Religion in Paraguay the Alto Parana department, the capital of which is Ciudad del Este. There are also communities in Asunción and Itapua (the capital of which is Encarnación). As in other parts of Latin America, many of these are descended from immigrants from Syria and Lebanon, though some may also be from Bangladesh and Pakistan The Bahá'í Faith in Paraguay begins after `Abdu'l-Bahá, then head of the religion, mentioned the country in 1916. Paraguayan Maria Casati was the first to join the religion in 1939 when living in Buenos Aires. The first pioneer to settle in Paraguay was Elizabeth Cheney late in
History of Paraguay (to 1811) those of the Jesuits. Tensions between the natives and the Europeans grew steadily during the last years of the 18th century. Almost no archaeological research has been done in Paraguay, and the pre-Columbian history of the country is amazingly documented. What is certain is that the eastern part of the country was occupied by Guaraní Indians for at least 2 years before the Spanish conquest. Evidence indicates that those indigenous inhabitants developed a fairly sophisticated level of political autonomy, with quasi-sedentary, multivillage chiefdoms. The recorded history of Paraguay began indirectly in 1516 with the failed expedition of Juan Díaz de