Politics in Paraguay

All this week I was composing this blog in my head. I was going to describe my living situation, the “Banado” where we are working, list a couple more differences between Paraguay and the DR. But that all changed on Thursday when people began to discuss the impeachment of Paraguay’s president, Fernando Lugo. I’ll preface this explanation by saying that everything I know has been transmitted to me by word of mouth or the Paraguayan press, but there are still a lot of things I’m confused about. Here’s my best attempt to explain the situation:

Lugo has been controversial during his presidency, to say the least. He is an ex-priest, pro liberation theology, while in office admitted to having two illegitimate children, but at the same time brought some beneficial social programs to Paraguay. Given what I knew, and the way people talked about him, I didn’t expect him to be kicked out of office.

On the other hand, politics in Paraguay have not been hunky-dory as of late. Lugo, who belongs to a third party, had to form a coalition with the “Liberal” party to control the government against the “Colorados” when he came into office. That coalition has slowly been weakening to the point of breaking. Last Friday, I was working at the organization I am at in the Banado when we started watching a news story about conflicts over land rights between campesinos and police in a town in the interior of Paraguay. Seventeen people, campesinos and policemen, had been killed. I didn’t realize the severity of the issue; I had heard of previous conflicts over land in that part of the country before, and assumed this was an escalated version of that. But people in the Banado and at the Instituto Nacional de Salud were surprised and frightened by it, and everybody seemed to tell us that this incident implicated something larger for the country. Paraguay is a very pacific country and things of this sort, especially between police and well-armed campesinos (no one knows where they got the weapons from) is rare.

People were still talking about it when we returned to the Banado on Monday, but as far as we knew, it was an isolated incident. Thursday all of the sudden we heard that the “Camera de Diputados” (similar to our house of representatives) had voted to impeach Lugo with only one “Diputado” dissenting. Their reason: mishandeling of the conflict the previous Friday. Lugo would have to prepare his defense and was allowed two hours to present it on Friday. The decision would be made by the Senate by Friday afternoon. Basically, within 36 hours Paraguay could have a new president. People, including many from the Banado and the leader of the community organization we are working with who is a very well known political figure in Paraguay, started flooding the plaza around the government buildings to protest what appeared to them as an undemocratic and unjust process. Thursday night I watched the news with my host family, trying to understand exactly what was happening, why, and how this could unfold and affect the country. Not knowing what the security situation would be like once the decision was made, Vanessa and I decided to travel back to the Instituto Nacional de Salud after lunch on Friday and hunker down there during the proceedings that afternoon.

As we made our way back on the bus, I was surprised that things seemed fairly normal. Our host families were not worried about us riding public transportation. Many buses of people (including our two host moms) had traveled to the plaza that morning to join in the protests, which were largely peaceful. The bus we were on passed about four blocks from the plaza, and though the crowd was not huge (we’ll never know really how many people were there, I heard estimates between 3,000 and 30,000), you could certainly see the entire square filled from where we were watching. We arrived at the INS and tried to get more information and opinions from the staff there. Many of them seemed not to care about politics; they don’t trust politicians and believe they should all be thrown out. Others still said they didn’t care for Lugo but this process seemed completely unjust and undemocratic.

We spent the rest of the evening watching the proceedings in the dorm on TV with several other nurses and doctors who were staying at the dorms as well. The senate voted 34-4 to impeach Lugo. In the meantime, representatives from South American countries had traveled to Paraguay to try to negotiate with the government and prevent the impeachment, as many of those countries saw it as a coup d’etat given the short trial and lack of evidence. Once the verdict was announced, there were several tussles with police in the plaza, and we did see footage of tear gas and hoses sprayed. People dispersed and came back peacefully, things were calmer than I expected. Vanessa and I went out to eat dinner and if it weren’t for the televisions broadcasting the news, you would have never known that an impeachment/coup d’etat just happened. Lugo gave a speech on his way out, calling for non-violence, and the vice president from the Liberal party was sworn in as president. Needless to say, his supporters were thrilled (it’s worth mentioning that his wife is a diputada and also voted for impeachment).

Yesterday things were calm and Vanessa and I kept checking the news to make sure there wasn’t any violence. Thus far, there have been some protests but things have been peaceful. We even went to the mall, where people were going about their daily business, and only heard several people mention Lugo or Franco (the new president). The news has been covering other countries’ reactions to the impeachment/coup: many Latin American countries are refusing to recognize the new president because of the manner in which he came to power. Argentina has officially removed their ambassador and Brasil and Uruguay have called their ambassadors back to their respective countries. The union of South American countries will be meeting this week to decide what further measures to take against Paraguay. What could happen is not yet clear, but if measures are taken it could mean some hard times for the country, since they rely on the other countries for trade and energy.

Vanessa and I have been following everything with a certain fascination. We were at first horrified that a “democratic” government would do such a thing. Given that the dictatorship is only a thing of the recent past, this incident for us suggests that Paraguay is not completely a democracy yet. The Senate and “Camera de Diputados” are not directly elected, rather they are chosen by the party depending on the amount of votes each party gets in an election. The president, on the other hand is directly elected. For the legislature to be able to oust a democratically elected president in such a short time seens unjust.

Another remnant of the dictatorship was seen in the plaza. Over ten years ago there was another protest in the plaza, and things got violent. Snipers that had been placed on the roofs of the buildings shot into the crowd and killed 8 people. This was the government killing its own people. No one had forgotten that incident when the most recent protests began, and people were quick to point out that there were once again snipers on the roofs. It’s hard to tell really why people were so peaceful; was it because they really are a peaceful country (I’ve seen plenty of evidence of this)? Or because they really don’t believe enough in the politics and politicians of their country to fight for them? Or because they were afraid that they might be shot on if they tried to show their feelings in any other way? (I must admit that I’ve been reading the Hunger Games this past week, and perhaps that’s influenced my paranoia a bit, I can’t really say :) ) It's hard to understand what the majority of the population think about this situation, given that I don’t understand everything that has gone on and have only spent several weeks here thus far. I will say this, it’s been a lesson in democracy for me, and I imagine this event, which happened so quickly, could affect Paraguay in a very big way for quite some time.

In case you’re wondering, Vanessa and I are completely safe. Emory/Rollins have been checking up on us constantly since they found out about the impeachment (we appreciate it, however find it a bit comical that the Deans of our school are being copied on all the emails, making it seem urgent, when we went to the mall the other day, are completely safe in our dorms, and see no real threat). We have been checking up on the Embassy website (they have not even issued any warnings after the impeachment Friday) and I have been in contact with a couple of Peace Corps people who have said they are not worried about their volunteers either. So in sum, we’re safe. I’ll keep you all updated and hope to be able to write more about the Banado and my actual work soon.

For a better, comprehensive overview of the situation, here's an article from the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/world/americas/in-paraguay-democracys-all-too-speedy-trial.html?_r=1&ref=world