COLONIA LUZ Y ESPERANZA, Paraguay -- The name of this Mennonite colony, set amid the red-dirt soybean fields and palm trees of rural eastern Paraguay, is Light and Hope. But there is little of either.
Land-hungry peasants toting shotguns have come into the colony's fields, seeking to evict the American-born Mennonites from the land.
The Rev. Philip Eichorn, the colony's minister and leader, has been shot at and forced to get police protection. Thefts of everything from farm equipment to animals are rampant.
"We feel sure about Christ's teaching about being defenseless, not hurting others to protect ourselves," Eichorn says. But his wife, Delilah, talks about installing burglar bars and an alarm system.
Some thieves aren't so easily deterred.
The colony recently got a call from a notary public in Asuncion, asking if they had recently sold some land.
It turned out that forgers had created false title to 3,700 acres of the colony's land and sold it three times in two months.
Now the pages of the local land registry showing the colony's 1967 purchase of the property have vanished; the community's land titles will probably be tied up in court for years.
Living the simple life just isn't that simple anymore for Paraguay's 25,000 Mennonites, most of whom came here decades ago from the United States and Canada seeking greater peace and isolation in South America.
"We're continually under pressure," says Delilah Eichorn, who wears the traditional Mennonite blue dress and white cap. "We never know when it will be our turn."
The heart of the problem facing Paraguay's Mennonites is a paradoxical lack of land in a once sparsely populated country.
Just three decades ago Paraguay was recruiting farmers to settle vast tracts and bring them into production.
But today the country's Guarani Indians are pushing to reclaim traditional lands that cover much of the country.
Organized by politicians
Landless peasants, some organized by politicians, are trying to win land of their own.
And the Mennonites, particularly those who live in the more heavily populated eastern half of Paraguay, are coming under pressure.
Most live a simple life akin to that called for by Menno Simons, the 16th-century religious reformer and the movement's namesake who led a breakaway pacifist group in Switzerland.
