Paraguay: Change is still to come; The first year of Fernando Lugo’s government

By Adolfo Giméne, translated by Federico Fuentes for Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal
August 14, 2009 – Asunción -- The anniversary of the first year of Fernando Lugo’s government coincided with a five-day national protest (August 10-15) organised by the United Popular Space (Espacio Unitario Popular, EUP), a coming together of many social organisations and left parties [1], with the support of figures from diverse political sectors, including the governor of the department of San Pedro, Jose Pakova Ledesma, from the Authentic Radical Liberal Party (Partido Liberal Radical Auténtico, PLRA). [Lugo was elected president on April 20, 2008, but did not formally take office until August 15.]
Marches and peaceful demonstrations
were held in different parts of the country, and the capital, during the days
of action. This bloc of organisations is demanding that Lugo comply with his
electoral commitments, especially in regards to agrarian reform. It is also
demanding that he attack with particular harshness the right-wing bloc that has
a majority in both houses of Congress and which puts a break on social projects
and seeks to legitimise repression against popular demands through new laws.
The response to these mobilisations
by the mass media is scandalous. It distorts and attacks the leaders of the
EUP, linking them to all types of crimes (closeness to kidnappers, to drug traffickers
etc.). Nevertheless, this aggressive attitude demonstrates the weakness of a
backward dominant class that, after losing the political hegemony it held via
the Colorado Party (Partido Colorado), which was in power for 60 years
uninterrupted, does not have a political party it can use to truly represent its
interests and maintain the structures that allowed it to accumulate wealth. It
is clear that the coup in Honduras has unleashed the possibility of deepening
its virulent and daily attacks against the Lugo government, which sustains
itself in an equilibrium among turbulent waters.
Lugo’s electoral victory was
facilitated by the decomposition and crisis of the relations between party and
dominant classes, as well as the (extremely) broad alliance he was able to
achieve. But Lugo “reached government, not power”, and now has to confront a
range of organisations that – although
with contradictions – see the reactionary right as their principal enemy while
at the same time demanding that Lugo carry out of his program to change social
policy and transform judicial power, and that Congress approve laws that favour
the people. They are also demanding that a stop be put to the poisoning of the
population through the indiscriminate use of toxic agricultural chemicals. Lugo,
the ex-bishop, has until now had a populist discourse, but he has still not
carried out the reforms that the country needs to come out of backwardness and
advance towards development and sovereignty.
The United Popular Space is a recent
experience that aims to construct unity of strategic purpose in the face of the
current balance of forces, with the objective of constructing a popular bloc
through mobilisation and organisation, as weapons of struggle. But this task is
not easy and a first step was the August 10-15 days of action, regardless of
the results, were part of a process of necessary accumulation [of political forces],
with the limitations and divergences that exist. In Paraguay, the great battles
in the democratic camp are only beginning and the key force is the people.
[Adolfo Giménez is a journalist and a member of the Popular Socialist Convergence Party (Partido Convergencia Popular Socialista, PCPS).]
Note
[1] The P-MÁS (Party of the Movement
Towards Socialism) and the Tekojoja party form part of the government. The PCPS
and the Paraguayan Communist Party are not part of the government, but called
for a vote for Lugo in a joint signed document.
The first year of Fernando Lugo’s government
By Ignacio González Bozzolasco, translated by Sean Seymour-Jones for Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal
April 20 marked 12 months
since the historic victory of former Catholic bishop Fernando Lugo in
Paraguay’s presidential election. Almost a year into his government, the
Paraguayan political situation is providing many difficulties and obstacles to
the carrying out of the changes promised during the election campaign. We will
try to analyse the complex political process that Paraguay is passing through, along
with its background, challenges and perspectives.
