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News > Paraguay

Paraguay's Foreign Minister Quits Over Dubious Energy Agreement

  • Castiglioni said that

    Castiglioni said that "they believe that all this will be resolved during this week." | Photo: Itaipu

Published 29 July 2019
Opinion

The resignation of the Minister and other officials came about as they prepared to go to parliament to explain the scope of the agreement with Brazil.

Paraguay's Foreign Minister, Luis Alberto Castiglioni,  resigned Monday amid a crisis related to an agreement signed in May with Brazil that would force Paraguayans to purchase electricity from the Itaipu hydroelectric power plant at a higher price than the current one.

A day earlier, Castiglioni announced that the Government will request that Brazil suspend the energy agreement between the two nations, on the Itaipu binational hydroelectric power plant.

"For ethics and political responsibility, I have placed my position at the disposal of President Mario Abdo. I regret that a misrepresentation has led to this state of tension. Everything acted upon was transparent and for the benefit of the country," Castiglioni announced on his Twitter account.

The document that was initially signed last May generated discord and discomfort in Congress, which urged the Paraguayan Government to present information on everything related to the energy contract.

The Paraguayan president, Mario Abdo Benítez, accepted the resignations presented by Foreign Minister Castiglioni, the Paraguayan Ambassador to Brazil, Hugo Saguier Caballero, the President of the National Electricity Administration (ANDE), Alcides Jiménez and the General Director of the Binational Itaipu, José Alberto Alderete. 

During a press conference held in Mburuvicha Róga, the Presidential legislative technical advisor, Hernán Huttemann, informed that the head of state accepted the resignations of the four authorities presented this morning and announced that during the week they will be announced the names of those who will occupy the aforementioned positions.

"Now the president has to name the people who are going to replace those who have left and this week it will be done," he said.

Huttemann said that the former-authorities will no longer attend the extraordinary session convened for this afternoon by the Senate, explaining that they have already resigned their respective positions. "The call is specific and is related to the charges and these charges currently have no holders," he explained.

"We have decided to ask Brazil for the call of the top parties in the course of this week that begins, where we will request to cancel the bilateral act (...) so that it returns to eminently technical instances," said the foreign minister yesterday Sunday.

Castiglioni stressed that the press conference on Sunday was for the tranquility of the population, since for this Monday certain activities and demonstrations against this agreement would take place.

The Itaipu Treaty is an agreement signed in 1973 between the Government of Brazil and that of Paraguay on the Itaipu hydroelectric dam, also known as the largest energy producer in the world. 

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