MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chilavert launches bid for president of Paraguay

If he wins, “the economy will migrate towards digital,” Chilavert explained

Former Paraguay national team captain José Luis Chilavert Thursday launched his presidential bid on behalf of the Youth Party, a movement created a few years ago.

The now-retired goalkeeper, who played the most significant years of his club career at Argentina's Vélez Sarsfield and San Lorenzo, argued that he felt “the responsibility of building a better Paraguay.”

“We are aware that there will be difficulties, but we also know that in a presidential period we can leave a mark, a footprint from our hearts for the new history of our beloved Paraguay,” he added. His campaign motto will be “Proud to be Paraguayan.”

The former footballer explained that if he wins, “the economy will migrate towards digital”, and there will be a “strengthening of education as a pillar of the integral development of Paraguay, the defense of human rights, the welfare and security of all Paraguayans, and economic and labor development.”

“It is time for a change; we are the generation that will promote it. We are committed to the young people who are following in our footsteps and to the future ones to come,” Chilavert stressed.

“It is urgent to assume the commitment to build a better Paraguay among all of us, vindicating the value of the word, so many times violated by unfulfilled promises. It is our duty to back up with deeds the commitments made and fulfill the objectives set,” he added.

Chilavert was last month handed down a one-year suspended prison sentence for acts of defamation against South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) President Alejandro Domínguez, whom he has repeatedly accused of being “corrupt.”

Chilavert's political stance is aligned with that of Argentine Congressman Javier Milei, who not so long ago looked unstoppable on his way to Casa Rosada, but whose popularity has gone up in smoke after speaking in favor of trading human organs. Chilavert and Milei have held various dinner meetings and posted on social media pictures of those encounters during which they discussed ”the pandemic [and] the need to generate credibility so that investors can come to our countries; in short, people must be taught to work,” in Chilavert's own words.