Write: Luis Allen.
The biggest challenge for Santiago Peña as the new president will undoubtedly be to take measures that mark his equidistance from the impositions that will surely come from Horacio Cartes, his political mentor and supposed support for governability. Where more will be known if Santi begins to take on his own political stature will be when he seeks to strengthen the institutional framework at the judicial level and especially with the measures aimed at fighting corruption and impunity.
The long transition period for the handover of command has shown the first episodes related to the need to send clear messages of attachment to the institutional framework, on the one hand, and the problem of the “orderly” handover of the government to the new Chartist team that will take possession of power as of August 15, including the request to stop bidding and contracting that did not go down well with the economic forces of the private business sector, because it would imply a brake on the dynamics of the economy that takes so long to recover from the pandemic as well as the aftermath of the crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, with its burden of inflation and retraction of production caused by the international crisis.
It is evident that it will not be easy for Santi to coexist harmoniously with the Chartist machinery of impunity, as was demonstrated in the Erico Galeano case, because it can also be glimpsed that, under the pretext of giving governability to the new head of the Executive with a view to to the reforms that he will have to face, for example, to balance state finances, at the same time Peña will have to “endure” having to swallow some toads on the side of the defense “at all costs” that Chartism will do in Congress, and especially in Deputies , when it comes to defending their lackeys “attacked” in Justice, as demonstrated in the case of the recent rejection of the eventual political trial against Jorge Bogarín Alfonso, another declared “significantly corrupt” by the United States and questioned by the dismissal of the late prosecutor Jorge López Lohman, which was also not reviewed by the Jury for the Prosecution of Magistrates (JEM) which thus continues under Chartist control.
Erico’s case is symptomatic of what can happen with the Peña government. On the one hand, from mouths to the outside the discourse of attachment to the institutional framework with the request of Santi demanding that the Chartist legislator make himself available to Justice, but simultaneously the deputy of the “double jurisdiction” became an elected senator and already proclaimed as such by the Electoral Justice, he shields himself with parliamentary immunity, also brandishing the inevitable “Chicanas” to face with greater force a judicial process in which he is accused of nothing less than drug trafficking, money laundering and criminal association.
HC impositions
The proclamation of Santiago Peña took place on Tuesday the 30th with a special act held in the main auditorium of the Central Bank, where Horacio Cartes played the leading role, and who was the first to greet the president-elect even before doing so with the authorities present. of the other powers and of the Electoral Justice, as thanks to the one who catapulted him to the first magistracy of the country.
The rush to go to hug his political promoter could be announcing the terrible “realpolitik” of the latent danger of a presidency subject to the impositions that will surely come from Horacio, as was already demonstrated before the inauguration with the announcement of the new move of the Paraguayan embassy in Israel, from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as had already happened during Horacio’s presidency, but which was finally reversed by Marito Abdo in 2018 for being in direct conflict with United Nations provisions regarding of the status of the holy city of the three monotheistic religions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
It should not be forgotten that one of the main causes that move the United States to act to curb the political hegemony of the factual power of HC is that the Paraguayan strongman stands as the factotum of Justice, obstructing the transparency of the fiscal and judicial investigations that lead to sanctioning those responsible for driving Paraguay to the brink of being a failed State, due to its manifest inability to combat organized crime that is handled freely throughout the national territory.
This also caused concern in the business community the “hysterical” proposal, according to Marito’s qualification, of the component of the transition Chartist team, the former Minister of Finance Lea Giménez, to stop the bidding and eventual contracting of new works and other programs of government action, despite the fact that Parliament itself, with the vote of the Chartists, had already approved the funds -some of them with external financing- for the continuity of the state plans.
These programs are essential to support the development of the country, providing sufficient financial oxygen for the hard work of improving the performance of the economy and thus getting the Gross Domestic Product to rise again to pre-pandemic levels.
