Fernando Lugo

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Fernando Lugo, April 2008

Fernando Armindo Lugo Méndez (born May 30, 1951 in San Solano, Itapúa Department , Paraguay ) is a Paraguayan politician. He was President of Paraguay from August 15, 2008 to June 22, 2012. He has been President of the National Congress since 2017 . From 1994 to 2005 he was bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of San Pedro in the impoverished center of the country.

Education and career

Fernando Lugo was born in the extreme south of Paraguay in the district of San Pedro del Paraná, 210 kilometers southeast of the capital Asunción . His parents, Guillermo Lugo and Maximina Méndez Fleitas, suffered from reprisals from the Stroessner regime; his uncle Epifanio Méndez Fleitas , an intellectual and politician of the ruling Partido Colorado party , fell out of favor and went into exile in Uruguay in 1956. Three Lugo brothers were tortured and his father was arrested several times.

Lugo began his education in Encarnación , the border town with Argentina, and worked as a primary school teacher at a young age. After studying theology at the Universidad Católica in Asunción, he was ordained a priest in 1977. As a missionary of the Order of Steyler Missionaries , he went to Ecuador shortly afterwards for five years , where he worked as a country pastor and teacher in Guaranda and worked with Leonidas Proaño , who was known as the "Bishop of the Poor". When he returned to Paraguay, the Stroessner dictatorship expelled him from the country in 1983; until his return in 1987 he lived in exile in Rome and studied sociology at the Gregorian University . In 1994 he became Bishop of San Pedro , the poorest and most conflictual region of Paraguay.

Political career

Fernando Lugo at a press conference after his election victory

When the then incumbent President Nicanor Duarte Frutos tried to enforce his re-election through a constitutional amendment, Lugo joined the emerging protest movement in 2005. In view of his political ambitions, he resigned as Ordinary of the Diocese of San Pedro in the same year and in December 2006 asked the Holy See for laicisation . The Congregation for Bishops decided that he would remain in the episcopate but released him from the rights and duties associated with it. The resignation of the episcopal office was necessary in order to run for the office of president, since it is forbidden according to article 235 No. 5 of the constitution Paraguay's church officials to become president or vice-president, and it is also forbidden in church law for clerics to hold political office to take over. Lugo understands the political work with a word from Pope Pius XI. as the “highest form of charity”. At the end of July 2008, Pope Benedict XVI. the request of Lugo for laicization and for the first time in church history put a bishop into the laity. After Lugo became aware of several affairs with younger women in early 2009, from which at least one child was born, Bishop Rogelio Livieres Plano declared that the nunciature had known Lugo's non- celibate life for some time and that it was the real reason for Lugo's delivery.

The "Patriotic Alliance for Change" ( Alianza Patriótica para el Cambio , APC), a broad alliance of nine parties as well as trade unions and peasant movements , chose Lugo as its candidate before the presidential election on April 20, 2008 . This election was decided by Lugo with 40.8 percent of the vote; he distanced the former education minister Blanca Ovelar , the candidate of the 61-year ruling Colorado party, by ten percentage points. Lugo was sworn in as President on August 15, 2008, and Federico Franco was named Vice President of the Partido Radical Liberal Auténtico. The position of Primera Dama ( First Lady ) was held by Fernando Lugo's sister, Mercedes Lugo Méndez de Maidana.

On June 15, 2012 There came in Curuguaty in the department of Canindeyú to a violent confrontation between police and squatters at least 17 dead, including six policemen. Lugo was held politically responsible for the incident, whereupon the Chamber of Deputies filed an impeachment lawsuit on June 21, 2012. The Senate of Paraguay agreed only a day later with 39: 4 Voices dismissal.

Lugo accepted his removal by parliament, but viewed the process as more of a " coup ". Lugo's lawyers announced that they will seek a review of the impeachment proceedings by the Paraguayan Supreme Court and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights . The Organization of American States criticized the impeachment process as "somewhat hasty," and a spokesman for the Union of South American Nations viewed the proceedings as a threat to the democratic order. Lugo's successor as President was the previous Vice President Federico Franco .

On June 15, 2017, Lugo was elected President of Parliament.

Positions

Fernando Lugo sees his roots in liberation theology and is considered an advocate for the underprivileged and disenfranchised. For this reason, he is occasionally compared - not least by his political opponents - with the left-wing presidents Hugo Chávez and Evo Morales . Lugo, on the other hand, considers himself “in the political center” and distances himself from programmatic radicalism. Social scientists in the country characterize him as a man who “detests” personality cult and messianism and who knows “how to bring people together and negotiate compromises”. Lugo defends private property and advocates an economic system in which there is space for both private and state-owned companies.

