MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Paraguay's Lugo promises to end corruption and misery

Former bishop Fernando Lugo was inaugurated Friday as Paraguay's president, ending six decades of one-party rule. Tens of thousands of Paraguayans cheered as the tie less, sandal-clad Lugo raised his hand in the air and was sworn in, addressing the crowd in both Spanish and the Guarani indigenous language from a huge stage in front of Congress.

Lugo pledged to do away with the misery and corruption that has defined the land locked second poorest nation of South America, which under the Colorado party was ruled as what political scientists define as a "kleptocracy". "Today Paraguay breaks with its reputation for corruption, breaks with the few feudal lords of the past" said the 57-year-old Lugo at the ceremony attended by eight Latin American leaders, the heir of the Spanish Crown, Taiwan's president and delegations from over ninety countries. Transforming Paraguayan society "won't be easy, but it's not impossible," Lugo said who appealed to the patience of his fellow countrymen. As many members of the Catholic church which in the seventies and eighties during the era of military regimes was split, he is known to have flirted with the Liberation Theology instead of supporting the conservative wing. The conservative Colorado Party still dominates most government institutions and holds a decisive majority in Congress which will force President Lugo to negotiate with different groups if he is to be successful with his ambitious agenda of land reform in a country where entrenched corruption has ensured that one per cent of the population controls 77% of the land. Landless peasants who have been seizing private property are threatening a much larger wave of invasions as early as this weekend. Members of his Lugo's team also suspect the outgoing government tried to undermine his presidency before it began by allowing critical supplies of fuel and medicine to disappear. On Thursday night, 5,000 supporters cheered Lugo when he told them he left the church and entered politics "so Paraguay can stop being known to the world as the country of drug trafficking, corruption and illegality" "I didn't come to steal or get rich," he told the crowd at an outdoor sports complex to thundering applause. Before leaving his house in a blue collar neighborhood on Friday to go to the inauguration, Lugo told reporters he would donate his entire 6,000 US dollars salary to the poor "because I don't need it to live modestly". He also promised that the half a million US dollars which the Paraguayan presidency has available for contingencies "will be managed with absolute transparency". Lugo spent 11 years as a bishop ministering to poor peasants in Paraguay's farm belt before helping form the catch all Patriotic Alliance for Change, his coalition, several years ago. The presidency is his first elected post. His coalition won the election last April with 40% of the vote. He promises to try to improve job opportunities for the poor and middle class to lure back home nearly 100,000 Paraguayans who have left to find jobs in the United States and Spain. In his favor is a tremendous desire among Paraguayans for a more just and equal society, and his own reputation, formed through decades of work with poor parishioners, as an honest man. A public opinion poll published on Thursday showed 76% of Paraguayans are hopeful that the country's situation will improve with the new government. "The indigenous and the poor will be the privileged of my government" he told his supporters Thursday. "I pay homage to those tortured years ago, to those persecuted and those who suffered unjustly in prison". Paraguay has a population of six million, of which over 40% live in poverty and 20% are indigent according to the UN Economic Commission for Latinamerica. President Lugo was handed the presidential sash and took the oath from the president of Congress Enrique Gonzalez Quintana, who an hour before received the country's symbols from outgoing president Nicanor Duarte. The outgoing president whom his colleagues are calling the "field marshal of defeat" chose to hand over power to the president of Congress overwhelmed by criticism for having ended the more than six decades of Colorado Party hegemony. On Saturday President Lugo is scheduled to travel to the north of Paraguay to his former parish one of the poorest of the country to address his followers, mostly indigenous population and peasants. He will be accompanied by the presidents from Bolivia, Evo Morales, Ecuador Rafael Correa and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.