Some
necessary background
Since the end of the 19th century,
following the disastrous war against the Triple Alliance (1865-1870), a very
peculiar two-party system emerged in Paraguay. Created with a strong influence
from the invading powers (Brazil and Argentina), both the Republican National
Association (Asociación Nacional Republicana, ANR), later know as the Colorado
Party, and the Democratic Centre (Centro Democrático), later the Authentic
Radical Liberal Party (Partido Liberal Radical Auténtico, PLRA), emerged in
1887, inaugurating a bipartisan logic that, despite changes and transitions,
retains its principal characteristics.
In general terms, both
parties have maintained the same composition and structure since their
founding. The ANR and PLRA are traditional mass parties with an oligarchic
character and with deep roots in different strata of the population. This two-party
system was characterised by long periods of political hegemony of one party or
the other. There have been two periods of ANR hegemony – the first from 1887 to
1904, and the second from 1947 to 2008 – as well as a period of PLRA hegemony
from 1904 to 1940[1]. The last period of ANR hegemony (from 1947 to 2008)
included 35 years of
military dictatorship under General Alfredo Stoessner. This military
dictatorship (1954-1989) was one of the longest in Latin America, consolidating
a perverse structure that unified three pillars of power under the same
command: the state, the armed forces and the ANR.
This dictatorship not only
allowed the ANR to consolidate power in a political situation marked by strong
convulsions, it also consolidated the basis for this party to remain in power
for decades. It managed to force a consensus upon different power groups in the
country and managed to demobilise, to a large extent, a thriving popular
movement.
Workers’ organisations, as
well as peasant and student organisations, were the target of attacks by the
dictatorship during its first decade. The left also suffered heavy blows. Under
the maxim “democracy without communism”, the regime launched an onslaught
against all political organisations of a progressive character, managing to
decimate three generations of militants and socialist activists.
The
transition to democracy
On the night of February 2,
1989, General Andrés Rodríguez, one of the most important members of the regime
and an in-law of the dictator, led a military coup that ended the Stroessner
regime. Months afterwards, national elections were held, the first free
elections in decades, which gave victory to Rodríguez. The so-called transition
to democracy was inaugurated. While allowing public liberties and the opening
up political participation to previously relegated sectors, it guaranteed power
to the same sectors.
The first municipal elections
took place in 1991, in which a candidate independent of the traditional parties
and with a progressive orientation was elected mayor of Asuncion. In 1992, a
National Constituent Assembly was installed to give birth to a new constitution,
that today still remains in force.
Rodríguez ended his term in
1993 and following the elections that year handed over command to the first
civilian president in decades: Juan Carlos Wasmosy, also from the ANR. During his
government, internal divisionswithin the ANR were greatly accentuated, as the
confrontation with his old adversary, the caudillo Luis María Argaña, grew and
a new current emerged led by General Lino Oviedo.
The governing party became
divided into at least three currents, all of them in open confrontation. With
the 1998 presidential election, the confrontation reached a high point. The
election was won by a temporary alliance of two factions (the Oviedistas
and Argañistas), but having barely assumed the presidency, the
confrontation once again opened up, reaching critical points including the
assassination of Luís María Argaña, vice-president of the Republic and leader
of one of the factions. This event not only increased struggles within the ANR,
but even provoked an important split led by General Oviedo, who went on to
create a new party.
Nicanor Duarte Frutos, the
last president from the Colorado Party, took office in 2003 with the challenge
of reconciling the strong internal divisions within the ANR, at the same time
as not affecting the interests of the country’s economically powerful. During
his government, assisted by a period of economic prosperity, he managed to lift
social and macroeconomic indicators. Sectors of the economically powerful
continued to clash, while the majority of the people didn’t receive significant
benefits (health, education, housing, food assistance, etc.), which if they had
might have won greater support for the government.
The fierce political
confrontation (both inside and outside the ANR) added to the decline of a
government that was finishing its term, generated the necessary conditions for
the emergence of Bishop Fernando Lugo as a figure who could unite above all the
differences.
