Evan Abramson

Reportage: A Hunger for Land

Santa Rosa district, San Pedro--October 25, 2008--National landless leader Elvio Benítez takes a cellphone call before starting a meeting with landless leaders representing several different communities. Benítez is the leader of the National Coordinating Table of Campesino Organizations (MCNOC), who describes his mission as stopping the advance of transgenic soybean production in Paraguay. An infamous figure in the national press, painted on a daily basis as a lawless gunslinging invador of land, Benítez is much more comfortable speaking in the native Guaraní tongue than in Spanish. At the meeting he quotes the Paraguayan constitution as saying: "Social interest is more important than private interest."
Santa Rosa district, San Pedro--October 25, 2008--National landless leader Elvio Benítez takes a cellphone call before starting a meeting with landless leaders representing several different communities. Benítez is the leader of the National Coordinating Table of Campesino Organizations (MCNOC), who describes his mission as stopping the advance of transgenic soybean production in Paraguay. An infamous figure in the national press, painted on a daily basis as a lawless gunslinging invador of land, Benítez is much more comfortable speaking in the native Guaraní tongue than in Spanish. At the meeting he quotes the Paraguayan constitution as saying: "Social interest is more important than private interest."