Paraguay police break up protest over housing

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Paraguay police break up protest over housing
The Associated Press
April 15, 2008

Digg Del.icio.us Facebook Fark Google Newsvine Reddit Yahoo Print Reprints Post comment Text size: ASUNCION, Paraguay - Police used water cannons to disperse about 400 protesters demanding public housing days before a presidential election.

Police had no immediate information on the Monday clash. Local radio stations are reporting that about 20 people suffered minor injuries. Protests over housing and jobs are common in the impoverished country.

Paraguay holds presidential elections on Sunday. Three major candidates are campaigning to replace Nicanor Duarte.



Read more: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/caribbean/sfl-flaparaguay0415sbapr15,0,2628662.story?track=rss

[Judi Lynn]

1. Dissecting the Politics of Paraguay's Next President

Apri1 15, 2008

The Bishop of the Poor, the Red Queen or the Bonsai Horseman?
Dissecting the Politics of Paraguay's Next President
By APRIL HOWARD and BENJAMIN DANGL

Fernando Lugo, a bearded, left-leaning bishop is expected to win Paraguay's historic presidential election on April 20th, upsetting a 60-year rule by the right wing Colorado Party. While escaping the heat of the Paraguayan sun by sitting in the shade of an orange tree, farmer union leader Tomas Zayas explains, "If Lugo is elected, it will open a door for more changes in the future, but that's all. We'll take what we can get."

As much of the rest of Latin America shifts to the left, Paraguay remains a key ally of Washington, a human rights nightmare and example of the amorphous and survivalist qualities of the Latin American right. In the April 20th presidential elections, Blanca Ovelar and Lino Oviedo, two representatives of Paraguay's old right will come head to head with Fernando Lugo, a new face, and possibly a new beginning for the Paraguayan left.

Former Education Minister Blanca Ovelar, is carrying the torch of the 60-year rule of the Colorado, or Red Party, and General Lino Oviedo- nicknamed the "Bonsai horseman" for his short stature - is an ex-Colorado Party member himself, and until recently was serving prison time for an attempted coup. Alternately called "the Bishop of the Poor" by his supporters, and "the Red Bishop" by his right-wing opponents, Lugo is leading in the polls, and may do the same in the elections - if he can out maneuver the gargantuan resources and corrupt politics of his opponents.

Lugo: The Bishop of the Poor

Fernando Armindo Lugo Méndez was born in 1951. As a young man, he taught in a rural school district which, according to reporter Andrew Nickson at Open Democracy, "was so remote that he was able to escape the usual rule that teachers had to be members of the Colorado Party."<1> In 1977, Lugo was ordained as a Catholic priest, and worked as a missionary in indigenous communities in Ecuador until 1982. He then spent 10 years studying at the Vatican, at which time he was appointed head of the Divine Word order in Paraguay. In 1994 he became the Bishop of the Paraguayan department of San Pedro. Though Lugo was frequently away from Paraguay, he did not avoid the repercussions of the Alfredo Stroessner dictatorship and its conservative influence. In fact, three of Lugo's brothers were exiled and the conservative Catholic hierarchy pressured him to resign as bishop due to his support for landless families' settlements on large estates owned by absent elites.

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/howard04152008.html