LatinNews Daily Report - 11 January 2013

POLITICS | PLRA loses control of Central. On 9 January Paraguay’s Central Department legislature announced that Magno Duarte from the Unión Nacional de Ciudadanos Eticos (Unace) had been elected by the body as the new governor. He replaces Carlos Amarilla from the nationally ruling Partido Liberal Radical Auténtico (PLRA) who quit in order to run for national congress in the 23 April general elections. The loss of Central, which surrounds the capital, Asunción, is a blow for the PLRA, as it being the most populated department, it is an important source of votes. Duarte defeated the PLRA candidate, Juan Carlos Arévalos, after obtaining the votes of Unace local congressmen, as well as those of the also opposition Asociación Nacional Republicana- Partido Colorado (ANR-PC). Some within the PLRA consider the electoral defeat a warning of what may happen in the 23 April vote amidst concerns that Unace and the ANR-PC could forge an electoral alliance in the run-up to the vote.