Asunción, October 30 (teleSUR-RHC)-- Hundreds of Paraguayan farmers from across the country launched a march in Asunción on Thursday to demand the resignation of President Horacio Cartes and protest policies that contribute to poor living conditions in rural areas.

The march comes as the latest in a series of farmer's mobilizations this year, including an 8,000-strong march on the capital in February to demand that President Cartes either introduce major reforms or resign. 

According to a statement from the National Farmers Federation, known as the FNC, the movement protests “all of the policies driven by the government of Horacio Cartes, which deepen more and more the state violence and repression against poor farmers instead of delivering on the needs of the people and boosting community development.”

In the face of of a government that has not only sidelined the needs of poor and rural populations, but has also been repeatedly condemned for violating human rights, farmers demand a new kind of politics in the country.

Central among their demands are calls for improvements in health, education, labor, living conditions, and land access, as well as an end to the influence of drugs traffic in politics.

The protest, convened by Paraguay Pyahura farmers organization and supported by the FNC, also aims to draw attention to the devastating impacts of industrial monocultures, particularly soy, on rural populations and small-scale farming. According to the FNC, soy and other monocultures are displacing farmers from their land, forcing many to move to cities in search of work. 

“This is a long struggle of the Paraguayan people...against anti-popular, pro-transnational, pro-imperial, pro-neoliberal policies that want to be established on the continent and are part of this operation that is taking place in Paraguay,” said Ignacio Dennis, a member of the transnational social movement La Via Campesina, in reference to Paraguayan policies that contribute to the land dispossession.
     
Paraguay has one of the highest rates of land concentration in the region, with an estimated 80 percent of land is in the hands of just two percent of the population. 

The march will conclude with a mobilization in front of the National Congress in Asunción to demand President Cartes’ resignation.

Cartes has seen high disapproval ratings since coming to office in 2013 and has also come under fire within his own party for undermining institutional stability.