Fernando Lugo

Fernando Lugo is a former Roman Catholic bishop who became the first non-colorado president of Paraguay in more than 60 years. The colorados had been ruling the country (and very badly) since 1947. Lugo lead a coallition of opposition political parties called the Patriotic Alliance for Change. He was alliade with the Liberal Party which is the second biggest party in Paraguay. This gave him a big push in his victory over the colorados. The 57 year old Lugo assumed office August 15, 2008 and his running mate and vice president is Federico Franco (who belongs to the Libertal Party).

Lugo was born in 1951 and became a priest in 1977. He was a missionary in Ecuador for five years. In 1992 Lugo was appointed head of the Divine Word order of Paraguay and two years later he was made a bishop. Lugo went on the serve ten years in the poor region of San Pedro, were he came to be known as the "bishop of the poor." Lugo has been highly influenced by the "liberation theology."

Lugo started gaining more national and even international attention when he helped organize and lead a big opposition rally in March 2006. Since the Paraguayan constitution prohibits ministers of any faith in becoming political candidates, Lugo resigned from the Catholic Church in December of 2006. The Vatican at first was undecided as to accepting his resignition or not and suspended him from his duties instead. In July, 2008 the Pope Benedict XVI decided to grant Lugo's request and remove his clerical status.

Lugo won with 41 percent of the vote while Blanca Ovelar, the Colorado Party candidate, recieved 31 percent of the vote. Lugo is preaching land reform and also renogotiaions of the treaties for both the Itaipu and Yacyreta dams (which Stroessner and previous colorado governments handled disastreoulsy).

The election of Lugo was an event of great joy for most paraguayans. Even many colorados voted for him because they were sick of all the corruption and poverty that the Colorado Party brought to the country. Sadly the Colorado Party is making things almost impossible for President Lugo. Every initiative and proposale is rejected and fought by the colorados. There are even splits in his own movement and this especially comes from the Liberal Party. Even his vice president has been making unfavorable comments on Lugo. Hopefully for those of us that want an equal and prosperous Paraguay, Lugo will be able to pull ahead with his plans.



More sources:

Intersting article on Lugo in New York Times