Senator Alfredo Jaeggli and his Secretary, Forenzia

Everyone I interviewed blames the Paraguayan government for the
negative impacts of soy. The corruption, the lack of economic and
social programs, and the selective enforcement of laws. My last
interview was with Senator Alfredo Jaeggli, a former race car driver
who decided 18 years ago to become a politician for the opposition.

Jaeggli chomped on a cigar and readily agreed with my conclusions that
soybeans are very good for the 20% of the country who enjoy the
benefits of democracy and that many people are left out. But he gave
very unsatisfying answers for why people are left out, mostly owing to
big government and ignorant voters. His only wisdom: “sometimes
countries have to go all the way to the bottom before they can come up.”

Forenzia, Jaeggli’s secretary, was more telling if unwittingly so.

Forenzia was an attractive 22-year-old in a pink business suit with olive skin and hair dyed blonde. Her cell phone was pink as was her
purse, wallet, and hair braids. Her family is well connected and she
started working for the government right out of high school. She says
she likes working for the Senator because it pays well and she doesn’t
have to do much. She had pictures of herself all over her office.

Forenzia knew nothing about the peasants selling their land and moving
to Asuncion to beg for money. She didn’t know that people sold their
votes in order to pay for school and she didn’t have an opinion about
the Indians squatting in the town square. She was, however, upset
about Paraguay’s slow internet connection that made it hard to IM her
friends working elsewhere in the government.

“There is a monopoly here that charges the private companies too much
money so they can’t bring anything faster than 64 megabytes per second.”

I asked if her boss could do anything about it and she rolled her eyes and laughed, “I guess so. I should ask him.”