Major soy producer apologizes in Paraguay
Feb 19, 2012, 6:52 PM
ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) – The head of Paraguay’s largest soy producer is scrambling to apologize for remarks that outraged women and farmworkers.
Tranquilo Favero took out ads in national news media on Sunday to ask forgiveness for telling a Brazilian newspaper that Paraguayan farmworkers are lazy and that “you have to treat them like a bad woman, with a stick.”
Thousands of workers are demanding that the government expropriate nearly 650 square miles (168,000 hectares) of Favero Group’s holdings and distribute them to the landless. Paraguay is a major exporter of soy.
Farm worker leader Victoriano Lopez recently questioned the Brazilian-born Favero’s loyalty, saying he was not Paraguayan.
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