Paraguay: Protest Against Corruption, Debt, State Downsizing

Paraguay’s Guasu Front, unions, and social organizations joined the citizen call to protest against corruption and public sector reform that President Mario Abdo intends to carry out.

RELATED:

Paraguay: Rally Against Corruption in Medical Supply Purchases

"We will take to the streets to tell the government that the people do not tolerate more corruption and reject the state reform project, which is nothing but new shady dealings," the Guasu Front tweeted.

With a caravan of vehicles stretching the lanes of Asuncion's coastal avenue bordering the Paraguay river, the people expressed their discontent by waving their country's flag, singing the national anthem, and honking their vehicles' horns.

The massive protest showed that citizens were fed up with the acts of corruption carried out during the pandemic.

"Impressive caravan against the Mario Abdo's corrupt administration, the repressive State Attorney General Sandra Quiñonez, the ITAIPU hydroelectric-related debt, and the state reform carried out by the bandit Vice President Hugo Velazquez and the evil Finance Minister Benigno Lopez."

The political opposition has also denounced that the Finance Minister Benigno Lopez intends to contract a US$1.6 billion loan supposedly to use it in the fight against COVID-19.

Paraguayans also expressed their rejection of the secret act that Abdo signed with Brazil for the purchase of energy from the Itaipu Dam, an act that almost led to the departure of the Paraguayan president in 2019.

The June 22 protest was carried out on the eighth anniversary of the arbitrary impeachment trial whereby the far-right removed President Fernando Lugo (2008-2012) from power.

For the first time in Paraguay's history, this leftist politician formed a government without the Colorado Party, which supported Alfredo Stroessner's military dictatorship (1954-1989).