The Land Returns · Episode 12 of 14 · 19 min
The Southern Cone and the Chaco: Argentina and Paraguay
When national governments stall, an international court often forces land back. The episode follows Argentina's Law 26.160, a survey and eviction freeze repeatedly extended and then repealed by decree in 2024, and the 2020 Lhaka Honhat ruling ordering communal title to some 400,000 hectares. In Paraguay, Inter-American Court judgments forced a hostile state to return ancestral Chaco land.
Who's who
- Javier Milei+2 more episodesArgentine president whose government repealed Law 26.160 in December 2024
Where it happens
- Salta, Argentinahome of the Lhaka Honhat communities
- Paraguayan Chacoancestral land of the Enxet and Sanapana peoples
- San Jose, Costa Ricaseat of the Inter-American Court
Timeline
- 2006 (March 29)Court rules in Sawhoyamaxa v. Paraguay
- 2006 (Nov.)Argentina enacts Law 26.160
- 2010 (Aug. 24)Court orders return of land in Xakmok Kasek v. Paraguay
- 2014 (June)Paraguay expropriates 14,404 hectares for Sawhoyamaxa
- 2020 (Feb. 6)Court orders title to about 400,000 hectares in Lhaka Honhat
- 2024 (Dec. 10)Milei government repeals Law 26.160
Still debated
The state argues an emergency prolonged for eighteen years cannot indefinitely suspend property enforcement, while communities say the repeal removes their only shield with the survey half-finished. The repeal is being challenged and reported to the Inter-American system.
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