Before the election, he counted housing construction, the introduction of a universal health system, an educational reform and the construction of traffic routes among the “major axes” of his policy . In the fight against poverty, he advocates a comprehensive land reform that is intended to ensure redistribution and more justice; so far, 5 percent of the population in Paraguay control 90 percent of the productive terrain. Lugo also wants to curb slash and burn and the massive use of plant toxins.

He announced that he would like to renegotiate the price for energy supplies from the hydropower plants Itaipú and Yacyretá with the neighboring countries Brazil and Argentina in order to improve the income for social programs. Literally he said: "Paraguay cannot just be a country of cattle breeding , we have to transform ourselves into a country of water energy , an industrialized country ."

Personal

Fernando Lugo is, as he admitted in a press conference on April 13, 2009, father of a son (born May 4, 2007), whom he fathered out of wedlock with Viviana Carrillo, 34 years his junior. According to media reports, the love affair between Fernando Lugo and the young woman began when she was only 16 years old. In Paraguay, the case sparked outrage in parts of the population. Bishop Ignacio Gogorza Izaguirre called the relationship a "slap in the face for the Church".

After paternity became known, two other women, Benigna Leguizamón and Damiana Hortensia Morán Amarilla, went public with the claim that they were having a child with Lugo. As for Ms. Morán, the paternity lawsuit she had brought was served on the President on November 11, 2009. A paternity test was initially rejected by Lugo's lawyers, however, as the man to whom Ms. Morán was married at the time the child was conceived had to undergo such a test. Ms. Leguizamón's case was due to have a paternity test , but withdrew her claim in mid-December 2009 for reasons unknown. A few weeks earlier, the claim by a niece of Fernando Lugo's that he had a daughter of legal age caused a stir.

In August 2010, Lugo was diagnosed with advanced-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma . A chemotherapy was performed in Brazil. He continued his official business to a limited extent.

In September 2010, the results of paternity tests carried out in different countries were published, which concern Ms. Moran's son. All three investigations deny Lugo's paternity.

Movies

Web links

Commons : Fernando Lugo  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
 Wikinews: Fernando Lugo  - on the news

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from July 22, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ A level-headed theologian with leftist ideas Der Standard, April 21, 2008
  3. ↑ Vatican denies laicization to Paraguayan bishop running for president Catholic News Service, February 2, 2007.
  4. ↑ a b c Not just being a land of cattle breeding - Interview Die Tageszeitung, April 21, 2008
  5. ^ Constitution of the Republic of Paraguay, page electoral court (Spanish)
  6. ↑ Can. 285 § 3 CIC
  7. ↑ Paraguay: Lugo for “national reconciliation” Vatican Radio, April 25, 2008
  8. ^ Paraguay's president, ex-bishop, granted lay status ( English ) Catholic World News. July 30, 2008. Retrieved July 31, 2008.
  9. ↑ Lugo commented: “In the thought of the good of the country, the good of Paraguay - what love did Benedict XVI. for our country! Because they thought of the wellbeing of the country, they dealt with my concerns again and released me from responsibility for all church duties. ” ( Memento from August 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Tagesschau August 15, 2008
  10. ↑ One Man and Three Babies, Der Standard, April 26, 2009
  11. ↑ Left bishop ensures change of power in Paraguay Spiegel Online, April 21, 2008
  12. ^ Ex-Bishop Fernando Lugo sworn in as President Deutsche Welle, August 15, 2008
  13. ^ Paraguay: Parliament files impeachment lawsuit against President Lugo . Spiegel Online, June 21, 2012
  14. ↑ MercoPress: “A coup against democracy” organized by the political class and mafia claims Lugo , June 23, 2012.
  15. ^ Neue Zürcher Zeitung : President Lugo deposed by parliament , June 23, 2012.
  16. ↑ Lugo es el nuevo presidente del Congreso , La Nación (Asunción), June 15, 2017, accessed on June 28, 2018.
  17. ↑ From Bishop of the Poor to Head of State ( Memento from September 26, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Netzeitung, April 21, 2008
  18. ↑ a b The Pink Bishop The Weekly, April 17, 2008
  19. ^ Bishop, General or Psychologist Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, April 20, 2008
  20. ↑ Lugo, from priest to election campaigner Die Tageszeitung, April 16, 2008
  21. ↑ Paraguay: President and ex-bishop is father Kath.net, April 15, 2009
  22. ↑ Descartan otra vez que sea Lugo padre de menor . ABC Color , September 23, 2010, accessed June 29, 2018 (Spanish).
predecessor Office successor
Nicanor Duarte Frutos President of Paraguay
2008–2012 		Federico Franco
Oscar Páez Garcete Bishop of San Pedro
1994-2005 		Adalberto Martínez Flores
personal data
SURNAME Lugo, Fernando
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lugo, Fernando Armindo; Lugo, Mendez
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Paraguayan clergyman, bishop, politician and President of Paraguay
DATE OF BIRTH May 30, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH San Solano, Itapua Department , Paraguay