Exclusive: How the Paraguayan Govt allowed illegal deforestation of Chortitzer on Ayoreo lands to go unpunished
Infona allowed the case of the deforestation of 526 hectares of the Ayoreo Totobiegosode to lapse despite recognizing it was illegal. From there the leather went to Europe.
In January 2022, the president of the National Forestry Institute, Cristina Goralewski, received a report from herdirector of Legal Advice, Victor González Bedoya.
The report, part of 92 pages of documents, indicated that the Chortitzer Cooperative had illegally deforested 526 hectares between September 2018 and September 2020 in lands of the Ayoreo Totobiegosode Cultural and Natural Heritage (PNCAT), recognized by the State since 2001 and protected by a precautionary measure of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights since 2016.
The deforestation was illegal because Chortitzer’s land use change license had been revoked since the international meassure.
González Bedoya recommended that the National Forestry Institute initiate an administrative inquiry against the company for a “very serious breach” of the Forestry Law.
The arguments for the summary proceedings against Chortitzer included “the impact on native forests, the violation of the suspension (of the land use plan), recidivism, bad faith, the irregularity and illegality of the conduct AND THE MOTIVE FOR PROFIT THROUGH TRADE FROM IRREGULAR CLEARINGS”.
Due to the classification of “very serious offense”, Chortitzer was exposed to a fine of up to 10,000 days’ wages - about 170,000 USD at current exchange rate - and had to invest in regenerating the affected forest.
Now, Consenso has obtained exclusive documents showing that while the National Forestry Institute initiated an investigation into Cooperativa Chortitzer for the illegal deforestation of indigenous lands, it took more than a year to notify the company and did so at the wrong address, allowing the company to have the case expire and the deforestation go unpunished.
Among Infona’s omissions is taking more than a year to notify Chortitzer of the investigation and sending the notification to one of the facilities instead of the company’s legal representatives, with whom the agency has had a cooperation agreement since 2021. At that time, Cristina Goralewski publicly referred to Chortitzer as a “true example of sustainable development“.
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Consenso also visited the Ayoreo Heritage site and was able to confirm with drone footage of the area occupied by the Chortitzer Cooperative that deforestation persists. According to Earthsight’s investigation, the leather used in luxury cars in Europe came from these lands.
Deforestation in Chortitzer is visible from the beginning of the Ayoreo Heritage - clearing on the right of the image - April 2026
Deforestation even affects the protection zone established by the forestry law.
Location of the drone from where the deforestation images were taken within the Ayoreo Heritage - April 2026. The site corresponds to a ranch owned by the Chortitzer Cooperative according to data from Cadastre and Infona.
The case demonstrates another violation of the precautionary measures that the IACHR imposed on the Paraguayan State a decade ago, which included preventing deforestation in the area where the last people in voluntary isolation in South America outside the Amazon is located.
The findings also refute claims by the Paraguayan Leather Chamber, which on April 21 asked the Paraguayan State to sue “for defamation” organizations such as Earthsight and Survival International, which have been investigating the case.
Currently, a delegation from the Ayoreo People, which includes Porai Picarenai, leader of the Chaidi community, is in Italy to meet with representatives of the Italian Parliament and the Vatican.
Consenso learned that the Paraguayan government refused to receive the Ayoreo representatives at the Embassy in Rome, canceling the meeting scheduled for the same day that the Leather Chamber claimed it had “the full support” of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Santiago Peña government.
The precautionary measures of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Actions aimed at preventing the continuation of deforestation in the territory recognized and currently being processed in favor of the Ayoreo People.
The creation of a mechanism intended to protect and prevent the entry of third parties into the territory recognized and currently being processed in favor of the Ayoreo Totobiegosode People.
The creation of specific protection protocols against unwanted sightings or contact, based on applicable international standards.
All those measures that are intended to protect the life and personal integrity of the beneficiaries of the precautionary measures , based on the principle of no contact, and that result from the agreement of these precautionary measures with the representatives of the beneficiaries.
