With Paraguay’s recent April 30, elections leaving right wing political and business forces in complete control of the country the prognosis for social reforms over the next five years is not good.

Human rights could also could be trampled. That is the assessment of two of Paraguay’s prominent human rights organizations.

Dante Leguizamon Morra of the Paraguayan Human Rights Coordinator known as Codehupy. gave a somber assessment of what is ahead. “There’s going to be a fortifying of the processes which are in detriment to peasant and indigenous communities. And also. there is going to be a fortifying of the process of anti-rights and this will probably affect the rights of woman and children.”

The recent Colorado Party landslide victory (The Colorado Party won the presidency as well as a majority in both houses of congress. The Colorado Party also won 15 governor posts out of a total of 17).

The size of the victory puts agribusiness interests in command of the country. “Big landowners have the state in their power. The national state and also the local government and the judge.” said Abel Areco of the Base-Is think tank. The increase in right wing power makes some rural reforms unthinkable and others will be given a conservative neoliberal approach.

“Today it would be impossible to talk of a reform of the law of land restitution. That would never be acceptable.” Areco said.

International observers such as the United States and the European Union are warning that a serious threat to the country is coming from the advance of organized crime at all political levels in Paraguay. While the United States imposed sanctions on several politicians including former President Horacio Cartes(2013-2018) for corruption and other criminal activities, the electorate this year, put those same people in control of the country’s political system.

The collapse of the Left and the anti-corruption coalition has left a vacuum in the legislative branch.

“All the political forces, and above all the Left. have to reflect over what happened. The Frente Guasu (Party of former Left President Fernando Lugo (2008-2012) finished sixth in the elections. And in the congress they fell from being the third force to having only one senator,” Leguizamon Morra said.

Paraguay’s infamous dictatorship, was lead by Alfredo Stroessner for 35 years (1954-1989) and now, a threat to democracy is being seen in the almost complete power given to the new Colorado government.

“It may be that its not (a dictatorship) with the same characteristics but in the final analysis the capability is the same,” Areco said.

The new president, Santiago Peña, 44, was elected handily with 42.74% of the vote totaling 1,292,079 votes against. Efrain Alegre, 60, of the left reform coalition known as La Concertacion with 27.8% for a total of 830,842 votes.

Despite the size of his win, his independence from former president Horacio Cartes is being questioned. Cartes, 67, currently serves as president of Colorado Party. Peña served as Finance Minister during the Cartes administration and also worked for the Cartes-owned Banco Basa.

Appointments to the Peña cabinet have come mainly from former Cartes administration persons. Many top men and women in the government are thought to be Cartes loyalists.

“The principal leader is Cartes. Clearly, he is laying down the political line, all of the decisions He is the sustainer of this group. It is a large group.” Areco said.
The new power of the right is expected to further exacerbate the volatile situation in Paraguay’s rural areas. This rural population of 2.5 million is made up of many extremely poor peasants and indigenous persons.

Little is being done to improve the situation for this group which needs more technical assistance, schooling and financial backup to produce more according to BASE-IS. More land distribution and even a full land reform would be useful. Land tenure is widely skewed with 2 percent of the population owning 85 percent of the land according to the Paraguay Episcopal Conference. Rural poverty stands at 34.6%.

Paraguay’s soybean estates, and more recently, rice plantations are pushing peasants into less productive areas and into the country’s cities. Often such groups are complaining of a lack of fair justice in land disputes.

The right wing balance of power is certainly evident in the area of environmental protection, BASE IS contends.

A visit by an United Nations Expert on human rights related to the environment in October, 2022, found that Paraguay was engaging in an excessive use of pesticides which is affecting the health of the rural population.

“Laws that control pesticides are not enforced in Paraguay. This generates impunity for human rights violations and abuses of thousands of people exposed to toxic contamination,” said Marcos Orellana, special rapporteur on toxics and human rights.

Further expected expansion of large agribusiness estates and use of transgenic seeds is going to increase the use of pesticides. The expansion of rice production is pushing the problem into former cattle raising areas and wetlands.

This August BASE IS reported an attempt to expand rice farming into a protected area of Lake Ypoa. These actions are expected to have an adverse affect on about 300 peasant families
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Paraguayan bread makers have launched protests, this month, to block the use of new wheat transgenic seeds Trigo HB4, which bread makers contend is damaging to human health.

While the success of agricultural production is pushing the economy ahead, little of the economic wealth is reaching the poorest through effective government programs. Average earnings in Paraguay are U.S. 388 per month.

The left has been calling for emergency reforms in health care, education and pensions as needed to redress the backwardness still present in the country.

With the opposition reduced to a point of little power in the congress some other organized opposition to Colorado power is going to be required. Areco predicts this will come from pressure in the streets and criticism from international organizations.

“The citizens organized in the streets is the only way to contain this,” he said.
Recently. a number of presidential appointments aimed at putting Colorado Party persons in charge of important justice system oversight commissions came under fire from the press and Non-governmental organizations.

Some Paraguayans fear the justice system will be used against the Colorado Party’s enemies and that Colorado party misdeeds will be unpunished. Recently, protests broke out over the appointment of Hernan David Rivas Roman to head the the body that oversees wrongdoing by Paraguayan judges and prosecutors known as the Jurado de Enjuicimiento de Magistrados. It was alleged that Rivas could not explain the source of his growing wealth.

The protest pressure caused Rivas to resign his appointment but he remains part of the court. Among those questioning Colorado appointments are members of the group Coordinator of Lawyers Paraguay. Activist and Lawyer Esther Roa pointed out, “There is a capture of power here. And we wish to avoid this through citizen participatory protests to free up the administration of justice,” Roa said.

Tensions between the Cartes lead Colorado group and a new National Prosecutor Emiliano Rolon Fernandez charged with investigating and prosecuting persons for criminal activities have begun to show and this may be an important battle in maintaining democratic checks and balances.

Rolon replaced the much questioned Sandra Quinonez as the National Prosecutor. Rolon is moving to unblock a number of sensitive prosecutions which Quinonez had supposedly blocked as a Cartes supporter. The national prosecutors office has had close contact with the United States over alleged corruption by Cartes and his associates. The United States imposed anti-corruption Magnistky Law sanctions against Cartes this year.

“Cartes engaged in corruption before, during, and after his term as President of Paraguay. Cartes’ political career was founded on and continues to rely on corrupt means for success.” the U.S. Treasury Department said in a news release January 26. The Magnistky Law froze Cartes assets in the United States and forced break up of a number of joint ventures.

Rolon would be in charge of bringing local criminal charges against Cartes.
Cartes, for his part, has brought a legal action with Rolon’s office charging that he has been a victim of persecution by local persons who caused him to be sanctioned for corruption by the United States.

The case charging that Cartes was persecuted has already caused controversy after prosecutors ordered the newspapers ABC Color and Ultima Hora to provide information about journalists who wrote stories about the Cartes corruption sanctions.

Such actions occurred previously under the Stroessner Dictatorship. Paraguayan journalists charged the action affected freedom of speech and responded with a protest where they held up cards saying “I wrote the article”

The Cartes legal action is seen as a form of legal pressure against the National Prosecutor aimed at stopping local prosecutions of Cartes and his supporters. A Cartes supporter in congress Chamber of Deputies member Yamil Esgaib said Rolon could be removed easily.”The Fiscal leaves whenever we want,” Esgaib said.

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