The San Oscar Romero Colony, the former site of the Curuguaty Massacre that took place on June 15, 2012, marks 14 years this month as a symbol of social justice and land regularization in rural Paraguay. What for more than a decade seemed like an open wound became, starting in August 2023, a definitive resolution process led by the Paraguayan government and the Instituto de Desarrollo Rural y de la Tierra (Indert), which replaced violent evictions with the formal delivery of property titles to peasant families.
Martina Paredes, a leader of the former Marina Cué, recalled that this June 15 marks 14 years since a regrettable date for the community, as well as 13 years of struggle for land titling. She emphasized that families are now at peace and that 70% of residents have already received their property titles, with plans to build houses and improve the transport of local produce.
The transformation gained decisive momentum starting with the administration launched in 2023 by President Santiago Peña and Indert head Francisco Ruiz Díaz. Before that, 1,748 hectares had to be stripped of their natural reserve status by the MADES environment ministry to be incorporated into Indert's assets. A Special Mediation Committee was then created, and in July 2024, direct land surveying and sweeping work began on the colony's 243 lots, with the aim of identifying the true beneficiaries of agrarian reform.
In October 2025, President Santiago Peña traveled to Curuguaty to deliver the first 80 official property titles, settling a historical debt with the victims' families. In April 2026, Indert managed to resolve the title overlap conflict over 36 lots through a direct peaceful agreement signed with the company Campos Morombí and the Marina Cué Development Commission, ensuring that 100% of the colony would be legally titled.
The Curuguaty experience served as the basis for the agrarian dispute resolution model that Indert successfully implemented in the Santa Teresa Manduarã Colony, in the district of Abaí, Caazapá department, where a 32-year conflict was resolved. The mediation was conducted by a special commission headed by Francisco Ruiz Díaz, with three representatives from the San Oscar Romero neighborhood commission and Father Pascual Kinoti. In January 2026, a consensual technical verification confirmed that around 500 families were legitimate descendants of the colony's pioneers, and the final report was presented to the Presidency of the Republic and the Diocese of Caazapá, sealing a definitive agreement with zero victims.
Context: The Curuguaty massacre on June 15, 2012, left 17 people dead — 11 peasants and 6 police officers — during a forced land eviction at the then-named Marina Cué. One of the deadliest episodes in Paraguay's recent history, it led to the impeachment of President Fernando Lugo and became a symbol of the country's deep-rooted agrarian tensions, where land concentration and rural conflicts remain central political issues.