Paraguay's rightward spiral [View all]

[ocpagu]

Ten months after the 2012 parliamentary coup that overthrew Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo, the South American nation has elected a new leader: Horacio Cartes of the Colorado Party.

Prior to the election of Lugo in 2008, the party ruled the country for 61 consecutive years. At its helm for 35 of these was dictator Alfredo Stroessner.

Cartes' claims to fame includes an appearance in a 2010 WikiLeaks cable from the United States embassy in Buenos Aires concerning "Operation Heart of Stone", a project targeting drug trafficking and money laundering outfits in locations such as the Tri Border Area (TBA) between Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay.

According to the cable, Cartes was the director of "an organization believed to launder large quantities of United States currency generated through illegal means, including through the sale of narcotics, from the TBA to the United States".

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