Politics as Usual in Paraguay

This past Sunday Paraguayans went to the polls and elected Mario Abdo Benítez to a five-year term as president. His close personal ties to the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989) and – Abdo is the son of Stroessner’s former personal secretary – has warranted scrutiny from Paraguayan leftists. Many human rights activists, historians, and social scientist have denounced Stroessner’s infamous authoritarianism and anyone associated with the regime. The Paraguayan people, however, remember a different narrative – one that focuses on economics and vast improvements in everyday life in Paraguay. Today, many working, middle, and upper class recollections about the dictatorship focus on economic and cultural successes. Moreover, Paraguayans fondly and openly reminisce about low rates of petty crime on the streets of Asunción, Paraguay’s capital city during the dictatorship.

During Stroessner’s long rule he held power by not only promising real economic growth, but also delivering life-changing infrastructure projects, improving household purchasing power, while simultaneously increasing economic ties to Brazil. Stroessner’s government brought running water to Asunción in the mid-1960s. The first hydroelectric dam (Acaray) in Paraguay began illuminating and air-conditioning homes in the late 1960s; by the 1970s even more homes and businesses could enjoy the comforts of electricity from the copious production of what was then the world’s largest hydroelectric dam, Itapú. Stroessner’s regime made travel – notoriously difficult in the early twentieth century – accessible by building roads, bridges, and improving air travel. This meant that for the first time Paraguayans could (and did) travel to Brazil to enjoy the sunny vacation beaches or even sojourn to Europe or the United States. Significantly, the regime also steadied the price of the Guaraní – the Paraguayan currency. A steady exchange rate meant that Paraguayans purchased new consumer goods from abroad, including autos, domestic appliances, canned foods, and exotic liquors.

Everyday life improved dramatically with the opening of supermarkets, shopping centers, hotels, restaurants with live entertainment, and clean and tidy streets. The regime immortalized these improvements in highly controlled press recounting the numerous ways in which life was improving daily under the regime. Examples recounted in the press included improved education opportunities, art gallery openings with local and international artists, and large opulent homes and buildings in Asunción. Photos in tourists guides, stamps, and postcards of the era immortalized this transition. These developments changed how Paraguayans viewed themselves and their nation. They were no longer a small isolated landlocked nation, but rather a booming power in the center of South America.

Although the Stroessner’s Colorado Party has held power in Paraguay for all but a brief interlude under Fernando Lugo (2008-2012) the election of Abdo has once again brought to the fore today’s Paraguayan successes. Paraguay today after five-years of Horacio Cartes is in many ways prosperous and stable. New flashy skyscrapers line the landscape, new shopping opportunities open daily in Asunción, and a stable economy funded by high agricultural prices and investments in infrastructure has meant that Paraguayans of a certain class travel widely. The less palpable side of politics and life in Paraguay, such as the murder of journalists, student protests, corruption, encroachment by agro-business on indigenous and peasant lands, infringements on women’s rights, and smuggling have been subsumed by a narrative of success, much like the current memory of the Stroessner regime. Although the end of Stroessner’s authoritarian government came almost twenty years ago, the policies and economics of the era survive and thrive.

Bridget María Chesterton – Professor of History, Buffalo State

Mario Abdo Benítez Elected President of Paraguay

President Elect Mario Abdo Benítrz.  Photo by Mike Kunz, used with Permission.

Paraguay Elects a President

Sunday April 22, 2018, Paraguayans delivered a clear victory to the incumbent Colorado Party, who retained the Presidency.  The party has won thirteen of seventeen governorships and appeared to hold their majority in both houses of Congress. By a comfortable margin of four percent, Mario Abdo Benítez of the conservative wing of Colorado Party defeated Efraín Alegre from the liberal GANAR alliance to extend the Colorado Party’s near 70-year run of unbroken control of the executive branch.

​Abdo, 46, who coasted to an expected victory, is known for his family ties to Paraguay’s former dictator, Alfredo Stroessner, who ruled Paraguay from 1954-1989 in South America’s longest continuous dictatorship. Abdo’s father, also named Mario Abdo Benitez, was the personal secretary and close confidant of General Stroessner, whose well-documented humans rights abuses during his thirty-five year rule included disappearances, torture, and murder of political opponents, dissidents, homosexuals, and other targeted groups.

