their demands regarding the closure of INDI's central office in the capital, the allocation of a larger budget for land purchases, the cessation of evictions against the communities and the implementation of an inter-institutional roundtable to analyse the proposals.

After two weeks of coordinated Indigenous protests that spread throughout the country, on 03 October 2025,^[16] Gen. (SR) Juan Ramón Benegas (former military man) was finally persuaded to resign and the Executive Power appointed Mr. Hugo Ramón Samaniego Hermosilla as the new president of the Paraguayan Indigenous Institute. The pending meetings with Indigenous organizations were held immediately with the aim of advancing the dialogues.

In conclusion: racial exclusion persists in Paraguay in all its forms

Throughout 2025, racial exclusion occurred in the form of administrative actions, judicial decisions and statements in the media by public actors whose handling of such issues should guarantee priority compliance with the rights of one of the most vulnerable sectors: Indigenous Peoples.

In turn, given the context, the discussion on adopting a law against all forms of discrimination is becoming increasingly necessary given the racism that can also be seen in the actions of Paraguay’s citizens, their expressions of intolerant and misinformed opinions on social media, and hate speech towards poverty.

Containing, mitigating or defending Indigenous people from the consequences of climate change on their lands and territories also remains a fundamental task that the Paraguayan State must include in its plans, for priority implementation through concrete actions.

It is furthermore urgent that the Paraguayan Indigenous Institute, rather than closing its doors to comprehensive care, undergoes intelligent reengineering that will allow it to cease being the target of discrimination as the governing body of policies for Indigenous Peoples within the administrative and budgetary design by the public sector.

Faced with the dismantling of public policies, the unmet basic needs in Indigenous households and poor management on the part of those responsible for the comprehensive protection of Indigenous Peoples in Paraguay, the mass mobilization of Indigenous Peoples demonstrated that they continue to exert collective strength with which to curb the perverse regression in human rights.

In 2025, the Indigenous protest thus clearly demonstrated this collective determination and steely dignity, expressing their unity as pre-existing peoples, despite their material difficulties, a still racist Paraguayan society, and the failure to fulfil their fundamental rights.

This is an excerpt adapted from a longer article by the same author, published in CODEHUPY's Annual Human Rights Report, 2025: Resistencia Indígena frente a un modelo productivo de profunda exclusión, CODEHUPY, Asunción, 2025. Available at: https://www.codehupy.org.py/informe-anual/2025/

Natalia Paola Rodríguez Olmedo is a lawyer ion Cases, Litigation and Incidents with Tierraviva a los Pueblos Indígenas del Chaco. Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Lidia Ruiz Cuevas is Executive Coordinator of Tierraviva a los Pueblos Indígenas del Chaco. Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

This article is part of the 40th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. Find The Indigenous World 2026 in full here

Notes and references

^[1] Campaña pública de la ANIVID por presupuesto digno, 2022. See: https://www.facebook.com/tierravivaparaguay/posts/5080086695338994/?locale=hi_IN

^[2]“Conversamos con Enrique Vargas Peña en ´Mesa con EVP’. Abc TV, Facebook, 07 October 2025. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1306197080989399

^[3]“Paraguay demuestra que un futuro sostenible es posible, resalta Peña ante el G20”. IP-Paraguayan Information Agency, 19 November 2024.

https://www.ip.gov.py/ip/2024/11/19/paraguay-demuestra-que-un-futuro-sostenible-es-posible-resalta-pena-ante-el-g20/ See also: Minister de Barros and Forbes Magazine. https://www.forbes.com.py/summit/las-empresas-verdes-estan-convirtiendo-nuevo-motor-competitividad-observan-pacto-global-paraguay-n70557

^[4] See Annual Report 2025: Informe de Derecho a un Ambiente Sano 2025. CODEHUPY, 2025.

^[5] Idem.

^[6] “Conflicto ambiental en Paso Yobái: yerbateros y mineros en disputa”. RDN, 12 March 2025. https://www.rdn.com.py/2025/03/31/conflicto-ambiental-en-paso-yobai-yerbateros-y-mineros-en-disputa/

^[7] “Codehupy denuncia riesgo para la comunidad Hugua Po’i tras levantamiento de medida cautelar”. Ultima Hora, 21 October 2025. https://www.ultimahora.com/codehupy-denuncia-riesgo-para-la-comunidad-hugua-poi-tras-levantamiento-de-medida-cautelar/

^[8] “Violencia, despojo y resistencia: los Pueblos Indígenas y la tierra en Paraguay”. BASE IS, Paraguay, 12 October 2025. https://www.baseis.org.py/violencia-despojo-y-resistencia-los-pueblos-indigenas-y-la-tierra-en-paraguay/

^[9] Available at: https://corteidh.or.cr/tablas/OC-32-2025/index-eng.html

^[10] “Los exportadores no descartan que la UE relaje el Reglamento 1115 para no pagar sobrecostos”. La Política On Line, 06 June 2025. https://www.lapoliticaonline.com/paraguay/campo-py/exportadores-no-descartan-flexibilizaciones-de-la-ue-o-los-propios-paises-por-sobrecostos-el-reglamento-de-1115/

^[11] "Boletín Estadístico Niñez y Adolescencia en el Chaco Paraguayo". CDIA. 09 August 2025. https://www.cdia.org.py/2025/08/09/boletin-sobre-el-chaco-7-de-cada-10-ninas-ninos-y-adolescentes-no-terminan-el-colegio/

^[12] IV National Census of Population and Housing for Indigenous Peoples 2022. https://www.ine.gov.py/censo2022/documentos/Revista_Censo_Indigena.pdf

^[13] Boletín Estadístico: Niñez y Adolescencia en el Chaco Paraguayo, CDIA.

^[14] Idem.

^[15] The Xákmok Kásek case, with an I/A Court ruling in 2010, and the Yakye Axa case, with an I/A Court ruling in 2005.

^[16] “Tras protestas, indígenas logran la renuncia del Presidente del INDI”. Ultima Hora, 03 October 2025. https://www.ultimahora.com/tras-protestas-indigenas-logran-la-renuncia-del-presidente-del-indi

Tags: Land rights, Human rights, Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Defenders