PARAGUAY: Fernando Lugo says he will not conduct a 'witch hunt' against the opposition

Record ID: 449698

  • Title: PARAGUAY: Fernando Lugo says he will not conduct a 'witch hunt' against the opposition
  • Date: 22nd April 2008
  • Summary: NEWSPAPER BEING READ NEWSPAPERS
  • Embargoed: 7th May 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Paraguay
  • Country: Paraguay
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA4D882DA9BKY04U0AWS7UKN103
  • Story Text: A sandal-wearing former bishop's presidential election victory suggests Paraguay's democracy has matured, but after 61 years of one-party rule his political foes may dictate the pace of change.
    Fernando Lugo, a mild-mannered leftist who quit the cloth three years ago saying he felt powerless to help Paraguay's poor, ousted the ruling Colorado Party in Sunday's election with promises to tackle inequality and stamp out corruption.
    Local media trumpeted Lugo's victory on Monday (April 21). Daily newspaper ABC carried a banner headline proclaiming "a dirty and degrading transition" under the Colorado Party had finally been buried.
    Two other newspapers led with the headline "Amen!".
    Lugo will take office on Aug. 15 and has vowed to carry out agrarian reform to ensure poor peasant farmers can till their own land in a country where a small, wealthy elite owns the vast majority of farmland and cattle ranches.
    But no one party was expected to win a majority in Congress, and that will likely force Lugo to cut deals with rivals if he hopes to get his proposals passed.
    Speaking to Reuters inside his home on Monday, Lugo said his first move will be to create room for him to move in Congress.

    "Our first task is to strengthen our coalition, our alliance. In second place, we have already signed within the alliance an agreement for parliament that could be extended to the other parties to make sure we will be able to govern. We believe the Colorado Party will be an intelligent and rational opposition. I believe that most worried are government officials who have identified with the Colorado Party for 60 years amongst those that are concerned. But there are laws that protect them, and the government is not going to start a witch hunt, they will not be persecuted. We will look for consensus and harmony and to co-govern with all the social classes and, above all, for there to be co-participation. And I believe those things will ensure our ability to govern in the future," Lugo said.
    The new president received calls of congratulations from the leaders of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia.
    Lugo says he is an independent and has so far steered clear of Latin America's more radical left-wing leaders, such as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales in Bolivia.
    He indicated that might change however, saying he wants to strengthen ties with Bolivia, one of his closest neighbors.

    "I am particularly interested in [generating links with] Bolivia.
    Because historically we have never had good relations with Bolivia, and we are not very close to Bolivia. We are more accustomed to working with Brazil and Argentina, and I think the moment has arrived to have stronger and more prolific relations with Bolivia, a brotherly and neighboring country,"
    Lugo said.
    The Colorado Party has dominated Paraguayan politics since it took power in 1947, and it backed Gen. Alfredo Stroessner's brutal 35-year dictatorship until helping to oust him in 1989.
    Human rights groups say nearly 1,000 people were kidnapped and killed during military rule, many of them suspected of being communist sympathizers, and that thousands more were tortured or forced to leave the country.
    Many ordinary Paraguayans had become sick with what they see as a corrupt establishment that has failed to safeguard the poorest in a country landlocked by wealthier neighbors Argentina and Brazil and economically dependent on its agricultural and hydroelectric power exports.
    Lugo campaigned heavily on trying to charge Brazil more money for the power it imports from the jointly owned Itaipu hydroelectric plant -- following in the footsteps of Bolivia, which negotiated to charge its neighbors more for natural gas.
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