Weekly Report - 15 November 2018 (WR-18-45)

“Not much of a man.” This is how Paraguay’s President Mario Abdo Benítez described his predecessor, Horacio Cartes (2013-August 2018), after Cartes made some disparaging remarks about one of the female members in the entourage that accompanied Abdo Benítez to his official visit to the Vatican. Abdo Benítez’s reaction underlines just how tense relations between the leaders of the two main factions within the ruling Asociación Nacional Republicana-Partido Colorado (ANR-PC) have become. While Cartes may no longer hold a government post he retains considerable influence over some ANR-PC members and the confrontation could produce serious governability problems for the Abdo Benítez administration.