Paraguay’s Two Halves — a note

Comparison

⚠ ONE RIVER SPLITS THE COUNTRY IN TWO AND THE FOOD FOLLOWS IT. The EASTERN REGION (Región Oriental), east of the Paraguay river, holds roughly 97 per cent of the population on subtropical red earth — mandioca, maize, yerba mate, cattle, soy, and fourteen of the seventeen departments. The WESTERN REGION (the CHACO, Región Occidental) is about 60 per cent of the territory and under 3 per cent of the people: dry thorn forest and seasonal wetland, cattle ranching, Mennonite colonies and the largest concentration of Indigenous peoples in the country. ⚠ ASUNCIÓN IS ITS OWN CAPITAL DISTRICT, not a department.