• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Fernando Lugo

Paraguay's only progressive president in history, Fernando Lugo, said 21 March 2017 he was “fed up” with the delayed constitutional reform meant to allow former presidents to run again for office, and that he planned to present his candidacy regardless of whether the reform was passed. “As for me, the (amendment) is already dead, out of date. It does not make sense anymore,” he said, yet admitting that the reform was still being negotiated.

Fernando Lugo served as president of Paraguay from 2008 until June 22, 2012, when his tenure was prematurely cut short in what most leaders in the region called a parliamentary coup. Lugo's election broke the six-decade rule of the right-wing Colorado Party and was seen as part of the progressive wave of leaders elected through Latin America. An adherent of liberation theology, the former Catholic bishop arrived to the presidency thanks to his commitment to implement reforms in favor of the long-neglected poor in the country. Lugo faced opposition from the powerful political establishment in Paraguay, who impeded his efforts at nearly every turn and conspired to secure his ouster from the outset of his presidency. His opponents succeeded when they mounted a political show trial in the country's Congress.

Monsignor Fernando Armindo Lugo Mendez, S.V.D., officially declared his candidacy for the Presidency of Paraguay on 25 December 2006 in front of his parent's home in Encarnacion. He had long been rumored a potential 2008 presidential candidate, particularly after he led the opposition in a large March demonstration against the President's maneuver to win simultaneous appointment as the Colorado Party's President. Prior to his emergence then with a more mainstream message condemning corruption, Lugo had participated and led a number of countryside peasant demonstrations that often produced road blockages and land invasions.

Lugo's candidacy injected a significant measure of suspense and controversy into traditionally sterile campaigns for political office in Paraguay. Opponents are quick to cast Lugo as the next Chavez or Morales, given Paraguay's conservative tradition and Lugo's reliance on opposition political party support.

Fernando Lugo relied on his diverse background to govern Paraguay and hold together the varied interests in his political coalition. Lugo comes from a family of long-time Colorado dissidents, particularly vocal during the Stroessner years. After distinguished national military service, Lugo began his own career as a teacher in 1969 but soon found his calling in the Catholic Church. Ordained a bishop in 1994, Lugo was assigned to the Archdiocese of San Pedro for 11 years before stepping down. Lugo launched the organization Citizen Resistance in March 2006 and made his political start by speaking at a massive political rally the same month, leading many to believe that he would be the only presidential candidate who could defeat the Colorados in the April 2008 election.

While Lugo's quiet, affable style would help him build consensus in the government, other aspects of his personality, such as his avoidance of confrontation, could hinder his ability to govern. Some members of Lugo's inner circle maintain ties to representatives of Venezuelan President Chavez and Lugo himself had loose personal ties to members of Paraguay's Free Fatherland Party (PPL), the all-but-defunct leftist micro-party with an armed wing. Lugo leveraged his status with the Catholic Church and reputation for honesty to win the presidency; he would need more than just a little help from "upstairs" to govern as president.

Lugo’s leadership style contributed to the difficulties he had early in his term moving his agenda forward. Many claimed that Lugo’s leadership style was heavily influenced by his background in the priesthood. As one analyst framed it, “Lugo’s timeframe for decision making and communication of those decisions is eternal—long-term as it is in the Catholic Church,” clearly reflecting a common complaint about Lugo’s apparent inability to make timely decisions on critical issues. These difficulties reportedly also apply to his communications with key cabinet ministers. His leadership and communications difficulties have only been exacerbated by the scandals associated with his admittedly having fathered a child while serving as the Bishop of San Pedro. These stories struck at his reputation as a trustworthy political outside.

Lugo's political organization was the Patriotic Alliance for Change (APC), comprised of 12 political parties and nine political movements, centered principally on the Radical Authentic Liberal Party (PLRA), Paraguay's largest and oldest opposition political party. Lugo is a registered member of Paraguay's (largely irrelevant) Christian Democratic Party. His vice president-elect, Luis Federico Franco Gomez, is a long-time PLRA member. Lugo thrived in the social and religious arenas by reaching out to the poor and disenfranchised, largely with populist (though not necessarily incendiary) principles.

Lugo came from a family of long-time Colorado dissidents, particularly vocal during the Stroessner years. He was born on May 30, 1951, in San Pedro del Parana (Itapua Department) to Guillermo Lugo and Maximina Mendez Fleitas. His uncle, Epifanio Mendez Fleitas, was a renowned dissident Colorado leader and rival to dictator Alfredo Stroessner who fled in exile to Uruguay in 1956. Mendez Fleitas founded the Popular Colorado Movement (MOPOCO) in 1959, a dissident Colorado revolutionary group that advocated Stroessner's overthrow. Lugo's father Guillermo was detained twenty times during Stroessner's 35-year reign; his brothers were tortured and exiled. (His sister Mercedes puts their father's lifetime total arrests at 38.) Their brother Pompeyo remains a dissident Colorado (ref A), another brother lives in France; their final brother died of natural causes.

Despite his family's strong political traditions, Fernando Lugo himself remained politically disengaged until he resigned from the priesthood in 2006 to pursue politics full time. As a young man, Fernando Lugo finished first in his class during his obligatory military service. Yet Lugo was denied a military commission because of his family's opposition to Stroessner.

Lugo then began his career as a teacher in 1969 but soon found his calling in the Catholic Church. He earned his undergraduate degree in religious science from the Catholic University of Asuncion in 1977, the same year the Catholic Church ordained him as a priest. Lugo served as a missionary in Ecuador from 1977 until 1982, where he learned the principles of Liberation Theology under Leonidas Proanho, the "Bishop of the Poor."