​Abdo Jr., known – by the diminutive “Marito” to his supporters to distance himself from his father – inherits a country with a briskly growing economy that has outpaced its much larger neighbors Argentina and Brazil. Yet, Paraguay, which has the population of Massachusetts spread out over a territory the size of California, faces a range of economic and political challenges in the coming years.

Back to the Future

​In the final stretch of the campaign, both candidates sought to paint this weekend’s election as a referendum on the Colorado Party itself. Marito, who fought off a difficult primary challenge, successfully unified the splintered Colorados through the force of sheer partisanship, demanding loyalty that his future cabinet sport the iconic red Colorado pañuelo (handkerchief). On the other hand, the defeated liberal candidate Alegre repeatedly linked Marito to his deceased father and to the unpopular incumbent president, the multi-billionaire Horacio Cartes.

​ Throughout the campaign, Marito made a series of attempts to separate himself from his father’s legacy, routinely criticizing the human rights violations of the dictatorship. Yet for many, these statements fell flat, as they often came bookended by defenses of the dictatorship’s infrastructure projects. On election day, Marito sent a strong final message of support to the Colorado vanguard with an elaborately staged visit to his father’s mausoleum in Asunción’s grand Recoleta cemetery. Ultimately, his embrace of the Colorado Party élites paid off; the Colorado Party, the party of General Stroessner, has by now far outlived the General himself. Next year will ring in the fourth decade of Paraguay’s young democracy, yet no non-Colorado president has served a complete term since Stroessner seized power in 1954^[1]. Marito’s election extends uninterrupted Colorado rule past its sixtieth anniversary, and is a resounding affirmation of the old party elite’s continued grip on power.

Moving Water Ahead

​While Paraguay’s macroeconomic indicators remain strong, the country’s economy has some underlying weaknesses. To maintain the nation on its current growth trajectory, Marito must address both Paraguay’s low levels of tax collection and its low levels of investment in infrastructure, health, and education. Many of these problems have their roots in the nature of Paraguay’s economy, which remains largely informal. These challenges are all the more pressing given the impending renegotiation of the Itaipú hydroelectric dam treaty with Paraguay’s next-door-neighbor, Brazil. This treaty, set to expire after fifty years in 2023, allows Paraguay to sell its excess power generated by Itaipu (which routinely generates more power than even China’s Three Gorges Dam) to electricity-hungry Brazil. Currently, compensation for sales of excess power amount to about two percent of Paraguay’s annual GDP. Yet some experts believe that Paraguay is being severely underpaid, and that a new agreement could increase payments by as much as a factor of ten. An advance renegotiation in 2009 already yielded Paraguay an extra $240 million a year. Marito’s defeated opponent, Alegre, seized on these figures and promised to slash energy costs for Paraguayans. Depending on the terms of the new treaty, Abdo has an opportunity to achieve an enormous economic windfall for Paraguay

Paraguay’s Turn

​With the results of yesterday’s elections, Paraguay dutifully follows fellow southern cone countries in the rightward shift marching across the Americas. Both Chile and Argentina have already chosen new right-leaning heads of state, and Latin American powerhouses Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia all have high-stakes presidential elections slated for 2018. With the ascent of Marito, whose opposing ticket’s vice-presidential candidate Leo Rubin expressed sympathy for the Venezuelan regime, Paraguay has aligned itself with the current political reality of its Andean neighbors.

The next five years will be critical for Paraguay. As economic development continues to proceed rapidly, addressing Paraguay’s broken tax system and severe income inequality will be crucial. While the Congressional election results are still being tallied, the Colorado Party appears more dominant today than it has been in recent memory. Marito can take advantage of his electoral mandate and enact the reforms necessary to keep Paraguay on the path to growth and inclusive development.

^[1] The only non-Colorado president to even be elected was the former priest Fernando Lugo, who served as President from 2008-2012 until a scandal over his illegitimate children led to his removal from power.

Samuel Fishman lives in Paraguay where he teaches with an English Teaching Assistant Fulbright grant from the U.S. Department of State. He graduated from Tulane University with a B.A. in Political Economy. He is originally from Baltimore, Maryland.