Twenty-five neighborhood organizations and urban collectives from Asunción formed the Network for the Right to the City, an independent citizen platform that seeks to transform the Paraguayan capital and its metropolitan area. The group, officially launched last Saturday, aims to coordinate efforts to overcome isolation in neighborhood struggles and build a "social muscle" capable of influencing local public policies.
In a manifesto presented publicly, the network's representatives stated that the capital faces a deep crisis, marked by the loss of 190 hectares of trees in 24 years and the historical neglect of its plazas and parks. The diagnosis also includes serious structural deficiencies such as the lack of storm drainage that causes constant flooding, an inefficient transportation system that steals hours of citizens' lives, and the social exclusion of vulnerable sectors.
The network stated that the Municipality of Asunción suffers a "technical, financial, and moral breakdown," exemplified by the diversion of G. 512 billion from bonds that should have been allocated to public works during the administration of Óscar "Nenecho" Rodríguez of the Colorado Party (ANR), and by the cooptation of the institution by interests alien to the common good.
Aristides Ortiz, one of the initiative's spokespersons, detailed the structural crisis: "There has been no investment for decades in the 210 plazas, parks, and green corridors of the city of Asunción. They were abandoned and today are in a lamentable state, practically no longer serving citizens' use."
Regarding the urban mobility model, Ortiz warned that "public policies from both the municipal government and the national government prioritize the automobile to the detriment of citizens, who need public transportation." He added that there are "more than 150,000 people living in the bañados, in poverty, and they are not incorporated into the city."
The network intends to consolidate itself as an autonomous, apolitical space without ties to parties, religions, or the State, allowing the plural integration of people of diverse ideologies and genders. Its priority objective is to coordinate intelligence, resources, and technical proposals developed by volunteer professionals in critical areas for urban transformation.
Among the proposals for immediate action, the organization determined not to limit itself to sterile denunciation, incorporating agendas for pedagogical training, direct dialogue with municipal candidates, and rigorous monitoring of active neighborhood struggles. On the technical level, the platform promotes a new Regulatory Plan that is strictly enforced and serves people, not unregulated real estate businesses.
The organization set as its temporal horizon the five-hundredth anniversary of Asunción in 2037, marking the definitive closure of the cycle of mismanagement denounced. Organized citizenship thus begins to build a new model of capital based on dignity, calling on new groups to join the platform.