Paraguay fears dictatorship as president moves to amend constitution

[Judi Lynn]

Paraguay fears dictatorship as president moves to amend constitution
After months of behind-the-scenes preparations, a senator steamrolled through the changes that could allow Horacio Cartes to be re-elected in 2018

Laurence Blair in Asunción
Thursday 30 March 2017 05.30 EDT

After months of behind-the-scenes preparations, Paraguay’s president, Horacio Cartes, has moved to amend the constitution to allow him to be re-elected in 2018, prompting warnings that the country where Alfredo Stroessner ruled for more than 30 years is once again sliding towards dictatorship.

Members of the governing rightwing Colorado party – which has held power for all but four of the past 70 years – joined with several opposition legislators to propose changes to the senate’s procedural rules, a precursor to introducing a re-election bill after a similar attempt was narrowly defeated in August.

“Paraguayans have to go out on to the streets to defend democracy, which is under attack,” Rafael Filizzola, a senator with the leftwing Democratic Progressive Party, told reporters.

On Tuesday, riot police and elite troops sealed off the small South American country’s congress. Inside, legislators traded punches and fierce insults, and – after the speaker of the house delayed a vote until Thursday – a pro-Cartes senator seized a microphone, proclaimed himself senate president, and steam-rolled through the changes with a show of hands. A vote on re-election itself is expected to be passed in the coming days.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/30/paraguay-reelection-amend-constitution-horacio-cartes

[Judi Lynn]

1. For anyone who doesn't recall the right-wing dictator Stroessner's genocidal history:

Aché Sue Paraguay’s Government over Historic Genocide
by Survival International / July 3rd, 2014

The survivors of a South American tribe which was decimated during the 1950s and 60s are taking Paraguay’s government to court over the genocide they suffered.

The case of the hunter-gatherer Aché tribe, who roamed the hilly forests of eastern Paraguay until being brutally forced out, became notorious in the 1970s.

As the agricultural expansion into eastern Paraguay gathered pace from the 1950s, the Aché found themselves forced to defend their land from an ever-increasing colonist population. These colonists soon started to mount raiding parties to kill the male Aché: women and children were usually captured and sold as slaves.

One of the most notorious hunters of the Aché was Manuel Jesús Pereira, a local landowner. He was an employee of Paraguay’s Native Affairs Department, and his farm was turned into an Aché “reservation”, to which captured Aché were transported. Beatings and rape were common. Countless others died of respiratory diseases. The Director of the Native Affairs Department was a frequent visitor, and also sold Aché slaves himself.

More:
http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/07/ache-sue-paraguays-government-over-historic-genocide/

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As the original article mentions, the Colorado Party, the fascists, has been in charge for the last 70 years, with the brief 4 year intermission during which former Bishop Fernando Lugo was elected, then targeted in a congressional coup and removed so the fascists could return to power.

The Colorado Party, with its 35 year reign by fascist Alfredo Stroessner, which was A-OK with the U.S., also gave haven to German WWII Nazi murderer and torturer, the "Angel of Death" of Auschwitz, Dr. Josef Mengele and other Nazi war criminals.

Couldn't get much nastier.

[Doreen]

2. Kind of sounds familier.

You know, changing the constitution or twisting it around for good of just a few.