Sovereignty, border policies and transnational practices in Paraguay

Abstract

We analyze paraguayan public policies in five areas: taxation, territorial concessions, exports, customs management and establishment of foreign companies. This analysis shows the serious process of dispossession of the country’s natural reserves, especially wooded masses and mineral products. The argument is directed to show how the penetration of large transnational corporations does not express the weakness of the State as a regulating entity of national interests, but the existence of an economic and political elite in Paraguay that proactively organizes and directs the plundering of all raw materials which are interesting for foreign investment capital. All this regardless of any protective policy of the social or environmental interests of the nation.

Keywords

• retóricas del estado nación, democracia formal, depreda- ción territorial, extractivismo, marginalización ciudadana