MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Protests expected in Asunción after opposition Senator is dismissed

Kattya González was removed from Paraguay's Upper House for alleged influence peddling (pic ABC)

Paraguayan opposition Senator Kattya González of the National Encounter Party (PEN) was expelled from the Upper House Wednesday after 23 of her fellow lawmakers who responded to former President Horacio Cartes so voted, it was reported in Asunción.

Senator Dionisio Amarilla pointed out that González permanently claimed that the public forces do not guarantee security in the streets and that she took advantage in her office “and did it in a very peculiar way” forcing the non-commissioned officer Cesar Augusto Portillo to be a member of her party.

“Compelling facts, irrefutable evidence, notorious and public, that we would have liked to hear Senator Kattya González refute one by one. I would have probably accompanied her, if she acknowledged it, in a lesser sanction, but the crime led her to make the decision not to come and give her version” of the events, argued Amarilla.

At the end of the session, senators voted for the loss of Kattya Gonzalez's investiture for alleged influence peddling with 23 votes in favor, 7 abstentions, and 15 absent. Therefore, the resolution by which Kattya González lost her investiture was approved.

Following this decision, a protest is to be staged before the National Congress building on Thursday. The Citizen Indignation Network (Red de Indignación Ciudadana) has urged the population to take to the streets their anger over what they believe is pure corruption and Colorado authoritarianism by the Cartista bloc and allies.

Indignación Spokesman José Luis Rodríguez stressed that other citizen groups such as Opama would be joining this mass mobilization because González's dismissal took everyone by surprise. “That indignation has to be transferred to the streets, it cannot remain only in the networks”, he stressed.

The Citizen Indignation Network started after a massive protest against nepotism scandals in Congress and other reasons for indignation ensued.