Why a South Korean church bought a village in Paraguay

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 2 August 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Puerto Casado is a remote village in Paraguay, in South America. It’s not dissimilar to many other rural towns in the area: red-brick houses, small grocery stores and unpaved roads. But what makes Puerto Casado an exception is that it’s at the centre of a land dispute between the Paraguayan state, local residents and the Unification Church, a controversial religious group from South Korea. Ronald Avila-Claudio from BBC Mundo has recently been there. Plus, what the re-opening of the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea means to people living there, with Girmay Gebru from BBC News Africa; and a diver swimming with a great white shark and other viral stories, with BBC Indonesian's Famega Syavira Putri.

This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. This is an EcoAudio certified production.

(Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service.
0:07.7	This is the fifth floor.
0:11.5	The fifth floor, you knowsson.
0:15.6	This is the fifth floor at Farnak Amidi Sobeth. This is the fifth floor at the heart of global storytelling with BBC journalists from all around the world.
0:29.0	I'm your host, Faranak Amidi.
0:36.7	Puerto Casado is a small village in a remote area of Paraguay in South America.
0:43.9	At first glance, it's no different from any other rural village in the area.
0:49.5	There is a school, several grocery stores,
0:52.2	and you often see people walking their cattle through town
0:55.9	because farming is one of the main sources of income there.
1:00.1	Most houses are made of red bricks, and so is the local church.
1:04.9	But what makes Puerto Casado an exception is that it's at the center of a 25-year-long dispute between the Paraguayan state,
1:15.0	local residents, and a controversial South Korean church. Why? Well, Ronald Avila Claudio from BBC
1:23.8	Mundo has recently been to Puerto Casado and can tell us more about it.
1:28.5	Ronald, nice to have you on the fifth floor with us.
1:30.9	Thanks a lot for having. It's a pleasure.
1:33.1	So, first of all, tell us about this village, Puerto Casado.
1:38.5	Where is it and how long did it take you to get there?
1:42.5	Puerto Casado is a really small village in the west of Paraguay.
1:46.7	It's a very remote place.
1:49.9	I travel from Miami.
1:52.1	And it was a flight of around 10 hours with a stop in Bogota.
	...

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