Paraguay: special powers to use the army cause social alarm

Paraguay is in imminent danger of return to outright fascism, as the newly elect President, Horacio Cartes, managed to pass a law that allows him to use the Army arbitrarily, even against the civilian population, which is now held perpetually suspect as "alleged terrorists". This law is similar to the one that granted fascist dictator Alfredo Stroessner absolute power, but even Stroessner did not act so fast in his consolidation as totalitarian ruler. 

Source: LINyM[es].

Praguay: new guerrilla attacks

The Paraguayan People's Army (EPP) stroke again, this time against a ranch of Brazilian landowner Renato Recender, killing four guards and one policeman. The foreman Celso Acosta was retained for hours and later liberated.

The EPP was created in 2005 and has been active ever since.

The government is considering to militarize the area of Tacuatí, in similar fashion as done in the past when the EPP stroke, measures that were totally inefficient but caused many abuses against the civilian population.   

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

[Was false news] Uruguayan President rejected from international act after being confused with "commoner"

Correction: this news was false. My apologies for the error.

Webguerrillero published today a formal correction: the whole news was accidentally taken from a humor site and they did not notice. Ironically many "serious" media through the world took it as real.

President Mujica at home

The President of Uruguay José "Pepe" Mujica was impeded to attend the inauguration of his Paraguayan colleague Horacio Cartes, after security confused him with a "commoner". 

For some reason Mr. Mujica, who lives a very simple life, without any luxuries whatsoever, arrived late to the inauguration, after the rest of the Uruguayan delegation had already entered the event. Security personnel were not able to recognize him and did not let him enter. 

Luckily the Chancellor arrived then with his credentials and he was allowed in.

Afterwards excuses were issued:

We knew well who was Mujica and that he was very austere... What we did not know was that he was so extremely so. Please put yourselves in our skin, seeing that a plain commoner wanted to enter in a place with so many important people, without accreditation and alone rang all alarms and forced us to impede him access.

You get it, right? There are two kinds of people: oligarchs and commoners, and among all Presidents on Earth, only Mujica (and surely Evo) is like us, commoners.

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Popular protests spill over to Paraguay

The Brazilian mass protests have served as example for the Paraguayan People, who have even more reasons to take over the streets, as the regime is pretty much illegitimate after the "legal coup" against President Lugo exactly a year ago. 

Thousands concentrated in the Plaza de Armas of Asunción just meters away from the putschist Parliament crying against the "luxury retirement" of MPs, who keep 60% of their salary after 10 years of service and 90% after 15, as well as in demand of decent public services.

Some protesters attempted to reach Parliament, being arrested on the spot.

The protests were called through the social networks by #PorUnParaguayMejor (for a better Paraguay). 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Paraguay: heading for narco-fascism again?

From Antifascist Calling...:

In the Wake of Last Year's 'Soft Coup' Against Paraguay's President, Will a New Narco-Dictatorship Emerge?

Paraguay's April 21 election of Horacio Cartes, a dodgy "tobacco magnate," rancher and banker, whose Banco Amambay has been accused of laundering drug money, tax evasion and other crimes, raises the specter of "state capture" by powerful drug cartels linked to US intelligence agencies.

In the context of US efforts to manage not eliminate, the multibillion dollar global trade in illegal narcotics, Cartes electoral victory might very well be a shot in the arm for certain three-lettered US intelligence agencies, eager beavers always on the lookout for new allies--and an endless supply of black funds--to carry out hemisphere-wide dirty ops against leftist governments. The current US destabilization campaign targeting Venezuela's newly elected president, Nicolás Maduro and the Bolivarian revolution, is instructive in this regard.

... continue reading at Antifascist Calling...

Paraguay: Lugo deposed in a mock "trial". Massive protests in Asunción, violent repression

The President elect of Paraguay was deposed today by the Senate, dominated by the oligarchic parties that collaborated with the philo-Nazi dictatorship of Stroessner. The mock "political trial" or impeachment was executed in a matter of hours and there were no specific charges just vague accusations of mismanagement in relation with deadly clashes on June 15th. It was indeed political but anything but a fair trial. 

