Paraguay

The day after I got back from Mendoza, we took a flight to Asunción, which is the capital of Paraguay.

A big theme of our program is learning about the countries in MERCOSUR which is an organization of collaboration with Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil (hence, our visits to all those countries). Venezuela was formally part of Mercosur and Bolivia is working on making its way in.

In Paraguay, we learned a lot about their economic and political structures and problems.

Asunción

Upon getting to Asuncion, the immediate thoughts are the poor infrastructure in the city. Many of the buildings are falling apart and look super old. The entire country of Paraguay is striken with poverty and economic inequality.

A fact that paints a bit of the picture is that the Asunción airport has 6 total gates. The Denver, Colorado airport has 111 gates, for reference. Asuncion has 2 million metropolitan habitants compared to about 3 million in Denver.

All of this poverty is a huge function of the political systems. A very small proportion of the population is in charge of much of the land and wealth. Hence, there is much less effort put into city infrustructure and its inhabitants.

There is a lot I could get into about this topic, but seeing the poverty in the country was eye opening and sad. After having just finished Why Nations Fail which discussed the reasons that certain countries and its inhabitants prosper relative to other places, being in Paraguay was even more interesting.

They have a GDP per capita of about $4,000 compared to $57,000 in the US.

We learned a lot about these inequalities in political structures while we were there.

There were some fun activities as well, though. We went to this fun colorful neighborhood, hung out at some parks, by the water, and ate good food.

Disappearances

Another big part of Paraguay’s recent history has to do with the disappearances of many of its people. There was a period when the government was kidnapping people who were thought to be political threats. We went to a museum that honored their memory.

One of the crazy parts about this is that the United States was involved.

There is a larger initiative that was called Plan Condor and took place in many regions throughout South America. It was during the Cold War and the US was fearful about communism spreading. Due to that, and who knows what else, they helped aid governments in Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, and maybe some other places with disappearances of communist-minded leaders in the societies. Definitely not something we would typically learn in American schooling.

It made me think about the US international involvement and its pros and cons as well as much how much we do not know.

Campesino

We also drove to the farm lands in Paraguay. They were really pretty and tranquil.

Through this bus drive, we passed through this small town having a big religious holiday with their entire town, and we went to check it out for a bit.