By Laura Barros |
Asunción (EFE) country and a Colorado Party divided and hit by allegations of corruption that splashed his second in command, Hugo Velásquez.
Abdo Benítez became president on August 15, 2018, after an election in which he beat the liberal and today again the opposition candidate, Efraín Alegre, by 3% of the votes.
Namesake of his father, who worked as private secretary of the dictator Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989), the former senator surpassed the current candidate for the ruling party, Santiago Peña, supported as he is now by former president Horacio Cartes (2013). -2018).
Abdo Benítez ends up “touched”
Five years later, he is getting ready to leave power after a management marked by the covid-19 pandemic, the management of which almost cost him his position as a result of a failed impeachment attempt that did not prosper in the Chamber of Deputies thanks to the support of the official caucus.
The lack of vaccines and the precarious health system ignited the protests in the streets. The demonstrations, which caused one death and twenty injured, cost the ministers of Health, Education, Women and the Civil Cabinet of the Presidency their jobs.
Abdo Benítez’s mandate also ended up marred by accusations of corruption that reached his vice president and his predecessor and now leader of the coloradismo, Horacio Cartes.
Both have sanctions from the United States for their alleged participation in acts of corruption, which has managed to agitate the current electoral campaign, although it has not prevented them from continuing in their positions.
The head of state had to remove several of his collaborators amid scandals, including former Interior Minister Arnaldo Giuzzio, who was hit by complaints about his alleged contacts with an alleged drug trafficker detained in Brazil.
Pandemic
Asked about the legacy of Abdo Benítez, analyst Mabel Villalba told EFE that the management of the pandemic has been marred by reports of “scandalous acts of corruption, with scandalous amounts and that are remaining in impunity.”
It also warns that in these five years “the country has become indebted, much more than in previous periods.”
Figures from the Central Bank of Paraguay (BCP) indicate that the external public debt stood at 12,880 million dollars last December, compared to the 6,403 million dollars registered in the same month of 2018.
“He has been a president who has held on with great difficulty and depending on the other faction, which is Chartism. He has not been a leader who has made a positive, striking difference, neither in the social field nor in an economic change, ”he says.
A very different reading is that made by the economist and former Minister of Finance César Barreto, who considers that “the effects of the pandemic were dealt with quite well, at least better than in many countries”, as was the prolonged drought, which devastated the Southern Cone between 2019 and 2022.
“The economy continued to function normally or relatively well; I think that this is something salvageable”, points out the also columnist, for whom the country came out “of this with relatively orderly macroeconomic policies”.
Barreto considers it difficult to evaluate the management of Abdo Benítez “without taking into account the various shocks” he has faced in these five years.
However, he misses some changes and even warns of setbacks in matters such as retirements.
Official data
By way of balance, the Executive highlights that Paraguay is the country with the highest projected economic growth in the region, of 4.3%. It also stresses that the country has one of the lowest unemployment rates, at 5.7%, compared to 7.9% in Brazil and Uruguay.
During this mandate, 3,837 kilometers were paved, which has generated more than 260,000 jobs, adds the report, which mentions among the works carried out the Héroes del Chaco bridge, which will link Asunción with the western region of the country, and the Coronel Oviedo hospital, with an investment of 22.5 million dollars.