In a situation of a highly discredited
government, Lugo -- known as “the bishop of the poor” for his role in the San
Pedro diocese (one of the poorest departments in the country and with a high
level of social unrest) -- appeared as a reference point of a large protest
mobilisation against the judicial and executive powers. That is how a wide
spectrum of social and political forces started to gather around him with the
aim of achieving much-yearned-for change.
The
formation of the Patriotic Alliance for Change (Alianza Patriótica para el
Cambio)
With the slogans of the
forgotten sectors like the peasantry, housewives, informal sector workers and the
poor in general, Lugo also took up the demands of those middle and more wealthy
layers that rejected the bad management of the state. In this way he managed to
set himself up as the great unifier of the population, all of whom were sick of
the injustices that had reigned for so many decades.
The different left
organisations and right-wing political parties tried to exclusively promote the
candidacy of the ex-bishop, so as to stamp on him a determined
political-ideological orientation from the start.
In the end, there were two
large forces that ended up supporting Lugo’s presidential candidacy: the Popular
and Social Bloc (Bloque Social y Popular, BSP), which brought together the
social movements and left-wing organisations, and the National Coalition
(Concertación Nacional, CN), which brought together the right-wing parties in
the opposition. Out of the union of both sectors emerged the Patriotic Alliance
for Change (APC), the political-electoral platform of Lugo.
The founding document of the
APC, which established the principal programmatic lines of the alliance,
defined as fundamental tasks: economic recovery, agrarian reform, renewal of
the country’s institutions and combating corruption, the installation of an
independent judiciary system and the recovery of national sovereignty.
Of the principal right-wing
parties, only the PLRA genuinely participated in the APC. The National Union of
Ethical Citizens (Unión Nacional de Ciudadanos Éticos, UNACE) of General
Oviedo, and the Beloved Homeland Party (Partido Patria Querida, PPQ), from the Catholic
right, withdrew their initial support offered to the ex-bishop in order to
launch their own candidates. But they couldn’t avoid an important flight of
votes to the candidate of the APC.
Almost the entire left
participated in the APC, with varied ideological viewpoints. United action was
achieved based on consensus of the need to deepen democracy. The progressive
and left-wing groups that formed part of the APC were: the Febrerist
Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Febrerista), the Progressive
Democratic Party (Partido Democrático Progresista), the National Encounter
Party (Partido Encuentro Nacional), the Solidarity Country Party (Partido País
Solidario), the Broad Front Party (Partido Frente Amplio) [all centre-left], as
well as the Tekojoja Popular Movement (Movimiento Popular Tekojoja) and the
Party of the Movement toward Socialism (Partido del Movimiento al Socialismo) [both
with a clear socialist orientation].
But the unity behind the
presidential ticket didn’t translate into an alliance at a parliamentary level,
which reduced the possibility of these forces reaching parliament. The
parliamentary results were bad for the left, which obtained a very small number
of seats. The right wing parties were the big winners in parliament, especially
the right-wing opposition. Together they obtained a comfortable majority.
On April 10, 2008 Paraguay
elected a government with a clear progressive orientation but a parliament with
a clear conservative orientation.
Poor
and unjust
On August 15, 2008, the Fernando
Lugo assumed the presidency of one of the poorest and most unjust countries in
Latin America. According to official statistics, 35.6% of the population lives
under the poverty line and the percentage living in extreme poverty is 20% of
the population [2].
Wealth distribution also
presents alarming figures: while the poorest 40% of the population receives
11.5% of the total wealth produced in the country, the richest 10% accumulates
40.9% of the total wealth [3]. The country’s tax policy favours this unequal
distribution of wealth, with the lowest tax burden in the region [4].
No less serious are the
failures in basic services like health and education, as well as the reduced
scope of public works in infrastructure and communication.
Throughout the last decades,
the country has suffered from a large expansion of agroindustry, which has had
a strong impact on the peasant economy, with the destruction of small peasant
estates and the displacement of important portions of the rural population to
urban centres, where they can’t find any possibilities of inserting themselves
in the urban economic structures.
