Paraguay’s president, a former bishop, impeached, sets up alternative government

June 25, 2012

Fernando Lugo, a former bishop who was laicized upon his election as Paraguay’s president in 2008, was impeached and removed from office by the nation’s legislature on June 22 following conflicts related to agrarian reform.

After the leftist governments of Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela refused to recognize the new government headed by Lugo’s former vice president, Lugo announced he was forming an alternative government.

“I will not collaborate with [the new] government because it is bogus,” said Lugo. “It has no legitimacy.”

“Given the serious political crisis that the republic is experiencing, as bishops of Paraguay we turn to the representatives of the government and all citizens to express once again our exhortation to peace and the safeguarding of human life as a supreme value,” the nation’s bishops said in a statement.

“We call on political leaders, social organizations, trade unions and the people to keep calm and to avoid any confrontation and violence, which jeopardize integrity and people's lives.”

 

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Further information:

• Paraguay’s Lugo changes tack, sets up alternative government and looks to upstage at summit (Washington Post)
• Paraguay's president, a former bishop, fathered a child while still in clergy (CWN, 6/5)