Some businessmen recalled on purpose that Cartes had already asked the outgoing government of Federico Franco to do the same in 2013, with the result of an economic “stop” that caused a severe negative impact on the production and consumption processes, which took a whole year to come out
Another source of wrestling between Santi and his political mentor could come from the measures that must be taken within the fiscal and judicial investigations in which members of Chartism or even the HC itself are involved.
Or when he also comes up with some “vendetta” against Marito, with the order already outlined that Lea Giménez herself revealed, when she said that “we are going to have to investigate and perhaps reverse some processes”, especially in the contests for hiring of personnel, in a clear warning about the measures that will come to redirect some institutional orientations, affecting sensitive entities such as the case of Seprelad, that is, the fight against money laundering that is the breeding ground for smuggling, drug trafficking and narcopolitics.
It remains to be seen to what extent the transition from Abdo to Peña will be “orderly”, so as not to affect the continuity of the economy, but apparently the outgoing government would not be very attached to accepting the “orders” that come from Cartes, as Marito himself already evidenced when answering Lea Giménez, the virtual head of the Chartist transition team.
The transition team that was integrated by decree of the Executive is integrated, in addition to Lea, by José Alberto Alderete, representing the president-elect; and by Hernán Huttemann, the current chief of staff, and Carlos César Trapani, legal adviser to the presidency, as Marito’s delegates.
The same decree mentions that the main mission of the transition team is to carry out the administrative transfer with the provision of information regarding public institutions, which will be of great importance, “since said provision must be efficient, timely and meet the formalities necessary to guarantee legal certainty”.
What could be speculated is if, if necessary, Chartism would accept provisions of the outgoing government precisely in compliance with “legal security”, based on orders issued by the Justice regarding issues related to the interests of Horacio Cartes or that affect their business mainly by the anti-laundering, anti-terrorism, anti-drug or anti-cigarette smuggling agencies of the United States government.
The “mob government”
On June 27, a public hearing will take place in the Mercosur Parliament (Parlasur), in Montevideo, to gather reliable information on whether or not there was fraud in the past elections in our country. Beyond whether the manipulation of electronic voting machines can actually be checked, this initiative by Parliamentary MP Ricardo Canese, of the Luguist Grand Front, could be used to shed light on the same parliamentarian’s complaint about the country falling into power of a “mafia government,” according to his textual words during the debate that took place in the Uruguayan capital, when Canese was repeatedly interrupted from the Cartist bench.
The serious suspicion of what could happen as of August 15 with the institutions of the Republic cannot be taken lightly, since the domination of Chartism over the State is an unquestionable reality, even more so when it is noted that the great The majority of the voters opted either to grant HC and its candidates carte blanche, or to give their vote to the anarchist proposals of Payo Cubas, seriously jeopardizing the republican system of counterweights to the dictatorial unicato, which is the claim of HC in his obsession with absolute power, as could already be seen during his presidency when he sought to win re-election based on an unconstitutional amendment.
The hope of honest citizens lies in the possibility that said republican counterweight becomes a reality in Congress, with opposition unity and the contribution of some anti-chartist parliamentarians from Fuerza Republicana, despite the fact that it is also possible that Chartism achieves some “leaks” in the ranks of the new colorada dissidence or in the opposition itself.
The truth is that denouncing electoral fraud could rather make the country aware that institutionality is a basic requirement for improving the living conditions of the population, highlighting the need to promote the independence of the Prosecutor’s Office and of the Judiciary, as a guarantee for the coming of the investments that the country needs so much for the creation of jobs and the increase of social well-being through greater resources destined to education, health, housing and security.
For now, the expectation is rampant around the cabinet that Santi will announce and whether it will once again be dominated by the Chartist “managers”, as happened during the HC presidency, when a virtual government council was created governed by the general management of companies from the Cartes Group, which has now disappeared due to US pressure, but under another name could continue to influence Peña in his decision-making to comply with Horacio’s impositions.