The 2008 census showed that 2% of Paraguay’s landowners held 80% of the land. President Lugo was pushing for land reform
Paraguay’s elected president received a writ to appear before its Congress to face impeachment. The summons contained no evidence to support the charges of “incompetence”, because, the paper said, everyone already knew the facts. President Fernando Lugo would have two hours to answer the charges the next day. Lugo’s defense request for 18 days to prepare as provided by law was denied, and Paraguay’s Congress ousted President Lugo and replaced him with Vice President Federico Franco, his vice-president from the right-wing Liberal party. Franco also got full support from the further-right Colorado party, the party of former dictator Gen. Alfredo Stroessner.
U.S. State Department representative Victoria Nuland said on Monday that Washington is “quite concerned about the speed of the process used for this impeachment in Paraguay.” (Washington won’t call the president's removal a coup). Paraguay’s South American neighbors however recalled their ambassadors. Latin America and Caribbean nations responded that a coup is a coup no matter how you dress it or serve it up. They care. Was Washington involved? Who cares? US supplies military and police aid to Paraguay. Americans have trouble finding where Paraguay is on the map to care what happened there. So why should the American government care about who else cares?
State Department officials continued to sound off about how much they remained committed to democratic procedures. Marx (Groucho, that is) once said:. “In America you can go on the air and kid the politicians, and the politicians can go on the air and kid the people.”
Paraguay’s elected president received a writ to appear before its Congress to face impeachment. The summons contained no evidence to support the charges of “incompetence”, because, the paper said, everyone already knew the facts. President Fernando Lugo would have two hours to answer the charges the next day. Lugo’s defense request for 18 days to prepare as provided by law was denied, and Paraguay’s Congress ousted President Lugo and replaced him with Vice President Federico Franco, his vice-president from the right-wing Liberal party. Franco also got full support from the further-right Colorado party, the party of former dictator Gen. Alfredo Stroessner.
U.S. State Department representative Victoria Nuland said on Monday that Washington is “quite concerned about the speed of the process used for this impeachment in Paraguay.” (Washington won’t call the president's removal a coup). Paraguay’s South American neighbors however recalled their ambassadors. Latin America and Caribbean nations responded that a coup is a coup no matter how you dress it or serve it up. They care. Was Washington involved? Who cares? US supplies military and police aid to Paraguay. Americans have trouble finding where Paraguay is on the map to care what happened there. So why should the American government care about who else cares?
State Department officials continued to sound off about how much they remained committed to democratic procedures. Marx (Groucho, that is) once said:. “In America you can go on the air and kid the politicians, and the politicians can go on the air and kid the people.”
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For more background info see:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/07/201278122117670811.html
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