Paraguayan society has not
only been affected by internal migration, but also by external migration,
especially to Europe and North America. Emigration has always been an escape
valve for the Paraguayan economy, which can’t provide sufficient jobs. In the
last decades this migration tended to be to Argentina and other neighbouring
countries, but in recent years transcontinental migration had started to take
place, affecting the more specialised middle class and with increased social
costs.
Lugo’s
first year of government: advances and challenges.
Despite this harsh
inheritance and the particular limitations, one can point to some advances after
a year of Lugo’s government. Principally in the sphere of health, the struggle
for national sovereignty and in assistance to the impoverished sectors.
Lugo has managed to place on
the political agenda historically contentious issues like agrarian reform, in a
country with profound inequalities in this sphere [5]. With the aim of drawing
up and implementing plans in this regard, an inter-institutional organisation
was set up with the participation of all the peasant organisations [6].
The struggle for national
sovereignty has also made important advances, especially in regard to Paraguay’s
rights to the electrical energy produced in both bi-national dams. Paraguay is
one of the major producers of electrical energy in the world thanks to two dams
constructed in co-operation with its bigger neighbouring countries, Brazil and
Argentina. But throughout the last decades previous Paraguay governments have
submissively accepted disadvantageous conditions imposed by the neighbours.
The Itaipu dam, constructed
in conjunction with Brazil, sends almost 95% of its electrical output to the
Brazilian market, paying the Paraguayan state cost price. This agreement is
backed by the unjust treaty that gave birth to
the dam (1973), signed at a time when both countries had harsh military
dictatorships in power.
The Yacyretá dam, constructed
in conjunction with Argentina, also supplies a large part of its electricity production
to Argentina.
In both cases the new
government has promoted dialogue with its counterparts. But the conversations have
acquired greater significance in the case of Itaipu, since the Paraguay’s
demands relating to the dam have generated opposition from the authorities of
Brazil [7]. With the aim of advancing its demands, the Paraguayan government has
urged the Brazilian government to form a negotiating commission around the
demands defended by Paraguay.
Finally, actions have been carried out to assist extremely
vulnerable sections of the population, although undertaken in a very limited
way. Through emergency plans, impoverished peasants and indigenous communities
have received food and medical assistance.
Backward steps
The triumph of Lugo and the
APC constitutes an important milestone in the political history of Paraguay.
This was the first change of presidential command from one party to another via
a peaceful and democratic route in the history of the country. All previous
changes had been by force of arms. This peaceful alternation in power
constitutes a great achievement of the current president.
But the simple alternation of
power does not entail in and of itself a definitive break with the legacy of
the past. For this, policies of profound change are necessary, policies that
achieve a significant and immediate effect in particular for the historically
marginalised sectors, as well as the population in general.
In comparison, we can see
that such policies of change have not yet been clearly seen. From the
appointment of his cabinet, this new government began demonstrating clear signs
of conservatism, with a strong presence of actors linked to the PLRA and
right-wing positions.
Public security and repression
With respect to security, a
traditional banner of reactionary sectors, changes continue to be postponed. In
its statements and in its actions, the department of the interior has prioritised
a repressive policy rather than a preventative one, managing to even fall into
the practise of criminalising social struggles as previous governments did.
Since the inauguration of the
Lugo government, there have been repeated cases of repression against the
popular movements: from peasant organisations involved in land occupations and
roadblocks, through to trade unions and indigenous organisations, including
even human rights activists [8].
Social
policies
In terms of social policies,
the advance isn’t very significant either, even when there aren’t steps
backwards in comparison to previous governments. The agrarian reform, one of
the principal banners of the electoral campaign of the ex-bishop, hasn’t moved
forward with any concrete steps. This is due, in large part, to the influence
of conservatives inside the government, as well as the associations of big
rural producers and landowners.
