Paraguay’s Rare Toss-Up Election
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Loading... - Adlawan Blessica
- 27 Mar 2023
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Paraguay prepares for an unusually competitive—and foreign policy-focused—election, Venezuela carries out arrests at its state oil company, and the United States and Canada weigh intervention in Haiti.
The Colorado of the South
Paraguayan opposition members often compare the country’s ruling Colorado Party to Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which governed for 71 consecutive years, from 1929 to 2000. The right-wing Colorado Party ruled for 61 years—34 of them during a dictatorship—until a brief back-bench stint from 2008 to 2013. The party has been in power ever since.
Though both the PRI and Colorado Party technically won at the ballot box during their periods of dominance, their power and influence at all levels of government and in the media meant they could easily snuff out potential challengers.
Now, the Colorado Party’s dominance may be shaken in the country’s April 30 general elections—which have been shaped by a combination of anti-corruption, anti-incumbent, and pro-China sentiments. The contest will be consequential for both Paraguayan and South American foreign policy: Under new leadership, Paraguay could switch its diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to China and will have to renegotiate a critical energy treaty with Brazil. Read More…
