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Anti-corruption bishop becomes Paraguay president
by Alan Clendenning

The Associated Press Translate This Article
15 August 2008

ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) - Leftist ex-bishop Fernando Lugo shoved aside Paraguay's infamous 61-year history of one-party rule as he took office Friday with promises to end corruption and hunger in the poor South American nation.

Almost shouting to swear that he would uphold the constitution, the typically mild-mannered Lugo was met with thundering cheers from more than 50,000 Paraguayans crowded around a stage outside Congress.

Lugo spoke in Spanish and the indigenous Guarani language, pledging to end the extreme poverty, institutional political corruption and trade in black market goods that defined Paraguay under the Colorado Party, which had ruled continuously since 1947 and was the only party tolerated by the anti-communist Gen. Alfredo Stroessner during his brutal 1954-1989 dictatorship.

'Today Paraguay breaks with its reputation for corruption, breaks with the few feudal lords of the past,' said Lugo, dressed in leather sandals and his trademark white, mandarin-collared shirt to set himself apart from the nation's traditional politicians.

After the inauguration to a 5-year term, he gave warm bear hugs to the continent's three most prominent leftists, Bolivia's Evo Morales, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez got a handshake. While Lugo has warned he won't accept U.S. meddling, he also said he wants Paraguay to maintain warm relations with Washington.

He later told reporters that his country seeks relations with all nations small and large, mentioning a few but not the United States. Lugo also said he has brushed off warnings that he should fear Chavez, the continent's most strident critic of the United States.

'I'm not scared of anyone,' Lugo said at a news conference attended by Chavez, Correa and prominent Brazilian liberation theologist Leonardo Boff.

Delighting a surprised crowd hours later at an inaugural celebration concert, Lugo and Chavez took to the stage with Paraguayan rock star Rolando Chaparro, dancing and belting out 'Todo Cambia' ('Everything Changes'), one of the biggest hits by famed Argentine singer Mercedes Sosa.

Despite the elation over his inauguration, Lugo faces huge domestic pressure to make changes fast to ease the deep divide between Paraguay's rich and poor.

But experts don't expect him to govern with sudden decrees or heavy-handed management of the economy like Morales and Chavez. They predict he will seek broad support for reforms, in the style of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil's center-left president—who also got a hug.

The inaugural address made it clear that Lugo's ideas about justice for the poor are drawn from leftist South American luminaries. He cited Boff—who was excommunicated by Pope John Paul II—and Salvador Allende, the freely elected Marxist President of Chile toppled in a bloody 1973 coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

'Today marks the end of an exclusive Paraguay, a secretive Paraguay, a Paraguay famous for corruption,' said Lugo, who will donate his US$72,000 salary to the poor.

'We dream of a Paraguay with social justice, without hunger.'

Elements of the political left and right already have challenged Lugo's authority, raising the specter of political chaos and civil unrest.

Landless peasants who have been seizing private property are threatening a much larger wave of takeovers. The new administration also suspects the outgoing government tried to undermine his presidency by allowing critical supplies of fuel and medicine to disappear.

The Colorados still control most government institutions and will likely frustrate efforts to redistribute land in the small, landlocked country, where an estimated 1 percent of the people control 77 percent of the land.

Lugo has promised to respect private property in his bid to grant land to the poor, but told cheering Paraguayans his administration 'will work boldly to obtain better living conditions for the peasants, whether they have land or not.'

His party has allied with conservative lawmakers for a tenuous majority in Congress, where most lawmakers remain beholden to the wealthy elite.

But even marginal change would be better than the legacy of Colorado rule for rural Paraguayans who often go hungry, said Marcelino Coronel, a 52-year-old Tobaqom Indian who traveled hundreds of miles (kilometers) with his family from the destitute Chaco desert region to the inauguration.

'I just want him to get rid of the corruption and the inequality,' Coronel said.

Blanca Medina, 26, clutched a Paraguayan flag and almost broke into tears describing how she ekes out a living as a maid on a monthly salary of US$75. Lugo, she said, is the first Paraguayan politician who has ever cared about her needs.

'He's totally different,' she said. 'He's humble and he listens to the people.'

Lugo, 57, spent 11 years as a bishop ministering to peasants in Paraguay's farmbelt before entering the political scene three years ago. The presidency is his first elected post.

Despite receiving belated and unprecedented permission from Pope Benedict to resign as bishop, the new president promised Friday that 'this layman will remain faithful to his church.'

Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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