PARAGUAY: PRESIDENT NICANOR DUARTE ESCAPES CENSURE VOTE IN CONGRESS.
A censure vote against Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte failed to gather enough votes to pass on Dec. 13, 2005, although it did highlight the growing power among Duarte's legislative foes. Opposition parties Patria Querida (PQ) and Partido Liberal Radical Autentico (PLRA) stood behind the vote for censure, accusing Duarte of not tending to his presidential duties in favor of garnering power within his own Partido Colorado (Asociacion Nacional Republicana, ANR).
Opposition angry at Duarte's internal party politicking
Duarte's congressional opponents sought to bring the president to political trial with the censure motion but failed to have the motion archived in the official record when they only got about half the support of the Chamber of Deputies instead of the two-thirds required.
Oscar Salomon, a Colorado deputy who opposes Duarte, told reporters after the vote, "We had adhered to the project for a political trial presented by the opposition party PQ and, in the beginning, it appeared that we were going to have the necessary votes."
"The Constitution points out that the political trial will only go forward with two-thirds of the votes of the 80 deputies, and today we only got the approval of 39 legislators, 37 voted to reject it, and four abstained," said Salomon, complaining that "Duarte was bombarding the mobile telephones of the deputies with calls asking that they not approve the trial." He added, "In any case, the 39 votes in favor of the PQ project, with the backing of the PLRA, should be seen as a wake-up call for Duarte because they represent a sign of discontent toward his management as a governing leader."
Colorado Deputy Benjamin Maciel said Duarte's opponents "failed in their project because, simply, there was no justification."
Duarte will be competing for the position of party chief in internal Colorado elections set for Feb. 19. The Colorado party has historically been the dominant political force in the nation of six million people, holding absolute power during the dictatorship of Gen. Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989) and dominance during the halting democratization process since the end of Stroessner's regime. But, as the censure vote showed, opposition parties are flexing their growing muscle.
The first and only political trial against a head of state in Paraguay took place in 1932, when parliament tried then-President Jose Guggiari (1928-1932). In March 1999 the Senate sought to try President Raul Cubas (1998-1999)...
Para continuar leyendo
Solicita tu pruebaCOPYRIGHT GALE, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
