Latin America File: Paraguay absorbed by regional Red Axis: Communist-backed Bishop Lugo wins presidency, Colorado regime loses 61-year dominance

In another example of the Third World's Catholic-communist convergence, six decades of unbroken Colorado Party rule has ended in Paraguay with yesterday's election of liberationist Roman Catholic clergyman Fernando Lugo, sometimes known as the "Bishop of the Poor" or the "Red Bishop." AFP reports below: "Lugo's opponents have said he is in line with left-wing presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia." Just what we need: another domino falls before the advance of the red tide in Latin America. Lugo will assume the presidency of Paraguay on August 15. The Colorado Party was the ruling party during the regime of anti-communist military strongman Alfredo Stroessner between 1954 and 1989.

The Patriotic Alliance for Change, which is the center-left coalition of political parties that supported the not-so-former bishop's presidential bid, includes the Authentic Radical Liberal Party, Febrerista Revolutionary Party, National Encounter Party, Party for a Country of Solidarity, Christian Democratic Party, Movement for Socialism, Broad Front, Progressive Democratic Party. On March 4 the People's World Weekly, the mounthpiece of the Communist Party USA, reports that Paraguay's long-suppressed communist party also loves liberationist Lugo: "The Catholic hierarchy has yet to honor Lugo’s resignation as bishop, constitutionally required for a presidential run. The coalition he heads, the Patriotic Alliance for Change, melds centrist parties, social democrats, far left formations and social movements. Paraguay’s Communist Party is included." All of the seats in Paraguay's bicameral National Congress were also contested yesterday.

We will be updating our Red World 2008 map accordingly. It's not a pretty picture: one color dominates.

Leftist ex-bishop ends 61-year conservative rule in Paraguay
April 20, 2008

ASUNCION (AFP) — A leftist ex-bishop Monday celebrated his historic electoral triumph in Paraguay's presidential election after defeating the ruling party candidate and ending 61 years of conservative rule.

Fernando Lugo was declared the winner by the Electoral Tribunal with nearly 41 percent of the vote compared to almost 31 percent for Blanca Ovelar of the ruling Colorado Party, crushing her dream of becoming the South American country's first woman president.

"Today we can dream of a different country," Lugo, 56, told reporters late Sunday. "Paraguay will simply not be remembered for its corruption and poverty, but for its honesty."

Ovelar, whose party has been in power since 1947, conceded defeat before the final results were released.

"I recognize the triumph of Fernando Lugo," she said. "We acknowledge with dignity that the results of the presidential contest are at this point irreversible."

Another candidate, Lino Oviedo, 64, a retired army chief who helped stage a coup that ended the 35-year military dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989), trailed far behind in third place with 22 percent of the vote.

Lugo earlier addressed jubilant supporters of his leftist Patriotic Alliance for Change coalition at his campaign headquarters, saying the election showed that "the little people can also win."

"You are responsible for the happiness of the majority of the Paraguayan people today," he said as supporters chanted his name.

"This is the Paraguay I dream about, with many colors, many faces, the Paraguay of everyone," said Lugo, who was suspended from his religious order by the Vatican in late 2006 for his entry into politics.

His supporters began celebrating their anticipated victory setting off fireworks even before polls closed.

The Colorado Party has been in power for 61 years, including Stroessner's rule. Paraguay chose its first democratically elected president in 1993.

There is no runoff vote in Paraguay. Outgoing President Nicanor Duarte constitutionally could not seek re-election after serving a five-year term.

Turnout was a high 65 percent among Paraguay's 2.9 elegible voters, said Electoral Tribunal vice president Juan Manuel Morales, who announced the final results of the elections when 92 percent of precincts had reported.

Lugo's Patriotic Alliance for Change coalition earlier had feared fraud would mar Sunday's vote, but as 70 observers from the Organization of American States monitored ballot stations, electoral court chief Rafael Dendia said voting went smoothly.

Transparency International, an organization monitoring for voter fraud, reported some cases of corruption.

"We've seen voting cards being bought and money going around in some polling booths," one of the group's observers, Pilar Callizo, told Channel 4.

"We also saw Colorado Party teams inside and outside some polling stations creating an atmosphere of intimidation," she added.

Lugo's opponents have said he is in line with leftwing presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia.

But Lugo, while championing the rights of the poor, says he is more centrist as he seeks to overhaul a country with a per-capita income of just 1,900 dollars.

While Paraguay's formal economy relies on agriculture, corruption is pervasive.

Duarte made little headway in stamping out graft, which also sullied his own administration. Paraguay is a prime source of contraband electronics and cigarettes, most smuggled into neighboring Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia.

After election results were announced, Duarte vowed to help Lugo make a smooth and peaceful transition.

"Today we suffered an electoral defeat," Duarte told his Colorado Party, but added: "I want to stress that for the first time in Paraguay's political history, there will be a party-to-party transition without bloodshed, coup d'etat, without violence."

Officially, Lugo has not been dismissed from the Vatican's priesthood, merely suspended. Until the Catholic hierarchy formally expels Lugo from its ranks, we will persist in referring to him as "Bishop," rather than "ex-Bishop."

Occasionally, in high-profile cases, the popes will slap the wrist of an outspoken priest who subscribes to Marxist-inspired liberation theology. In 2007, for example, Benedict XVI chastised Jesuit priest Jon Sobrino, a Spaniard who has lived for many years in El Salvador, for teaching doctrine allegedly in contravention of the Catholic Magisterium. We have documented before, however, that Catholic social and economic teaching, which is based on Thomas Aquinas' concepts of a "common good" and a rejection of the involiable right of private property, can accommodate itself to the International Left's concept of "Third Way social marketism," or crypto-fascism, as well as, if necessary, various forms of totalitarianism such as, historically, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.

Some Catholic apologists hasten to distance "the Church" from any notion of "Christian socialism." However, writing in a 1997 issue of the Houston Catholic Worker Michael A. Dauphinais, Jr.: "In the same vein as the Social Encyclicals, the doctrine of the common good rejects both communism and unbridled capitalism. The former deprives the person of ownership of goods and the latter ignores theproper use of goods." This is another way of saying "social democracy," which even Mikhail Gorbachev has not hesitated to apply to his political activities since the fake demise of Soviet communism.