Paraguay's 2018 Presidential Race Encumbered by Shady Deal-Making.
| Autor | Gaudin, Andres |
With both major parties apparently irreconcilably divided internally, Paraguay completed all steps on the timetable leading to the April 22 election of the president, legislators, and governors. However, no one dares to guess who the winners will be.
Based on a legally questionable interpretation of Article 229 of the Constitution, which rules out the reelection of sitting presidents but not of former ones, Paraguay's electoral authority, the Tribunal Superior de Justicia Electoral (TSJE), blocked former president Fernando Lugo from running for president, saying it would be a reelection bid. Lugo took office in 2008 and was overthrown in 2012.
In April, after the TSJE ruling, Congress gave the reelection bid a green light in a shady arrangement between Lugo's Frente Guasu and current President Horacio Cartes' Partido Colorado (PC). This move set off strong popular protests and led both Lugo and Cartes--who had also planned to run, under the same agreement--to pull out of the race. The crisis resulted in a police break-in of the headquarters of the Partido Liberal Radical Autentico (PLRA); in the death of one of the PLRA's youth leaders; and in the exile of four activists to Uruguay, the country's first political refugees since the return to democracy in 1989 (NotiSur, May 26, 2017).
Celebrity candidates
Cartes' and Lugo's decisions not to run opened the way for minor leaders and entertainment figures who had never participated in politics to appear on the scene. Such candidates have been efficient vote getters in other countries of the region.
When he was still thinking about running, Cartes had turned to those types of characters, much in the same way that Brazil's right-wing parties, and Argentina's former President Carlos Menem (1989-1999) and President Mauricio Macri, tempted star athletes with legislative and governmental jobs and diplomatic posts. Cartes had set his sights on Ruben Rodriguez, aka El Pionero, a prominent figure in the department of Central, the country's largest electoral district. Rodriguez's popularity stems from a broadcast career that includes 44 years on the radio and 38 years on television, as well as a long history as an emcee at social events. However, in June, Rodriguez had to abandon Cartes and renounce his political aspirations after he admitted publicly that the president had promised to pay him an extra salary out of his own pocket during his years as governor if he won the election over the liberal...
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