‘Parliamentary’ coup d’etat in Paraguay

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On June 22, the Paraguayan Senate re­ moved centre-left President Fernando Lugo, following a procedure of “politi­ cal judgment of destitution”: a parlia­ mentary manoeuvre that is admittedly provided for by the Constitution, but whose expeditious nature (done within 24 hours!) has been widely denounced by Paraguayan social organizations and by several governments of neighbour­ ing countries. Evo Morales (Bolivia) denounced what he considered to be a “parliamentary coup.”

Lugo, known as “the bishop of the poor,” [he was a former Catholic bishop] who was elected in 2008 with the support of the popular classes against the candidate of the oligarchy, accepted the reality of this destitution, while denouncing an il­ legitimate act which “damages Paraguay and its democracy.” The Right has thus sought—and been able—to use to its advantage a bloody confrontation in the Northeast of the country, which recently led to the death of 17 people [11 land­ less peasants and six police officers who had been trying to evict them], dramatic events which could, according to several sources, be the result of police provoca­ tion.

Three years after the coup in Honduras, the ruling classes are once again trying to keep the initiative and especially to stop social and peasant struggles: the key to this country remains the control of land, in a situation where 80 per cent of the land belongs to 2 per cent of the population, as well as to powerful trans­ national agribusinesses such as Cargill and Monsanto. The Paraguayan people is thus suffering the disastrous ecologi­ cal, political, and social consequences of a narrowly-based economy: exports of soya beans (often transgenic) represent 40 per cent of national exports and are worth more than $ 2 billion.

The Lugo government was, from the beginning of its term of office, marked by weakness and beset by many difficulties. His election victory undoubtedly marked a political turning point and represented a broad aspiration for social and demo­ cratic transformation, ending 60 years of hegemony of the Colorado Party, the corrupt and reactionary pillar of the dic­ tatorship of general Stroessner (19541989).

However, without a powerful politi­ cal party to support him, without an organized social base and very much in a minority in Parliament, Lugo chose to negotiate with the liberal elites and with defectors from the Right in order to gov­ ern. Today, following this destitution, it is precisely his former Vice-President, Federico Franco, member of the Authen­ tic Radical Liberal Party (a conserva­ tive formation), who takes over the Ex­ ecutive, for the greater happiness of the traditional oligarchy and transnational capital.

In the end, Lugo opted more for the in­ fight concessions (Above) Deposed Pres. Fernando Lugo.

stitutional set-up and for parliamentary negotiations, abandoning little by little an ambitious programme of reforms, rather than relying on a social move­ ment, admittedly still very weak and fragmented, but with a huge potential of organization from below. This is a major lesson for the progressive governments of the region, at a moment when in Bo­ livia tensions are building up, with – very recently - police mutinies that some left activists feared could turn into a coup.

While strongly condemning the “legal” coup and any repression of social strug­ gles, it is urgent to mobilize in a unitary way to denounce the situation in Para­ guay and the existence of a de facto gov­ ernment.

We also call for support for the ongoing peasant mobilizations for a radical land reform, the only way to begin to really democratize Paraguayan society. n From International Viewpoint. Franck Gaudichaud is a lecturer at the University of Grenoble-3 and a member of the New Anticapitalist Party in France. He is copresident of the association France Latin America and is on the editorial commit­ tee of the site www.rebelion.org, and in the review ContreTemps (contact: franck. [email protected]).