LatinNews Daily Report - 16 April 2013

POLITICS| Franco sacks Indert head. On 15 April Paraguay’s President Federico Franco dismissed the head of the national land development institute (Indert), Luis Ortigoza, over  his suspected involvement in the irregular purchase of lands linked to the family of the senate president, Jorge Oviedo Matto. The scandal, which is currently the subject of an official investigation, could risks damaging Franco and the ruling Partido Liberal Radical Auténtico (PLRA) ahead of the 21 April general election, given suspicions that the purchase was part of a last-minute political deal between the PLRA and Oviedo Matto’s Unión Nacional de Ciudadanos Eticos (Unace) securing UNACE backing for the PLRA’s presidential nominee, Efraín Alegre. Ortigoza, who has been charged with “breach of trust”, has been replaced by Juan Carlos Ramírez Montalbetti. The matter is far from over: Ortigoza has yet to give testimony in the case, while Oviedo Matto is also facing the threat of impeachment by the opposition, which is hoping to vote on the issue in the senate today (16 April).

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