Lugo, who was never really the left-wing president that his voters had hoped for but rather dubious in his performance, signing all the fascist laws presented to him by the oligarchy-dominated Congress, has now, in the day of his removal, become a catalyst for change in Paraguay. Change that is clearly delayed in relation to neighboring countries. 

It may be borderline legal but in practical terms this is a coup and what is happening in the streets of Asunción demonstrates that it is a fascist coup against the People and democracy, because it is the People who are being injured and maybe killed by the police today in the streets of the Guarani capital.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has already proposed that Paraguay is suspended of its membership in MERCOSUR and UNASUR, the South American common markets, which may be a major blow to the landlocked country. 

Atilio Boron[es] has some analysis (his own and from Idilio Méndez Grimaldi) on why was Lugo removed. Notable remarks

• The massacre of Curuguaty (the pretext of the impeachment) was a set up of the oligarchy
• Lugo failed to not consolidate the mass movement that had him elected and gestured once and again towards compromise with the Reaction
• Consolidation of the extractionist (neo-colonial) economy led by US multinational Monsanto, which were already pressuring the Lugo government to yield unconditionally to their demands
• Agitation by the Agrarian Capitalist Sydicate, the UGP, leading to the massacre of of Curuguaty and a tractor march planned for June 25
• An internal set-up within the police leading to the deaths of six agents and, subsequently, to the massacre of a dozen landless peasants blamed for those deaths.
• Among those dead agents was the brother of the chief of presidential security, Lt. Colonel Alcides Lovera, a very direct message to Lugo and those loyal to him within the Police and Army.
• The fact that the massacre happened near the border with Brazil may be a message to the wider Latin American region by "The Embassy" (you know whose embassy, of course).

Sources: Al Jazeera, Tele Sur[es] (link 1, link 2),

Update (Jun 23):

ALBA countries agree to expel USAID from their territories for considering it a cover up for spying and imperialist interference, financing the most reactionary elements in Latin America ··> LINyM[es].

Argentina and Bolivia, the two other neighbors of Paraguay, beside Brazil, have also rejected the coup. Argentine President Cristina Fernández proclaimed that her government will not validate the coup in Paraguay, while Bolivian President Evo Morales said that Bolivia will only recognize a Paraguayan government if this one comes out from the polling stations and has the mandate of the People.

Similarly Ecuador declined to recognize any President of  Paraguay which is not Lugo.

··> TeleSur[es].

Tensions mount in Paraguay as traditional twin-party impeaches President

The traditional twin-party of Paraguay, made up of the Conservative or Colorados (Reds) and the Liberals, who supported the philo-Nazi dictator Stroessner, are pushing the Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo (supported mainly by the Wide Front or Frente Guasú, which however is in relative minority in Parliament) to resign threatening with a "political trial" or impeachment procedure if he does not. 

There is no particular issue by which the Stroessnerist twin-party could held Lugo politically responsible for but in the end it is a matter of votes. And in the Paraguayan Congress, the twin party still has a majority. The particular trigger could be the clashes in Curuguaty, near the Brazilian border, where policemen and landless farmers killed each other in classes over the land, however Lugo rejects any connection. 

After the Colorados left the government, the Liberal Party also sided with the landowners on this issue and left the government, leaving Lugo in minority.

Both the President and the Congress have 5-years terms (would end in 2013) but the President cannot be reelected. The election of Lugo is considered by wide sectors of the Paraguayan society as a landmark step in the process of real democratization, something that the twin party opposes.

Peasant organizations are organizing a march on the capital, Asunción, in support of the President and opposing the parliamentary majority. The situation is described as very tense.

Source: LINyM[es].


Update (Jun 22):

The ALBA considers the impeachment attempt a coup. Lugo rejects to have any reason to resign and demands all the guarantees for a political trial, which he claims not to fear.

I have put all my effort so that the Paraguayans live better (...), therefore there is no political nor juridical reason to renounce to my oath.

Once approved by the House of Deputies, it is the Senate which will have to perform the impeachment procedure, needing 2/3 majority to effectively demote the President, what they can probably muster.

Therefore the popular mobilization is critical in order to impede the impeachment of President Lugo, dividing the right-wing oppostion. It would be indeed easier if the President could dissolve the Parliament, as happens in Europe and call for snap-elections but there is no constitutional way to dissolve the Congress until next year.

Source: LINyM[es].