MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Peña is Cartes' puppet, Paraguayan Presidential hopeful Alegre argues

Alegre insisted: “We cannot allow illegality to be normalized.”

Paraguay's leftwing Concertación's presidential hopeful Efraín Alegre stressed this weekend that “a person who is not willing to submit to a debate before the public opinion cannot aspire to be President.” He made those remarks after candidate Santiago Peña of the ANR refused to discuss with him how he planned to rule the country if elected on April 30.

“In fact that he does not have a proposal. If you look at this whole process, Peña has not presented a single idea, a single proposal. He just keeps making excuses. He says that it is not possible, that they don't like it, instead of worrying about making a concrete proposal. We talk about energy, we talk about health, we talk about employment, we talk about security, which are all central issues,” Alegre argued.

“It seems to me that the best time to go deeper into these issues is in a debate. It seems to me to be in very bad taste to run away,” the person Fitch sees as the one to bring the Colorado (ANR) rule to an end explained. “The President of the Republic must, first of all, be courageous,” Alegre insisted.

Asked after Peña's proposal that other candidates be added to the debate, Alegre replied that “in short, he does not dare to debate hand in hand with Efraín Alegre; he is afraid of Efraín Alegre,” he stressed. “Peña has no political experience, even less: he has no political leadership,” he added while noting that Peña reported to former President Horacio Cartés, the true leader of the ruling party's project in a country where reelection is not permitted.

“On April 30 one of two models will be chosen, continuism or change. Continuity is Cartes and his accountant Santiago Peña. Continuity represents uncertainty, the danger of having a country more isolated by the international community because it cannot get rid of its mafia elements embedded in our institutions. Paraguay has already been punished and sanctioned by the United States and here we are not able to shake ourselves and put an end to this model of illegality, of money laundering, of the mafia. That is why it is very important that those who are going to vote on April 30 are aware.”

Alegre insisted: “We cannot allow illegality to be normalized.”

Read also: Fitch foresees end of Colorado rule in Paraguay

(Source: ABC)