Puerto Casado, Alto Paraguay, celebrated its 135th anniversary with a student parade

Students from the Juan de Ayolas school built a miniature train alluding to the old locomotive used in the area

Asuncion, IP Agency.- Puerto Casado, in the Alto Paraguay department, celebrated its 135th anniversary with a student parade on the main avenue José Casado Sastre, on Sunday, August 25. The event featured the creativity of teachers, children and young people, who presented allegories related to the fauna and flora of this exuberant Chaco region. They carried flags and also signs related to the legalization of the lands that belonged to the tannery.

Governor Arturo Méndez, accompanied by the departmental first lady, Camila Ramírez, the interim mayor, Attorney Claudio Martínez, municipal councilors, departmental secretaries and other local authorities, joined the celebration, highlighting the importance of this historic anniversary for the city.

Puerto Casado (also known as Puerto La Victoria, and formerly Ángeles Custodios) is a municipality and city in the department of Alto Paraguay, located 650 km north of Asunción, on the banks of the Paraguay River.

Founded in 1889 during the time of President Patricio Escobar, it was previously known as Ángeles Custodios. It was the headquarters of the Carlos Casado Tanning Company; and was elevated to district status on September 29, 1973.

This port was used as a dock for the embarkation and disembarkation of Paraguayan troops who were going to fight in the Chaco War. The Carlos Casado company came to have more than 6.5 million hectares in the Paraguayan Chaco. Today the factory is paralyzed. From this place, the Mennonites and Paraguayan soldiers went to penetrate the Central Chaco with the narrow gauge railroad that reached 145 km from the Paraguay River in Punta Riel.

In Puerto Casado there are historical sites from the time of the Chaco War. The first Mennonite settlers settled here in 1920. It has an elevation of 325 meters above sea level, Cerro Galván, 15 km south of the so-called “Kilometer 11”. It also has the old railway station that left from Puerto Casado.

The railway was built by the company for the extraction of wood, with almost 150 km of narrow gauge into the interior of the centre of the Chaco. The railway line itself was extended to km 160, which allowed Paraguayan troops on campaign to access the forts to stop the advance of the Bolivians in the vast territory during the Chaco War.

During the Chaco War, the railroad was of vital importance for the transportation of soldiers, weapons, ammunition, supplies, vehicles, fuel, medicines and wounded.

Children from Puerto Casado created an allegory of the region’s flora and fauna.

Governor Arturo Méndez, First Lady Camila Ramírez, and other authorities and active members of the city attended and participated in the events.

The toucan and the tajy join hands in the allegorical parade of fauna and flora performed by local children

The Casadeños long to recover the lands that belonged to the extinct tannery installed there at the beginning of the 20th century