Leftist ex-bishop ends Paraguay one-party rule

updated 10:30 a.m. ET Aug. 15, 2008

ASUNCION, Paraguay - Leftist ex-bishop Fernando Lugo was inaugurated Friday as Paraguay's president, ending six decades of one-party rule in a key step in the poor South American nation's democratic transformation.

Tens of thousands of Paraguayans cheered as the tieless, sandal-clad Lugo raised his hand in the air and was sworn in, addressing the crowd in both Spanish and the Guarani indigenous language from a huge stage in front of Congress.

Lugo pledged to do away with the misery and corruption that has defined the desperately poor nation under the Colorado Party, which supported the brutal 1954-1989 dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner.

"Today Paraguay breaks with its reputation for corruption, breaks with the few feudal lords of the past," said the 57-year-old Lugo, who shaved off most of his trademark beard but stuck with a goatee for the ceremony attended by eight Latin American leaders and Taiwan's president.

Difficult challenge
He faces obstacles in his bid for land reform and must avoid political chaos and civil unrest as elements on the left and right challenge his authority.

Landless peasants who have been seizing private property are threatening a much larger wave of invasions as early as this weekend. Members of his team also suspect the outgoing government tried undermine his presidency before it began by allowing critical supplies of fuel and medicine to disappear.

Incoming interior minister Rafael Filizzola suspects at least one land invasion was financed by Lugo's right-wing opponents. "There are backward-looking factions within this party who aspire to come back to power early and not democratically," Filizzola said.

The conservative Colorado Party still dominates most government institutions in the small landlocked country, where corruption is entrenched and just 1 percent of the population controls 77 percent of the land.

Outgoing president Nicanor Duarte promised this week that he "will not sabotage Fernando Lugo nor create a climate of hostility during his term." But he also criticized Lugo's cabinet choices, and insisted that his conservative Colorado Party will continue to be a strong force throughout the country despite losing the presidency.

Transforming Paraguayan society "won't be easy, but it's not impossible," Lugo said Friday.

There are so few job opportunities in the nation of 6.8 million that many have abandoned the country altogether. The $500 million Paraguayans sent home last year represents more than all foreign investment in the country, according to the World Bank, and plays an outsize role in an economy otherwise dominated by soy farms and black-market trading in electronics.

Reputation as honest man
What Lugo has in his favor is a tremendous desire among Paraguayans for a more just and equal society, and his own reputation, formed through decades of work with poor parishioners, as an honest man.

Tall, bearded, mild-mannered and soft-spoken, Lugo is greeted at public appearances like a rock star, and he has sought to reassure his fans that politics won't co-opt him. He says he won't get married during his five-year term, even though the pope released him from his vows of chastity.

Lugo is under pressure to make changes fast, but analysts don't expect him to govern with sudden decrees like the continent's hardcore leftists, Bolivia's Evo Morales and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. They predict he will seek broad support for reforms, in the style of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil's center-leftist president.

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