MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Paraguay, “a devastated country”, says elected president

Elected President Lugo will takes offices next Friday

Paraguay's elected president former bishop Fernando Lugo said he receives a “devastated country with no institutions”, and claimed there is a plan to destabilize his administration which takes office next August 15.

Deep engrained corruption, the need to change the energy policy and the alleged conspiracy were identified by Mr. Lugo as his three main immediate challenges. Mr. Lugo supported by a wide ranging coalition managed to defeat last April the hegemony of the Partido Colorado which has ruled the landlocked, second poorest country in South America for over six decades. "We have indications that people who have been in power for too long don't wish to respect the change voted by Paraguayans last April and are planning to destabilize creating an atmosphere of protests and possibly sabotage actions", said Lugo adding that fuel provision and hospital supplies "are considerably delayed". "Frontal combat of corruption" will be one of the priorities of incoming president Lugo administration, which he describes as "a cancer corroding the Paraguayan society". According to Transparency International Paraguay has one of the highest indexes of corruption in South America. "The country is devastated and so are institutions so our first task will be to impose the normal functioning of institutions of the republic. We are going to demand transparency from all government offices, ministries, presidency and a great monitoring effort from common citizens", underlined Lugo. As to employment, one of the country's main deficits which has seen hundreds of thousands migrate to neighboring countries (Argentina, Brazil) and United States, Lugo said he will undertake an ambitious infrastructure public works program. "We are in need of 1.500 bridges, new ones and in need of repairs", said Lugo. The incoming president also anticipated he would press for a "fair price" for energy from the two huge hydroelectric dams Paraguay shares with its powerful neighbors, Brazil and Argentina. The two dams, Itaipu and Yacireta, dating back to the seventies and which make Paraguay the only country in the region with surplus energy, have fixed prices for electricity generated, based on the original contracts. "We are determined to exhaust all dialogue efforts in our struggle for a fair price, for a more appropriate compensation. And if this does not work, we will take the issue to Mercosur, where the energy integration issue is always on the table", insisted Lugo. Mr. Lugo is supported by the Patriotic Alliance for Change, a rainbow of parties and grass root movements which helped him obtain 40.8% of the vote last April. The six main issues of his promised electoral program include: land distribution; economic reactivation; recovering institutional functioning; independent judicial branch; social emergency plan and recovery of sovereignty.