2023-05-01 18:36:01
By Hugo OLAZAR
The right-wing economist Santiago Peña won the presidential elections in Paraguay with the Colorado Party, which will also have control of parliament, confirming its hegemony in this country that it has ruled for more than 70 years.
After an electoral campaign marked by accusations of corruption against main figures of the ruling party, Peña obtained 42% of the votes on Sunday.
The opponent Efraín Alegre, at the head of a center-left coalition, obtained 27%. In third place was Paraguayo Cubas, an anti-establishment right-wing ex-legislator, with 22%. Participation was 63%.
Peña, 44, will succeed President Mario Abdo Benítez from August 15, for a period of five years.
For his triumph, he thanked former president Horacio Cartes (2013-18), his political godfather, sanctioned by the United States as “significantly corrupt.”
«Thank you very much my dear president of the National Republican Association (ANR, Colorado Party), Horacio Cartes. I admire the immensity of your stubborn dedication to the party, “he said in his company, before the supporters who cheered them at the headquarters of the campaign command.
– Red hegemony –
The Colorados also gained control of Congress. They will have their own majority in the Senate, with 23 of the 45 seats, and in the Chamber of Deputies, with 48 of the 80 seats. Of 17 governorates, 15 remained in the power of the oficialistas.
Analyst Rubén Ramírez, from the consultancy Trade and Investment Paraguay, maintained that “the aggressive language of the opposition against the Colorado candidates and the qualification of ‘significantly corrupt’ against their main leaders by the United States government ended up uniting the Colorado electorate , in a manifestation more of feeling than of reasoning».
The Colorado Party has governed Paraguay for most of the last seven decades, under dictatorship and under democracy, with a single interruption during the government of leftist Fernando Lugo (2008-12), who was ousted in impeachment a year before finishing his term. mandate.
– «Significantly corrupt» –
The electoral campaign took place simultaneously with US sanctions against some of the most important Colorado leaders, such as Cartes and Vice President Hugo Velázquez.
When congratulating Peña’s victory on Monday, the State Department called on him to fight corruption.
“We look forward to working with President-elect Peña and his administration to promote common interests such as fighting corruption and impunity, and promoting security and economic growth for the benefit of both countries,” said Matthew Miller, a State Department spokesman, in a statement. release.
Paraguay, in the center of South America, is considered a transit point for drugs to Brazil and Argentina for their departure to Europe and Asia.
In 2022, the anti-mafia prosecutor Marcelo Pecci and the mayor José Carlos Acevedo were assassinated, in crimes attributed to drug trafficking.
Although Paraguay has one of the fastest growing economies in Latin America – with a forecast of 4.5% of GDP for 2023, according to the International Monetary Fund – poverty reaches 24.7%, with enormous inequalities.
Peña has proposed creating 500,000 jobs. «From tomorrow (Monday) we will begin to design the Paraguay that we all want, without gross inequalities or unfair social asymmetries. We have a lot to do,” Peña said.
– Between Taiwan and Jerusalem –
Peña’s victory also confirmed the continuity in Paraguay’s relations with Taiwan, which opponent Efraín Alegre questioned during the campaign.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen was among the first to congratulate Peña. “I look forward to deepening the long-standing relations between our countries and seeing the government and people of Paraguay prosper under her leadership,” she wrote Monday on Twitter.
Peña has been emphatic in defending those relationships established more than 60 years ago. “We are united by a bond of democratic principles and values,” he said in an interview with AFP.
Paraguay is one of the 13 countries that officially recognizes Taiwan and not China, despite the claims of agricultural producers and ranchers.
The president of the Rural Association, Pedro Galli, has insisted that for his sector “the bar we have is our relationship with Taiwan. There is no chance of entering the Chinese market if we do not recognize China. We are swimming against the current.”
Paraguay is among the world’s leading producers of beef and soybeans, but its exports go mainly to Chile, Brazil, Argentina and Russia.
The president-elect also announced that he intends to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and said that he will move the headquarters of his embassy to that city again, a measure that, in line with Donald Trump, Cartes had taken at the end of his government and that Abdo reversed.
nn-hro/ltl
© Agence France-Presse
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