Everything the Paraguayan Govt did (and didn’t do) to leave the illegal deforestation of Chortitzer unpunished
Following the original request for a summary investigation by the Legal Department of Infona on January 22, 2022, regarding deforestation that occurred between 2018 and 2020.
But Infona took more than a year to actually send the summary notification to Chortitzer: on May 31, 2023.
The process server was official Óscar Ortiz, who stated in a handwritten note that he left the document at the gate of Estancia Sorpresa, a property of the Chortitzer Cooperative. This ranch is located more than 200 kilometers from the illegally deforested area.
Infona documents show that the notification of the summary for illegal deforestation was sent to another property, which was neither the one being investigated nor the address for legal matters of Cooperativa Chortitzer.
On June 14, 2023, the Livieres Guggiari Law Firm, representing Chortitzer, sent a document to Infona requesting that the notification be made at the address for legal matters of the Cooperative: the office of the aforementioned law firm in Asunción, which is 650 kilometers from the ranch where the summary notification was sent.
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Such neglect by Infona is striking since Livieres Guggiari has legally represented Chortitzer before the institution since at least 2020, according to documents accessed by Consenso.
The time it took Infona to identify the deforestation, request the summary, start the summary and rectify the site where they notified Chortitzer was enough for the company to achieve, through its legal representation, a prescription of the case on October 3, 2023.
The prescription was signed by the president of the National Forestry Institute, Cristina Goralewski Hempel.
Deforestation in the lands of the Ayoreo people went unpunished.
Santiago Peña’s government closes ranks against the Ayoreo while deforestation persists
Since April 18, 2026, two representatives of the Ayoreo people have been on an official visit to various public and private sector representatives in Italy to discuss the relationship between Italian industry and its impact on the territory protected by international law. The visit included meetings with representatives from the Vatican, the Italian Chamber of Deputies, and the leather industry.
It was also supposed to include a meeting with the Paraguayan Embassy in Rome, which was cancelled by the authorities.
Ayoreo leader Porai Picarenai in the Italian Chamber of Deputies, April 21, 2026.
In 2023, Pasubio, the company that received leather from illegal deforestation by companies like Chortitzer, had already announced that it would not buy from Paraguay due to a lack of environmental and social guarantees.
Consenso also learned that the case had been used as an example by the Paraguayan government itself in meetings with livestock associations in 2025 to advocate for the need to have a traceability system in light of the EU-Mercosur Agreement, which comes into force in May 2026.
The delegation includes Porai Picarenai, leader of the Chaidi community. Porai was one of the Ayoreo who accompanied Consenso on their visit to the Heritage site between March and April 2026, where the media outlet was able to corroborate, with drone images, the continued deforestation on the land that Infona had documented in 2022.
Despite this, first the Paraguayan Leather Chamber and then the self-styled Chaco Sustainable Development Platform issued statements rejecting the visit and the evidence. The Paraguayan Leather Chamber called on the State to sue Earthsight and Survival International for defamation, while the Platform directly attacked Consenso for the first publication in this series, denying the evidence of the invasion and illegal deforestation acknowledged by the Infona itself.
The statement was signed by Egon Neufeld, representative of the Rural Association of Paraguay, the country’s main livestock association.
The Paraguayan Leather Chamber, represented by Emilio Bedoya, declared on April 21 that they had the full support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the face of “this NGO campaign.” That same day, the Paraguayan Embassy in Rome canceled its scheduled meeting with the Ayoreo delegation.
On April 23, Minister of Industry and Commerce Marco Riquelme also spoke out against the Ayoreo visit to Italy, saying that the allegations of illegal deforestation related to leather were “fallacies” and “a total distortion of the reality we live here in Paraguay. These NGOs spend their time writing articles as if they knew the Paraguayan Chaco, the way of working in Paraguay,” he told ABC.
Consenso walking along a dirt road in the Ayoreo Heritage Totobiegosode in the rain - April 2026.
The Chortitzer case is not the only one that reveals the web of climate change, justice, and misinformation surrounding Ayoreo heritage. Subscribe to follow the next installment of Coñones.
