Latinnews Archive
Latin American Weekly Report - 13 December 1990
Slow reform of the Stroessner legacy; GUIDE TO COLORADO PARTY'S 'DEMOCRATIC CURRENTS'
Paraguay is not finding it easy to go democratic. Political rhetoric is already there, and the parties are ostensibly making full use of their new-found liberties, but they are not enjoying much success in getting through to a people still weighed down by 42 years of life under an autocracy.
This is best illustrated by the failure of the ruling Colorado party to persuade its nominal followers to re-register, and of the leading opposition party, the Partido Liberal Radical Autentico (PLRA), to coax the bulk of its membership to vote in internal elections.
For the time being, the most interesting developments have been taking place within the Colorado party, where the 1989 coup led, first, to the displacement of the 'militant stronista' faction by the 'traditionalists', and later, to the strong challenge posed to the authority of these by the 'democratic current'. In fact, it would be more accurate to speak of 'democratic currents'. Though the Alianza Democratica is the dominant one, there are several (see chart).
THE 'DEMOCRATIC CURRENTS'
ALIANZA DEMOCRATICA
Movimiento Popular Colorado (Mopoco)
Accion Democratica Colorada (Adeco) *
Movimiento tradicionalista Colorada (Tradem)
(Splinter of) Generacion Intermedia Tradicionalist
Movimiento Reformista
Generacion Intermedia Tradicionalista (GIT)
Frente Popular Colorado Principista
* Formed by:
Asociacion Nacional Republicana en el Exilio y la Resistencia (Anrer) (created by Epifanio Mendez Fleitas)
Mopoco Linea Nacional (Mopocona)
Mopona splinter group
Movimiento Etico y Doctrinario (Moed) (created by Carlos Romero Pereira, who left it once the transition began)
Alianza Democratica
This coalition was formed in October 1989, when the 'traditionalists' refused to include members of the internal opposition (then loosely known as contestatarios) in the central electoral board. Much of its initial strength came from the defection of entrepreneur Blas Riquelme from the 'traditionalist' ranks.
Riquelme is a longstanding friend (indeed a business associate) of General Andres Rodriguez. He provided the Alianza both with much-needed financial backing and with tacit presidential endorsement.
The Alianza is a mixed bad, defined more by common opposition to the 'traditionalists' (led by interim party president Luis Maria Argana, Edgar Ynsfran and Manuel Cano Melgarejo) than by policy agreements beyond the need to 'democratise' the party. It includes the following groups:
Mopoco, formed by Colorado leaders who were expelled back in 1959 for opposing General Alfredo Stroessner's increasingly dictatorial ways. Once clearly left-wing, it has moved towards the centre, while still paying lip-service to the old 'popular agrarian' rhetoric of coloradismo.
Its current closeness to President Rodriguez is illustrated by the fact that one of its chief leaders, Miguel Angel Gonzalez Casabianca, is attached to the presidency with the rank of ambassador at large, and acts as the liaison between the executive and congress.
Tradem is the group led by Blas Riquelme. They hold the pusestrings of the Alianza, and have been described by a leading political analyst as 'socially conservative, economically liberal and politically moderate'. Among the group's leaders are several who stood by Stroessner almost to the end, and are thus very familiar with the inner workings of the party and the state.
Adeco, like Mopoco, has not had close links with the party apparatus for a long time. Two of its three main factions, Mopocona and Anrer, have spent decades in exile; the third, Moed, broke with Stroessner in the 1980s, when the hardline 'militant stronista' faction began to take over the party. The leadership of Adeco is quite varied, ranging from conservative free-marketeers like Enrique Riera (president of the Asociacion Rural del Paraguay, the cattle-ranchers' association) to social-democrats like Bernardino Cano.
The Alianza also includes a breakaway faction of the Generacion Intermedia Trandionalista, whose lack of numbers is made up by the high public profile of some of its members.
Other 'currents'
Outside the Alianza Democratica there are three other 'democratic currents', mainly the result of splits:
Movimiento Renovador, led by Carlos Romero Pereira, includes many of the erstwhile members of his Movimiento Etico y Doctrinario (Moed), the group which provided much of the intellectual underpinning for the internal opposition to Stroessner in his latter period.
Characteristically, Romero Pereira left the Alianza arguing that it had no clear policies. A more likely reason is that he would like to become a consensus presidential candidate in the 1993 elections. High on prestige, he enjoys scant grassroots support in the Colorado party.
Generacion Intermedia Tradicionalista (GIT), a group which split when the bulk decided to leave the clear policies. One of its leading figures, congressman Julio Cesar Frutos, is perhaps the 'democratic' Colorado who is trying hardest to stimulate policy-making groups. The GIT is close to moderates among the Colorado orthodox, like Angel Roberto Seifart.
Frente Popular Colorado Principista, despite its name, a group formed by Bernardino Mendez Vall when he left Adeco in a huff because they did not choose him as candidate to the mayoralty of Asuncion. Close to this group is the former stronista congressman Leandro Prieto Yegros.
LEADERS IN KEY POSTS
Miguel Angel Gonzalez Casabianca (Mopoco), the President's link with congress.
Waldino Ramon Lovera (Mopoco), president of the senate and of congress.
Blas Riquelme (Tradem), senator, third vice-president of the Colorado party, friend of the President.
Carlos Romero Pereira (Movimiento Reformista), leader of the Colorado bloc in the senate.
Julio Cesar Fruto (GIT), congressman, heads the education commission of the chamber of deputies.
Jose Martin Palumbo (GIT faction within the Alianza), congressman, heads the commission of industry, commerce and tourism of the chamber of deputies.
PEOPLE TO WATCH
Some of the younger figures of the 'democratic currents' have been moving up fast:
Washington Ashwell (Adeco), director of the technical planning secretariat at the presidency and co-ordinator of the economic cabinet.
Juan Ernesto Villamayor (after following Romero Pereira out of Moed, he is now acting as an independent rodriguista), undersecretary of information at the presidency, recently nominated candidate to the mayoralty of Asuncion by the Alianza Democratica.
Victor Hugo Pena Bareiro (Adeco), congressman, heads the energy and mines commission of the chamber of deputies.
Eduardo Venialgo (Moed), congressman, member of the finance and budget commission of the chamber of deputies.
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