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The Seeds Keep Falling in Paraguay

10:17 am By la Macha · children|Paraguay|Politics|Women · 1 Comment

28 Apr 2009

The bad news for Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo just keeps coming. After news that at least two women were claiming Lugo fathered children with them, the latest gossip leaking out is that there is a third woman about ready to do the same and more may be on the way:

Newspapers and TV programmes have been dominated by stories of women coming forward to claim they had a child with the former Catholic bishop.

This “political soap opera”, complained one of these reports, is “paralysing the government”.

Three women have made allegations so far and there were reports in the Paraguay media that there may be more claims to come.

It has been a testing time for a man who was elected proclaiming the virtues of honesty and ending corruption.

One of the women has alleged she was 16 when the relationship began – making her under the legal age of consent of 17 – and a public prosecutor is now considering the implications of that claim.

Another said she turned to Mr Lugo as a bishop for help when she had been abandoned with a new born child, but he abused his position in the Church to exploit their relationship, and a year later she was carrying his child.

You know, although I’ve made several jokes about this whole mess, reading about the experiences of the women Lugo was with is actually quite disturbing to me. Women believed him, they loved him, they opened not just their hearts to him, but their bodies. Which says that this man is a skillful manipulator–nothing new for a politician–but maybe something we need to stop excusing when it comes to women?

I don’t really care if Lugo wants to have sex and impregnate every woman in Paraguay–but is it really ok for him to be using his position of power to better manipulate women into doing what he wants? Is it ok to leave women to deal with the stigma and economic difficulties of being a single mami?

When do men ever have to accept responsibility for *their* actions?

Love children popping up all over Paraguay

20 Apr 2009

VivirLatino told you a while back about the hypocrite of the week, Paraguayan president, Fernando Lugo, fathering a child while he was a bishop.

Well, turns out that Lugo has probably been “hypocriting” his…er…seed all over Paraguay:

Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo has received a second demand to recognise the paternity of a child.

President Lugo, who is a former bishop, shocked the country last week when he acknowledged a two-year-old boy as his son.

The Pope released him from his vows of chastity only last July, two years after he renounced the priesthood.

The 27-year-old woman making the latest demand says her six-year-old is the son of Mr Lugo.

In a press conference, the woman said her relationship with the then Bishop Lugo had begun in 2001, when she had gone to him for help with trying to contact the father of her first child.

Why does it seem that sexually promiscuity (even in the face of vows to God) are a prerequisite for elected service?

Hypocrite Alert: Paraguayan President Admits to Fathering Child While Bishop

13 Apr 2009

Why is that those who preach chastity and abstinance and purity are the ones who are least likely to practice it – even when their profession supposedly requires it? Take the case of none other than Fernando Lugo, President of Paraguay, who

…has publicly recognized the paternity of a child of nearly 2 years, after last Wednesday he was presented with a paternity suit. The child was conceived when Lugo was still a bishop, though he left the order in December 2006 to pursue the presidency, which he won last year.

“It is true that there was a relationship with Viviana Carrillo (mother of the child)”, said Lugo, recognizing the paternity of the child in a message to citizens in which he assured them that he “assumes all responsibilities that could come from that fact.”

26 year-old Carrillo “categorically denies” having filed the suit, even though she allegedly signed the document. Paraguay’s La Nación newspaper reports today that Carrillo’s family has left the town where they leave because of death threats.

The video above shows his confession at around 4:30. Why is this dude still wearing a priest outfit when he’s no longer a priest? What a hypocrite.

Via / 20 Minutos

The “Soybean Wars” is Highlighted on Speaking Tour

5:02 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Paraguay · Comments Off

23 Sep 2008

soybean%20wars.jpg Just read on the Rainforest Action Network blog that they are sponsering a U.S. speaking tour featuring Leticia Galeano, a campesina youth leader from Paraguay. According to RAN:

Leticia Galeano is an inspiring youth leader from the Movimiento Agrario y Popular (a peasant organization in the department of Caaguazú) and student at the Universidad Catolica in Asuncion, Paraguay. Leticia will speak about militarization in Paraguay, and about the role of U.S. agribusiness giants like ADM, Bunge and Cargill in fueling the soybean wars.

Her community, Tekojoja, is an example of organized resistance to agribusiness exploitation. In 2005, the police violently and illegally displaced families from the community, resulting in the deaths of two individuals. There is now an attempt to bring this case before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

The tour kicks off Tuesday evening, September 23 at Loyola University in Chicago. They will also visit Minneapolis, Washington D.C., New York City, Burlington and Philadelphia, among others. If you go to one of the lectures, drop us a line and let us know how it goes!

