The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

284 the world according to monsantotrant small farmers by force. On November 3, 2004, in the department ofAlto Paraná, seven hundred policemen were mobilized to expel two thousandlandless peasants who were camping with their families next to the160,000 acres of RR soybeans recently acquired by Agropeco, a companybelonging to a Paraguayan of German origin and an Italian investor. 3 Thetwo men had bought the huge estate from Stroessner’s son, who had obtainedit through a manipulation of the agrarian reform. The families werecultivating a strip of land along Ruta 6. During the operation, in which thirteenpeasants were incarcerated, the crops and the camp were destroyed.But the symbol of the dictatorial methods that flow from the transgenicmodel was the rural community of Tekojoja, located 45 miles fromCaaguazú, a few miles from the “soy frontier.” Fifty-six families have beencarrying on a desperate battle against the appetites of two powerful sojeros ofBrazilian origin, Ademir Opperman, a local potentate, and Adelmar Arcario,who owns 125,000 acres in Paraguay and five important grain elevators inthe region. On December 3, 2004, the two partners organized an attempt toevict the families by force, by burning houses and destroying fifty acres ofcrops. 4 But with the support of MAP, the families resisted and reoccupiedtheir land.On June 24, 2005, at five in the morning, 120 policemen backed by privatemilitia recruited by Opperman took the community by storm accompaniedby two lawyers who displayed an order of expulsion signed by a judge.“They were forged property deeds illegally obtained from Indert [InstitutoNacional de Desarollo Rural y de la Tierra],” explained Jorge Galeano, whohad rushed to the scene as soon as he heard of the operation. “The SupremeCourt in Asunción acknowledged that the acquisition was illegal in September2006, but since then the families have been living in a very precariousstate.”On that January day in 2007 they had left their plastic tents to meet at thescene of the tragic events that had shattered their lives, hoping that my reportingwould protect them from another violent action. “It was terrible,”said a toothless old woman. “The police arrested 160 people, 40 of themchildren. We spent several days in jail. When we were released our houseshad been burned down, our crops destroyed, and our animals killed. Andthen we lost two companions.”In silence, the families had approached two tombstones covered withflowers in the midst of a clearing. “Here is where they assassinated Angel