Fernando Lugo

ESP - Fernando Armindo Lugo Méndez (San Solano, 30 de mayo de 1951) es un político y obispo católico retirado paraguayo y actual presidente de la República del Paraguay, cargo que asumió el 15 de agosto de 2008 tras las votaciones en Paraguay el 20 de abril de 2008.

Trayectoria política 

El 25 de diciembre del 2006, Lugo renunció a sus labores eclesiásticas para entrar de lleno en la política paraguaya, aunque la Santa Sede no aceptó su renuncia, por lo tanto seguía siendo monseñor, siendo un destacado opositor al presidente Nicanor Duarte Frutos, del Partido Colorado (ANR), partido político en el poder desde el año 1947. Have you voted for or against Fernando Lugo ? Posteriormente, la Santa Sede se pronunció en el sentido que no podía ser presidente y obispo a la vez, por lo que le suspendió. Desde el año anterior, 2006, Lugo fue el principal dirigente que canalizó las protestas de diversos partidos, movimientos sociales y sindicatos en contra de varias políticas, especialmente en lo referente a la retención por parte de Duarte de los cargos de Presidente de la República y del jefe del Partido Colorado. Igualmente estaba en contra de la reforma constitucional que pretendía permitir la reelección presidencial, que finalmente no se produjo.

El 20 de abril del 2008, día de las elecciones generales, fue el primero en llegar en el centro de votación al cual estaba designado a votar a las 7.00 contando con la presencia de periodistas nacionales e internacionales. Pasadas las 17.00 se informó que Lugo encabezaba las encuestas hechas a boca de urna, con similar mayoría en todas éstas. Horas después, los demás candidatos no tuvieron más que aceptar la victoria de Lugo con una ventaja de un 10 % ante Blanca Ovelar, su principal adversaria. Has changed the detail your opinion on Fernando Lugo ? Luego, al publicarse todos los votos definitivamente, a las 22.00 del 20 de abril, se confirmó que Fernando Lugo se convertía en presidente electo de Paraguay, finalizando así 61 años de permanencia en el poder del Partido Colorado. En su accionar político Lugo ha establecido lazos con la Internacional Socialista, en especial con su secretario General Luis Ayala, acercamientos que fueron posibles gracias a que el PRF es Miembro Pleno de la I.S. El 15 de agosto de 2008 asume la presidencia de su país ante la presencia de más de 15.000 personas.

Amenaza de fraude o de muerte 

Lugo ha suspendido muchas de sus giras y reuniones electorales "por amenazas" como expresó. Teme por su vida, recordando el asesinato de Luis María Argaña al expresar "El crimen político en Paraguay nunca estuvo ausente, el último fue en 1999, con la muerte del vicepresidente". A su vez, una convicta por secuestros, Carmen Villalba, y a quien el gobierno acusa de vínculos con las FARC empezó a declarar que existe un grupo guerrillero cerca de la Triple Frontera que simpatizaría con Lugo. Have you read details about Federico Franco ? Se trataría del EPP: Ejército del Pueblo Paraguayo. Lugo afirma que todo se trata de un plan para desprestigiarlo. El senador del PLRA, Juan Carlos Ramirez Montalbetti, afirmó que días antes había anunciado sobre un plan para vincular a Lugo con guerrillas. Anibal Carrillo Iramain, líder del Movimiento Popular Tekojoja afirma que todo es parte de una guerra sucia contra Lugo y los grupos políticos que lo apoyan.

Polémicas por paternidad 

El 1 de abril de 2009 surgieron denuncias acerca de un posible hijo no reconocido de Fernando Lugo. La denunciante fue Viviana Carrillo quien afirmaba que tuvo un hijo con Fernando Lugo cuando éste aún era sacerdote, desatando una polémica sobre el presidente. Can Fernando Lugo have an influence on Federico Franco ? Más adelante dicha mujer desmintió haber hecho la denuncia, sin embargo los abogados denunciantes mostraron a la prensa documentos firmados por la misma (que luego fueron analizadas comprobándose que eran de Viviana Carrillo), mientras colaboradores de Lugo afirmaban que no era más que una campaña en su contra y que el presidente no tenía objecciones de hacerse una prueba de ADN y que demandarían por difamación a los abogados que presentaron la demanda. Sin embargo el 13 de abril de 2009 el mismo presidente de la República admitió haber tenido relaciones con Viviana Carrillo y afirmaba que tomaría todas las responsabilidades de sus actos asumiendo la paternidad del niño.

