Report From Paraguay on the Eve of Historic Elections

[Joanne98]

Aunsción, Paraguay – The fear campaign is at full swing here in Asuncion, and the Colorado party is using everything they’ve got.

By the time the Colorado candidate, Blanca Ovelar had finished her speech at Wednesday’s close of the Colorado campaign, already tiny clusters of youth were swarming through Asuncion, covering lamp posts and walls with posters depicting the opposition candidate Fernando Lugo of the Patriotic Alliance for Change, as the anti-Christ, attempting to tie him to former members of the Paraguayan radical-left. "You Decide," reads the poster, with a reference to the Apocalypse, and the number 666.

Signs at the rally read, "Kidnapping has a cure (cura)", making a play on words with the word cura, which also means "priest" in Spanish.

Others have attempted to tie Lugo to the Colombian FARC guerrillas. Ovelar called him a "failed priest" on Wednesday evening, and Duarte told supporters that a Lugo win would be a disaster, which would "destroy the future of Paraguay."

Recently Duarte warned Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez not to lean in with his support for Lugo. At the close of Wednesday’s Colorado campaign, Duarte, speaking in Guarani, once again referred to foreign agitators from Ecuador and Venezuela, which he says are going to try and destabilize the elections.

"Wherever these bandits think they are going to try something, nor the Uruguayans, or the Ecuadorians, or the Venezuelans will succeed," Duarte cried. "Because Paraguay is going to be filled with joy, because peace and development are going to rain, because the Colorado party is going to win the elections."
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1229/1/

[Peace Patriot]

1. And we think our Bushmouths are bad!

The Colorado Party has been ruling Paraguay for 60 years, about half of that time with a heinously repressive dictatorship, and have developed the biggest rich/poor divide in South America, and the worst, most intractable poverty, and NOW they are saying that Paraguay "is going to be filled with joy" and "peace and development are going to rain"??

It's so ludicrous. But it is also ominous. 'Big Lie' talk like that is a portent of election fraud. It means that they don't care whether the voters believe them or not, and don't need to care. They think they've got it covered. It reminds me of Dick Cheney's smug confidence before the 2004 (s)election here. On the other hand, their playing the "terrorist" card indicates their deep fear of losing power and it speaks to their basic illegitimacy as representatives of the people. Real leaders don't need to play on fears. As FDR said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

The most recent poll numbers I've seen give Fernando Lugo and the left enough of a lead to overcome the Colorado Party's infamous election shenanigans. Lugo has held a big lead since the day he announced. It is really, really, REALLY time for a change in Paraguay (as it is here). Most of the continent has gone left--Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil (all of Paraguay's neighbors), also Venezuela, Ecuador, Chile, and further north, Nicaragua and Guatemala (with an almost win in Mexico last time around--in a highly questionable election that the left probably won). It is a tidal wave of change. And Paraguay desperately needs to connect with these leftist countries and their goals of social justice, self-determination and economic integration.

If Lugo loses, I think we can be sure that it will be by fraudulent means, and that the Bush Junta is behind it. It's big stakes for the Bushites. A Lugo win would be a big monkey wrench in their effort to destabilize neighboring Bolivia, and in whatever evil scheme they have to use the U.S. air base in Paraguay (and the rumored Bush Cartel purchase of 100,000 acres in Paraguay, near the base) for trouble-making at the southern end of the Bolivarian Revolution, where they have very little strategic ground. (In the north, they have fascist, U.S.-armed Colombia, bordering oil-rich Venezuela and Ecuador, and have already, this year, tried to start a war with them). Lugo opposes the U.S. air base in Paraguay.

Monsanto's rape and ruin in Paraguay (for agrofuel production) is also at issue, as is the lucrative drug/weapons trafficking in the tricorner area (Paraguay, Bolivia, Brazil). The Bush-U.S. "war on drugs" encourages illicit traffic, and the Bushites are making lots of illicit money on it, in my opinion. There is also the issue of pesticide use (big issue in Paraguay)--both in corporate monoculture and the ruinous U.S.-Bush "war on drugs." Lugo is clean, and will institute good government policies, and social justice remedies for drug trafficking. He will put a crucifix to the vampires, in other words. ('Good government?! A-a-a-a-argh! H-s-s-s-s! No, no, no...!')

I hope and pray that Lugo's very motivated supporters, and the international election monitors who are present, and the opinion and good will of the rest of the continent are sufficient to overcome Bush-backed election fraud. I don't know what kind of vote counting system they have in Paraguay. Probably it's paper ballots, which means that there will at least be evidence to consider. The OAS, the Carter Center and others have done a lot of work on election transparency and honesty in South America (that's why so many leftists are winning). Also, the Colorado Party has made some gestures toward the new leftist reality on the continent--for instance, they joined the Bank of the South (a Chavez inspired project to keep development lending in local and regional control). Paraguay also needs to negotiate a better deal for Paraguay on their hydroelectric power with Brazil. If the Colorado Party steals the election, this will not sit well with leftist (i.e., democratic) governments. Paraguay could become a pariah like Colombia. They could be kicked out the Bank of the South, and Mercosur (South American trade group), especially if they are perceived as retaining power with Bushite help, in furtherance of more Bushite trouble-making for all of them. Also, if they steal it, they will not be able to govern. Paraguay's poor has examples of good leftist government all around them. They won't sit still for more Colorado Party corruption and rule of, by and for the rich. The civil disruption that Olevar and Duarte predict if Lugo wins, will not occur if Lugo wins--just the opposite--it will occur if the Colorados retain power illegitimately by election fraud.

If they're smart, they will not steal it. They will look to the long term. Lugo is not going to have an overwhelming leftist mandate. He's going to win with about 40% of the vote in a multi-candidate field. And he will have his hands full, trying to reform the Paraguayan government and society. They also have the Bushites (and Democratic "neo-liberals") on their side, for projects like the white separatist split-up of neighbor Bolivia, and other fascist plotting. They will wait for these projects to mature, and will then seek to undermine and bring down the Lugo government. But South America's right wing has not proven to be very smart. Their greed overwhelms their Rumsfeldiam 'inner man,' time and again. (The Venezuelan rightwing is the only one that seems to be learning some patience--with USAID-NED help--funding and 'training.') (--'training' in how to make rightwing coups look like democracy). Shrewd I guess is a better word than smart. Smart would be democracy, social justice and prosperity for all. The Colorados are not shrewd, and they have had no reason to develop patience (--ruling by fiat and by cronyism for 60 years).

Upshot: I don't know what will happen in the voting today. Too hard to predict (even with Lugo way ahead in the polls). I hope, for Paraguay's sake--and for the sake of the vast poor population of South America, who are just coming into their rightful power in politics and government--that peace, democracy and social justice will be the ultimate result.