Also, for more information on what the Soybean Wars were, see here.

via/RAN

Meet Your New President, Paraguay : Former Bishop Lugo

9:14 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Paraguay|Politics · Comments Off

21 Apr 2008

Way back last summer, we asked our readers if the next president of Paraguay would be lefty former Bishop Fernando Lugo. Turns out the answer is yes! Yesterday Paraguay held it’s presidential elections and it looks like the Bishop of the Poor won, changing a pattern of 60 years of presidents from the Colorado party.

“The humble citizens are the ones responsible for this change,” Lugo said at a downtown news conference as his lead grew. “Paraguayans have taken a great step toward civic maturity. . . . We have opened a new page in this nation’s political history.”

Once the election results have been verified, Lugo’s 5 year presidential term begins on August 15th.

Via / LA Times

Paraguyan Newspaper Wins Dubious Honor for Racism

2:40 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Newspapers|Paraguay|race · Comments Off

4 Apr 2008

Paraguay’s newspaper La Nacion rightfully has won for publishing the most racist article of the year.The (dis)honor was given by Survival for an editorial which compared Paraguayan Indians to a ‘dangerous cancer’ and described them as ‘filthy’. From the actual article published in September of last year:

A Neolithic, Indian camp right in the city centre is unthinkable, but there it is, like a dangerous cancer, spreading bad smells, destruction and contamination. The city’s being punished, for no reason, and it shouldn’t have to pay for it. The Indians have to learn to live like people, or get back to the jungle.

Yellow Fever Strikes the Capital of Paraguay

8:59 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Health|Paraguay · Comments Off

28 Feb 2008

For the first time in 60 years, yellow fever, a mosquito born illness, has hit an urban Latin American city. There are nine confirmed cases in the suburbs of Paraguay’s capital, Asuncion. The death toll from the illness, that spreads quickly, is somewhere between three and eight, depending on the source. Residents are being urged to get vaccinated. I’m not a pro-vaccine person but the symptoms of yellow fever are nasty enough to warrant some prevention. Symptoms can include fevers, vomiting, jaundice and bleeding from the mouth, nose, eyes and stomach.

Via / CNN

Trafficking of Women in Paraguay

10:59 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Paraguay|Women · Comments Off

9 Jan 2008

800px-Flag_of_Paraguay.svg.png The border of Paraguay allows for the sale of illegal and counterfeit products including women.

Ciudad del Este’s surrounding Tri Border Area–where Paraguay meets Brazil and Argentina–has over the past five years attracted notoriety as a major hub in international people-trafficking.

Many of the women exploited start out as seeking work as domestics and end up virtual sex slaves or drug mules. Over a third of the population earns less than $1 a day and the possibility of work means the possibility of sending money back home.

Eighty-five percent of trafficking in Paraguay is for sexual exploitation, the International Organization of Migration estimates.

The average age of the girls/women is between 10- 20 years old. Activists in the area trying to break the cycle by teaching the women skills, such as hairstyling, in order to earn a living have faced death threats.

Via / Women’s enews

Image Via / Wikipedia

What Is the U.S. Doing in Paraguay?

8:51 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Paraguay|Politics · Comments Off

31 Aug 2007

While the former dictator of Paraguay may have gone to that military academy in the sky, something fishy is going on in the South American nation that lends just a little bit of legitimacy to Hugo Chavez‘s claims that the U.S. is digging its imperialist claws into Latin America.

In May of 2005, the Paraguayan Senate voted to allow U.S. troops to operate in Paraguay with total immunity. Washington had threatened to cut off millions in aid to the country if Paraguay did not grant the U.S. troops entry. In July of 2005 hundreds of U.S. soldiers arrived in the country, and Washington’s funding for counterterrorism efforts in Paraguay doubled. The U.S. troops conducted various operations and joint training exercises with Paraguayan forces, including so-called Medical Readiness Training Exercises (MEDRETEs). Orlando Castillo, a military policy expert at the human rights rights organization Servicio, Paz y Justicia in Asunción, Paraguay, says the MEDRETEs were “observation” operations aimed at developing “a type of map that identifies not just the natural resources in the area, but also the social organizations and leaders of different communities.”

Will Paraguay’s Next President be a Bishop?

8:32 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Paraguay|Politics · Comments Off

16 Jul 2007

Would you vote for a Catholic Bishop to be your nation’s next president? The citizenry of Paraguay may very well have that option. Enter the “Bishop of the Poor”, Fernando Lugo. He resigned as bishop last year, but the Vatican has refused to accept his resignation, saying being a bishop is a lifelong thing and they are not too happy with Lugo deciding to run for his nation’s top seat. Clergy are forbidden from seeking political office and Lugo could actually be excommunicated if he continues his campaign. Many people in Paraguay aren’t happy either, seeing Lugo as attempting to break 60 years of unbroken rule by President Nicanor Duarte’s Colorado Party.

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