MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Paraguayan president says he “does not want or wish” his re-election

Former bishop President Lugo denies any personal interest in the initiative

“I don’t want nor do I wish my re-election” said Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo on Thursday. However he did admit he favoured the review of some of the Constitution’s articles.

The review “has nothing to do with a personal interest of the president”, he insisted during a meeting with reporters in Asunción, Paraguay’s capital.

“I’m not after my re-election. Maybe it’s in the minds of many people. But if you recall voters expressed their disagreement with this initiative back in April 2006”, he added.

But Lugo insisted that some modifications will have to be introduced since the current parameters are quite different from those of 1992, when “we Paraguayans adopted the current constitution”.

The statement from President Lugo is considered important given the rash in South America and Central America of constitutional modifications to open the way for a consecutive presidential mandate or two consecutive periods as Colombia seems to be heading or even indefinitely such as in Venezuela.

Conservative political forces in Paraguay had been warning about a strong movement in the catch-all coalition that took Lugo to office to have him re-elected for another four year mandate.

The issue has become even more controversial since the Honduras crisis is allegedly linked to ousted president Manuel Zelaya’s frustrated attempts to have the constitution reformed with that purpose.

A majority of the countries which have lately been able to open the immediate re-election option are close associates of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez or belong to his brain-child ALBA, --Bolivarian Alternative for Latinamerica and the Caribbean--, which includes Venezuela, Cuba, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Dominica, Zelaya’s Honduras, Paraguay and a list of Caribbean islands short in oil.

Paraguayan conservative forces allege the initiative could imply a “rupture syndrome” for the still fragile institutions of the country and the major change that the access to office of the former bishop has had after six decades of hegemonic dominance by a political party closed linked to the Army, government bureaucracy and landowners.