Anti-congress protesters set Paraguay’s congress building on fire March 31, 2017. The flames emanating from the building could leave Paraguay, and, perhaps even more alarming, other Latin American nation’s fragile democracies in smoldering ruins.

In June of 2012, Paraguay experienced what journalists and political scientists labeled at that time a “parliamentary coup” or “soft coup.” That event shocked Latin Americans as a rapid-fire impeachment removed President Fernando Lugo from office within hours, clearly violating guidelines established by the Paraguayan constitution. The chain of events began in the town of Curuguaty where seventeen peasants and policemen were killed in a shootout. The Paraguayan congress blamed Lugo for mismanagement of the event and gave him less than 24 hours to prepare for his trial. Although the stacks of documents produced by the congress demonstrated that the events of June 2012 were long in the making behind the scene, the public trial was nothing short of a political blitzkrieg. On television the night before the trial, Lugo’s lawyer desperately pleaded for more time to review the documents and make a case. No such time was ever given. Lugo was removed from power and, like the more recent case in Brazil, the vice president, a member of an opposition party, took control.

At the time of the Paraguayan events, Dilma Rousseff, the then president of Brazil, reacted strongly to Paraguay’s political crisis. Her government led the movement within Mercosur, the South American trade block, to temporarily suspend the landlocked nation from the organization in protest of the unprecedented action by the Paraguayan Congress. She recognized the dangerous precedent set by Paraguay and knew that if allowed to proceed unchecked by international power, parliamentary coups could be normalized and could threaten her own weak presidency. She was correct. Last year, the Brazilian Senate held impeachment proceedings and removed Rousseff on questionable corruption charges. At the time she told the press that it was a coup. Significantly, the route taken earlier by the Paraguayans was normalized by its much larger and more powerful neighbor. This last yet another Latin American government moved to undermine democracy and further normalized constitutional irregularities in the region. Nicolás Maduro, the President of Venezuela, has for the past several years moved to ensure that members of the judiciary are loyal only to him, undermining any sense of judiciary independence. As a result, in the midst of a profound economic crisis, the Supreme Court of Venezuela announced a ruling that gave unto itself all legislative power, clearly ignoring constitutional authority. The result is that Maduro, is now, for all practical purposes, in control of all branches of government.

These recent constitutional irregularities  been with vocal protest and violence. On Friday March 31, 2017  in Asunción civilians assaulted the congress building. This was the result of the decision by the Paraguayan Senate to alter the process of presidential transition on Friday, violence erupted. Earlier in the week, twenty-five Paraguayan Senators from a variety of political parties cobbled together a strange coalition to support the change in congressional procedure and amend the constitution illegally. Fernando Lugo, the President who was removed by dubious impeachment proceedings in 2012 – and who is currently a member of the Senate – and Horacio Cartes – current President of Paraguay and a leading player in the 2012 coup – are the individuals behind the most recent proceedings and are to blame for the violence. At least one death is being blamed on the violence. Moreover, rubber bullets wounded Roberto Acevedo, the President of the Paraguayan Senate who has been vocally opposed the constitutional change. University students who joined in the protests were taken to local hospitals with various injuries. Journalists were assaulted and equipment was damaged. Downtown Asunción was looted. These recent actions by Latin American governments are certainly anti-democratic and anti-constitutional.

More importantly, these violent and deadly events in Paraguay, like its parliamentary coup of 2012, have begun to spread to other nations in the region.  On April 6, 2017, the first death in Venezuela at the hands of the police towards rioters was documented by journalists.

Bridget María Chesterton

Associate Professor of History

Buffalo State