In respect to subsidies, there
are also shortcomings. For small electricity consumers, the current government
has taken a step backwards in relation to its predecessors. The so-called
social rate for electrical energy, which provides a subsidy to small consumers
of electrical energy, was previously assigned automatically. A new decree has limited
access to this subsidy, excluding a range of beneficiaries, as well as
establishing new bureaucratic measures and conditions in order to gain access
this benefit [9].
Moreover, the lack of
firmness in confronting the economically powerful in the country has led the
executive to back down on decisions already taken. This is the case with the
decree that regulates the use of insecticides in agriculture (agrotoxins) and
the fumigation of soya crops by planes. The decree, after being enacted, was
suspended. This especially affects small peasant producers whose properties
adjoin large soy plantations, and who suffer various sicknesses and health
conditions due to the toxic insecticides dumped over their housing.
Economic
policies
In regards to the economy,
the executive has maintained an extremely conservative line, at the request of
the current minister of the treasury Dionisio Borda [10]. The anti-crisis plan
presented by the executive to reduce the impact of the world economic crisis is
an example of this. The plan concentrates its effort on sectors like banking and
agriculture, when these sectors have been increasing their income in an
exponential way over recent years. Throughout 2008 Paraguay’s financial system gained
enormous profit margins, converting itself into one of the most profitable in
the world [11]. Similarly, agricultural production such as soy and meat have achieved
profit levels never before reached [12]. Meanwhile, subsidies to social
programs in continue to be limited and insufficient.
Another unpopular measures
undertaken by the executive was the rejection of improvements to the minimum
wage. This measure, recommended by the minister of the treasury, contravened
legal regulations that require the minimum wage should be adjusted once an
inflation rate equal to or greater than 10% is registered. In December 2008,
the Central Bank of Paraguay announced inflation as being at 10.3%.
Political
organisation and popular support
Although the left that supports
President Lugo has insisted from the start of his government on the importance
of promoting the creation of a National Constituent Assembly, as well as
forming a political structure which could provide closer support, and with a
popular base, Lugo continues opting for a conciliatory solution. The danger
with this path is that it brings the president closer to the right-wing inside
of the government alliance, at the same time as it distances him from the
popular and left wing within the alliance.
The left, frustrated by the
slowness of the process of change, is constructing spaces for unified action.
The result of these moves, if successful, could influence a firmer and more
frontal positioning of the left in relation to the right wing inside and
outside of the government. This could combine efforts both in the institutional
sphere (from positions occupied inside of the government) and in favour of popular
mobilisation.
What
change?
Paraguay is in the midst of a
process laden with big contradictions and with still undefined tendencies. Is change
underway?
The process is reaching a
moment of definition, arriving at a crossroads with two paths: the first, the
path of breaking with the previous political order, implying confrontation with
the principal power groups; the second, the path of inertia and continuity of
the pre-established order.
This is the great dilemma
that confronts Paraguay today. Superficial change, of simple letterheads; or
profound change, of structures and bases. The dilemma of whether or not to move
beyond a country of injustice, inequality and exclusion.
Nothing is defined as yet,
but the limits for finding solutions are approaching. The next months will give
the final sentence and in the end the word “change” will be defined by the
force of events.
[Ignacio
González Bozzolasco is part of the Centre of Studies and
Popular Education “Germinal” in Asunción. He is a member of the national
leadership of the Party of the Movement towards Socialism (P-MAS) of Paraguay
and editor of its newspaper, El Dedo en la Llaga (The Finger on the Sore
Spot).]
Notes
1) Liberal hegemony had a
brief 18-month interruption, between 1936 and 1937, due to the establishment of
a people’s assembly government installed by an armed uprising, headed by
Colonel Rafael Franco, after the Chaco War against Bolivia (1932-1935).
2) Dirección General de Estadística,
Encuestas y Censos. Encuesta Permanente de Hogares 2007.
3) Ibíd.
