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in Paraguay, just before Bishop Lugo was elected, that favored the Leftist movement toward integration, cooperation and social justice--for instance, Paraguay joining the Bank of the South (--didn't realize that Paraguay's rightwing government had helped found it), and other items, like ending their non-extradition law (which had made Paraguay into a notorious haven for war criminals from other countries) and ending legal immunity for U.S. military personnel. I figured these were just pragmatic business decisions--conditions for trade agreements in a region that was fast moving Left--but seeing Duarte there among the founders of the Bank of the South, indeed, among the MOST revolutionary Leftist leaders of the continent, I'm thinking that there might have been something a bit more visionary going on, among some rightwing leaders in Paraguay, than mere business pragmatism (i.e., Paraguay small, poor, with few products to export, better "get with the program" on trade agreements, development money, etc.).
I hope this is true because Bishop Lugo, like Chavez, has serious cancer, and is even more of a pivotal figure than Chavez is, for pulling the fractious Left together for electoral victories. I think that the leftist democracy revolution would have occurred in Venezuela without Chavez. It was that well-organized "from the bottom" (social movements, grass roots groups, labor leaders--as in Bolivia), but Paraguay absolutely needed the charismatic Bishop Lugo--according to analysis that I've read--to pull together Paraguay's extremely fractious leftist parties--which hadn't won a victory EVER, in Paraguay, not even in coalition to get a centrist candidate elected (Paraguay ruled by one rightwing party for 60 years including a far right bloody dictator). So, if/when Bishop Lugo dies, what is going to happen?
Paraguay's Left even yet does not have a solid foundation for further progress--for instance, a reform constitution (as in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador). It is dominated by rich landowners and has one of the worst rich/poor discrepancies in the world, with bad, poisonous soy production its only economic anchor besides hydroelectric power--thus is dependent on the exploitation and sickening of very poor farm laborers. (It's possible that Lugo got cancer from where he lived--among the poor farm workers who were getting sprayed.) How is this situation going to improve, if the right takes over again?
On the positive side, Paraguay is surrounded by Leftist-run countries, on every border, including, now, Peru; has received significant help from Brazil's Leftist/Labor government and, of course, had the smarts to move toward Leftist integration even before Lugo was elected. I hope that leaders on the right like Duarte have the depth and vision to correct these wrongs and to move toward better wealth distribution, and/or to NOT blockade Leftist reform and the emergence of new leaders, as they have done in the past with coup d'etats and the exercise of untoward , entrenched, corrupt power. I believe that the rightwing wealthy minority still controls everything in Paraguay except the presidency--i.e., the courts, the legislature, the bureaucracy, the police, the military, all the land. And I don't know that much--or any--progress has been made in land reform, education and poverty reduction. Paraguay is a small, landlocked island of medievalism in a region of roaring progress and change for the better. What will become of it, if Lugo succumbs to cancer?
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