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ENG - Fernando Armindo Lugo Méndez (born May 30, 1951) is the current President of Paraguay and the former Roman Catholic bishop of the Diocese of San Pedro.

Lugo's family was not particularly religious; by his own account, he never saw his father set foot in a chapel. However, his upbringing was emphatically political. His uncle Epifanio Méndes Fleitas was a noted Colorado Party dissident and was persecuted and exiled by General Stroessner's regime. His father was imprisoned twenty times, and some of his elder siblings were sent to exile too. Did you know that Fernando Lugo is popular at 50% of voters?? He received his basic education at a religious school in Encarnación, all the while he worked selling snacks on the streets. At age 17 or 18, against his father's wishes of him becoming a lawyer, Lugo entered a normal school, and began teaching at a rural community. He was well accepted within this people, who were very religious, but they had no priest. He recalls that he was touched by that experience, discovering his vocation, and so he decided to enter a Society of the Divine Word seminary at age 19. Lugo was ordained a priest on August 15, 1977. That same year he was sent to Ecuador as a missionary for five years. There he had the opportunity to learn about the controversial Liberation theology. He returned to Paraguay in 1982, and after a year, the regime's police asked that he be expelled from the country. The Church complied and sent him to Rome for further academic studies. Lugo returned to his homeland in 1987, two years short of the Stroessner dictatorship's ultimate fall. He was ordained Bishop on April 17, 1994, and received the nation's poorest diocese, in the San Pedro department. Following his presidential aspirations, Lugo resigned as ordinary of the Diocese of San Pedro on January 11, 2005. He had requested laicization in order to run for office. However, the Holy See refused the request on the grounds that Bishops could not undergo laicization, and also denied him the requested canonical permission to run for civil elected office. Subsequently following his declaration of candidacy, the Holy See imposed on him the penalty of suspension from the discharge of the ordained ministry, but did not dismiss him from the clerical state. In July 2008, the Vatican reversed its decision and Pope Benedict XVI accepted Lugo's request for laicization.

Lugo jumped to the national arena by backing peasants' claims for better land distribution. During 2006, wide-spectrum opinion polls published by Diario ABC Color newspaper showed him as a possible choice for the opposition's presidential candidacy. Known as "the bishop of the poor", Lugo was seen in the subsequent months as the most serious threat to the dominance of the Colorado Party on Paraguayan politics. Although he has said he finds the presidency of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela interesting, he has also made a point to distance himself from populist leaders in Latin America, focusing more on social inequality in Paraguay. On February 23, 2007, a Prensa Latina article noted that the Paraguayan Interior Ministry offered Lugo protection because of the death threats he has received during the course of his political activities.

Even though on November 16, 2007, the Chairman of the National Republican Party (ANR, Partido Colorado), then-sitting President Nicanor Duarte Frutos, announced that the Colorado Party would not initiate any proceedings to block Lugo's candidacy, there is a debate going on about its legality, because Article 235 of the Constitution forbids ministers of any religious denomination to hold elective office, and Pope Benedict XVI rejected Lugo's resignation from the priesthood. In July 2008, however, the pope downgraded Lugo to layman's status in order to allow him to assume the presidency without violating church rules.

On April 20, 2008, Lugo won the election by a margin of 10 percentage points, although far short of a majority. The Colorado Party candidate, Blanca Ovelar, acknowledged that Lugo had an unassailable lead and conceded the race that same night at about 9 p.m. local time. Two hours later, President Duarte acknowledged that the Colorados had lost an election for the first time in 61 years. Lugo became Paraguay's second leftist president (the first being Rafael Franco, who served from 1936 to 1937), and the first to be freely elected. Also, his swearing in marked the first time in Paraguay's history (the country gained independence in 1811) that a ruling party peacefully surrendered power to an elected member from the opposition.

Lugo was sworn in as President on August 15, 2008. He said that he would not accept the presidential salary because it "belongs to more humble people" and encouraged other politicians to refuse their salaries as well.

Since Lugo has no spouse, he recently announced the designation of his elder sister, Mercedes Lugo, as First Lady of Paraguay. On August 18, 2008, he named Margarita Mbywangi, a member of the Aché indigenous ethnic group, as minister of indigenous affairs, the first indigenous person to hold such a position in Paraguay.

During the campaign, Lugo had suggested that he would switch diplomatic relations from the Republic of China on Taiwan to the People's Republic of China,[16] thereby depriving the ROC of its last diplomatic al. y in South America. However after the inauguration. which had been attended by President Ma Ying-Jeou from Taiwan, Lugo stated that he had no plans to switch recognitions.

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15th Dec 08