This has been the presidency of Mario Abdo Benítez in Paraguay

( Spanish) — Paraguayans are called to vote this Sunday in general elections that will define the successor to President Mario Abdo Benítez, who has been in charge of the country for the last five years.

Abdo Benítez, from the Colorado Party, was elected in 2018, but since the Paraguayan Constitution He does not admit re-election, he will not be able to participate in these elections in which 13 candidates will compete to succeed him.

His government will effectively end on August 15, when the new president takes office.

How has Mario Abdo Benítez fared in the presidency of Paraguay and what situation will he leave his successor?

coming to power

Abdo Benítez prevailed by a narrow margin in the April 2018 elections, obtaining 46.47% of the votes, followed by Pedro Efraín Alegre Sasiain, from the Ganar Alliance, who obtained 42.72%.

Son of the former private secretary of the dictator Alfredo Stroessner, who ruled Paraguay for 35 years, Abdo Benítez has said that Stroessner “did a lot for the country.” Although he has also clarified that he does not share the violation of human rights that took place at that time.

He came to power as the owner of two supplier companies to the Paraguayan state, but he had participated in politics since at least 2004.

After founding the “Peace and Progress” movement, based on a slogan from the Stronista dictatorship, he was a member of the Colorado Party and obtained his first elected position in 2013, when he became a senator, a seat he held until he became president, in 2018. .

During the 5 years of his government, Abdo Benítez went through economic difficulties and internal tensions, in addition to the covid-19 pandemic.

Attempts at impeachment

Abdo Benítez faced two impeachment attempts against him, neither of which prospered.

The first attempt occurred in August 2019, due to a controversial power purchase agreement with the Itaipu binational hydroelectric plant, shared with Brazil. Abdo Benítez was accused of poor performance and “treason”, but the act was annulled and the impeachment was deactivated.

The initiative for the second trial, of course poor performance in its duties to face the covid-19 pandemic, arose in 2021 after more than a week of citizen protests in Asunción, which denounced the shortage of medicines for patients with covid-19 and the imminent collapse of hospitals due to a sustained outbreak of the disease.

But the united opposition failed to overcome the 53 votes needed, two thirds of the plenary, for the attempt to remove the chief executive to advance.

economic performance

The Paraguayan economy, stable but highly dependent on agricultural production and hydroelectric power, experienced difficulties during the Abdo Benítez years due to drought and weather conditions, according to a World Bank report.

After growing by 3.2%, in 2018, the year Abdo Benítez took office, the gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 0.4%, the following year, and by 0.8%, in 2020, when it hit filled the pandemic, according to data of the World Bank.

As in other parts of the region, the Paraguayan economy bounced 4.1%, in 2021, as the restrictions imposed to stop the advance of covid-19 were lifted, but in 2022 fell again by 0.3%.

Consequently, poverty (measured by the World Bank as a percentage of the population living on up to US$6.85 a day) stagnated and was by 19%, in 2022that is, in levels pre-pandemic. But extreme poverty continued to rise and reached 5.2%, in 2022.

Foreign policy

Abdo Benítez has been very critical of his predecessor, Horacio Cartes, and shortly after assuming the presidency, in 2018, he backtracked on one of Cartes’ main measures: he moved the Paraguayan embassy in Israel back to Tel Aviv, after a brief time in Jerusalem.

On the other hand, at the beginning of 2019, the president of Paraguay announced the rupture of diplomatic relations with Venezuela, in response to the inauguration of Nicolás Maduro as president for the period 2019-2025.

The decision was made within the framework of the Lima Group, of which Paraguay is a part, and in the context that 13 of the 14 member countries’ foreign ministers rejected Maduro’s new term.

With information from Sanie López Garelli.