It's the time of the year the southern South American country decides whether to keep the ruling National Republican Association--Colorado Party (ANR-PC) in power or to kick it out. Mario Abdo Benítez won the election in 2018; his controversy regards his relationship with the 35-year-long dictatorship of El Stronato (named after right-wing general Alfredo Stroessner). Such rule observed rights violations (I will write on this in a future post) in Paraguay and the embrace of Nazi personalities such as the "Angel of Death", Josef Mengele; Abdo Benítez' father served as Stroessner's private secretary, and the now-president praised this period for "progress".
Courting dictators remained during his tenure; an infamous figure welcomed in Paraguay was Syria's Bashar al-Assad in July 2022, who met the president's party-mate, Senate president Oscar Rubén Salomón Fernández.
Public disapproval towards Abdo Benítez rocketed to 69.3% in August 2019 for his mismanagement of the country's issues such as economics, policies with Paraguay's neighbours, and the insurgency that runs since 2005, and by February 2023, the approval rating stood at 12%, the lowest among Latin American leaders at that time. Multiple terms is prohibited by constitution, but even if it were abolished, it would be unwise for ANR-PC to make the incumbent president run again. Finance minister Santiago Peña became its presidential bet, and his main challenger is former senator Efraín Alegre of the opposition Authentic Radical Liberal Party (PLRA), which is under the banner of the coalition Concertación para un Nuevo Paraguay.
For the reason of Abdo Benítez' policies, background, and enabling of murderers, I wished a win for Concertación and Alegre, to put an end to the failures and injustices of the ANR-PC, which was also Stroessner's party. But the following news shocked me:
Paraguay is one of the countries in the dwindling list of the Republic of China (ROC)'s official friends, and Peña is determined to keep that relationship (ROC claims to practise democracy, but it does not care when it gets autocratic pals like Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega (who later switched to PR China), Guatemala's Alejandro Giammattei, and Abdo Benítez). Alegre then put the relationship into question, seeing false "opportunities" from PRC that can [purportedly] elevate Paraguayan economy and quality of life; regarding maintaining relations with ROC, "we think there's no justice in this relation", the opposition candidate opined. In turn, worried ROC officials asked Alegre for clarifications or reversal of stance, as they found this unwelcoming.
Anti-government demonstrators in Beijing on 27 November 2022, holding blank sheets of paper as protest for freedom of speech. Photo by Thomas Peter/ Reuters,via CBC.
Opportunities, economy, key words that show the interests of Alegre. When the government of Xiomara Castro, wife of notorious Honduran leftist ex-president Manuel Zelaya, severed ties with the ROC to switch to the PRC, the allegation raised by the Asian superpower's critics was "it was about the money", and in Alegre's case, he admitted it. Someone influential needs to remind the opposition about PRC's crimes against humanity, like the genocides in East Turkestan (read more) and Tibet (read more), the attack on Inner Mongolian identity, and the crackdown against dissent especially in Xianggang (Hong Kong) and late last year, when the Zero-COVID policy aggravated into popular dissent after the deaths of Uyghurs locked inside a burning apartment in Urumchi in November 2022, plus how PRC is plundering African countries and helped subject Sri Lanka to default (read more).
The Concertación candidate not only disrespects the victims of the PRC regime; he gave this opinion at a very wrong time, amidst a cold war between it plus Vladimir Putin's Russia and the West, amidst the imperiled status of ROC, as PRC's campaign to take ROC-held Taiwan is imminent. While the West pours efforts to save the ROC and the status quo albeit keeping informal relations therewith, Alegre is planning to provide PRC (and its crimes) validity. If Alegre were to insist his ROC-critical stance, he would be no different from the demagogues of ANR-PC: he will be destroying Paraguay's reputation by letting the world see it as a country promoting injustice, because Paraguayan masses would elect him.
Xiomara Castro once backtracked from the prospect of cutting ties with ROC, although, as a politician, she eventually broke her promise. I hoped for an Alegre win, I oppose a Peña win, but this will be his last chance to redeem himself, if the opposition become victorious, he must backtrack and ignore the illusions of PRC. Lest he'll put not only Paraguay but the Americas region in danger. Roles like presidency and premiership require awareness in geopolitics and respect for human dignity.
Article posted on 26 April 2023, 23:08 (UTC +08:00).
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