4) According to data from
CEPAL, Paraguay has a tax burden of scarcely 12.9%, compared to Argentina with
29.2%, Brazil with 35.6%, Uruguay with 24.1%, Bolivia with 20.1% and Chile with
21.3% (CEPAL, Economic Study of Latin
America, 2007-2008, p. 356).
5) According to the Rural
Network of Paraguay (Red Rural del Paraguay), formed by NGOs from the
agriculture sector, “351 owners (physical or legal persons) possess 40.86% of
total agricultural cultivation, with more than 10,000 hectares each. Likewise,
533 owners have 15.3% of the land, totalling 3,644,873 hectares, with
properties of between 5000 and 10,000 hectares … This situation converts
Paraguay into the country with the highest level of inequality regarding
property distribution and land ownership in the world, well above Brazil, in
accordance with this one can look at the Gini coefficient, according to the
report of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Comisión
Económica para América Latina y el Caribe, CEPAL), year 2000” (http://www.redrural.org.py/V3/2009/el-poder-y-el-dinero/, downloaded
June 2, 2009).
6) The Executive Network for
Agrarian Reform (Coordinadora
Ejecutiva para la Reforma Agraria, CEPRA).
7) 1.- Just Price. 2.- Free
access to Paraguay’s energy surplus. 3.- Audit of the Itaipú debt. 4.-
Administrational parity in institutions. 5.- Income from the finance offices of
both countries in the entity. 6.- Completion of pending works.
8) Last May 1, the last
minister of the interior of the Stroessner military dictatorship, Sabino
Augusto Montanaro, returned to the country after living in exile in Honduras
since 1989. Montanaro is responsible for the persecution, repression, torture
and disappearance of hundreds of political activists who opposed one of the
longest dictatorships in Latin America. Unlike other progressive governments in
the region, like Argentina and Uruguay, that gave a major impetus to the search
for justice regarding political crimes that occurred during military
dictatorships, Paraguayan authorities suppressed demonstrators who demanded
justice in front of the hospital in which ex-minister of interior was interned.
For more information (in Spanish), go to: http://www.ultimahora.com/notas/218049-violenta-represi%C3%B3n-y-recuerdos-dolorosos-se-dan-en-protesta
and http://www.abc.com.py/2009-05-02/articulos/517674/represion-a-manifestantes.
9) For more information (in
Spanish), go to: http://www.lanacion.com.py/noticias-230729.htm.
10) Also a minister of the
previous government in the 2003-2005 period.
11) “The Paraguayan banking
system is the one that obtained the largest rate of profitability in the world,
according to a comparative analysis of rate of profitability over capital and
the reserves of the entities as a whole, carried out on the basis of data from
various central banks, the International Monetary Fund and the Office of the
Superintendent of Bank’s, up until last November… Such is the situation that in
Paraguay profitability over capital and reserves gives a level of 45.16%; in
Hungry, said level is 29.60%; in Switzerland, 24.40%; in Turkey, 23%; in Peru,
21.77%; in Brazil, 21.50%; in Mexico, 21.39% and in Chile19,35%” (http://www.abc.com.py/2009-01-06/articulos/484643/record-mundial-en-ganancias-logran-bancos-de-nuestro-pais,
downloaded: June 2, 2009). For more information (in Spanish), go to: http://www.abc.com.py/2009-02-21/articulos/497781/bancos-siguen-con-fuerte-lucro.
12) According to reports by
the Investment and Exports Network (Red de Inversiones y Exportaciones, REDIEX)
“in the year 2008, Paraguayan exports reached US$ 4433.7 million, which
constitutes an increase of 59.2%, the highest rate of growth seen since the
year 1989 … soy and its derivatives together composed 57% of the total,
followed by cow meat, with 13%” (Foreign
Trade Monthly Bulletin – Balance Sheet 2008 at http://www.rediex.gov.py/images/Boletin-Comer-Ext-Balance-2008.pdf,
downloaded June 4, 2009).