He returned to Paraguay in 1982 and served one year as an apprentice in the Order of the Divine Word. He studied spirituality and sociology in Italy from 1983 to 1987, earning a bachelor's degree in sociology from Gregoriana University in Rome. (There are reports the Church sent him abroad repeatedly -- Italy, Germany, Ecuador, Peru -- to protect him from Stroessner's regime.) Lugo served from 1987 to 1992 as a professor at the Superior Institute of Theology in Asuncion, as head of the Order of the Divine Word, and as vice president of the Religious Confederation of Paraguay.

The Church ordained Lugo as a bishop in 1994 and assigned him to the Archdiocese of San Pedro, one of the poorest areas in this poor country -- and one intentionally marginalized by the Colorados because of a strong Liberal Party presence, which occasionally manifested itself in the form of rural armed groups over the decades. During his 11-year tenure as bishop, Lugo fought for campesino rights and organized the region's peasant movement. He resigned as bishop in January 2005. Pope John Paul II accepted his resignation in January 2006 and he thus acquired the title of Bishop Emeritus of San Pedro. Lugo submitted his petition to resign from the clergy in December 2006 to run for president; the Vatican denied his request in January 2007.

Press reports in 2005 indicated that the Paraguayan Episcopal Conference (CEP) announced that it had no objections to Lugo's activities as bishop and believed his actions were intended to address social injustices and poverty. However, other 2005 press reports indicated that the CEP forced Lugo to resign as bishop because of his association with inciting land invasions that resulted in violence as well as a rumor that Lugo fathered a child. The Church must still decide whether to accept Lugo's rsignation, provide a "temporary dispensation," or excommunicate him after he assumed the presidency on August 15.

Some members of Lugo's inner circle had ties to representatives of Venezuelan President Chavez. These Lugo insiders claim that he supports Chavez' plans for Latin America; Lugo has stated publicly and privately that he will not align himself with Chavez. Lugo volunteered to OAS chief of electoral mission (and former Colombia Foreign Minister) Maria Emma Mejia 21 April 2008 that while Chavez was the first president to congratulate him April 20, he does not know Chavez and was delighted that the U.S. Ambassador was in fact the first caller to congratulate him and to offer support for his government. One party in Lugo's coalition, the P-MAS (Paraguayan Movement towards Socialism), receives Venezuelan financial support. When pressed publicly, Lugo has publicly identified himself as closest in ideology and management style to Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez.

Lugo himself has loose ties to members of the Free Fatherland Party (PPL) -- the tiny Paraguayan Marxist-Leninist party which developed an armed wing in the early part of the decade, and which had roots in San Pedro and Concepcion Departments. Several PPL leaders are reportedly ex-seminarians, although Lugo has publicly denied having been their instructor (which is not to say that they did not know each other in Paraguay's small circle of clergy). During the presidential campaign, it was publicly alleged that Lugo assisted PPL members in planning and executing the 2004 kidnapping of former president Raul Cubas Grau's daughter, Cecilia Cubas, and to have helped PPL members escape Paraguayan justice. Lugo publicly denied the same. Lugo is not known to have links to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC); Lugo told Maria Emma Mejia April 21 that he is inclined to publicly declare (post-inauguration) the FARC "a terrorist organization." He stressed to Mejia he had no problem with the use of the word terrorist to describe them since "the FARC killed my friend."

Lugo signed a petition in 2000 against USG funding for Plan Colombia. The petition, drafted by members of the PPL (which was then a legal party), was sent to the Foreign Affairs Ministry and foreign embassies. Lugo, along with President Chavez and many others, also signed a 2006 manifesto opposing the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) in Latin America.

Lugo was convinced that corrupt elements of the police (if not certain Colorado politicians) had protected the PPL kidnappers, whom he said were responsible for the kidnapping and ultimate killing of Cecilia Cubas. He said a police officer came to him with information as to where Cubas was then being held. (Lugo was still Bishop of San Pedro at this time.) He said they jointly went to see the Interior Minister (Nelson Mora) the night of December 6-7, 2004, provided him the address -- and even told him that a police officer (and possible suspect) lived next door to the house where Cubas was being held. Lugo said the Minister assured them he was already aware, and that "all was being taken care of." The police officer accompanying Lugo, however, was suddenly reassigned the next day. Lugo recalled that the Minister publicly declared "We know where you are" and gave the PPL "24 hours" to surrender -- but no action was taken. This statement is confirmed by contemporary press reports.Cubas' body was only recovered in February 2006, from the same house Lugo says they had identified to the Interior Minister in December.

Lugo launched the organization Citizen Resistance in March 2006 and burst onto the national political scene as a last-minute speaker at a massive political rally on March 29, 2006. Lugo spoke to about 35,000 people and against the decision by five members of the Supreme Court to affirm Duarte (contrary to the Constitution) as president of both the government and Colorado Party. Many began to suggest that he should run and could defeat the Colorados in the 2008 presidential election. Lugo organized other marches against the Colorados and supported launching the opposition political movement Tekojoja in June 2006. He subsequently formally registered as a member of the (micro) Christian Democratic Party.

Lugo won the support of the PLRA in June 2007 when he agreed to accept a member of the PLRA as his running mate. The political opposition formed the APC, Lugo's alliance, in September 2007 from the remnants of the National Assembly (Concertacion Nacional), which splintered when the National Union of Ethical Citizens Party (UNACE) and Beloved Fatherland Party (PQ) fielded their own presidential tickets.

While Lugo's quiet, affable style would help him build consensus in the next government, other aspects of his personality, such as his avoidance of confrontation, could hinder his ability to govern. Lugo generally connects well with people (although he is reportedly uncomfortable with women) and has thus far been successful in attracting a diverse support base. He is said to be an expert in "human nature" and is a quick and accurate judge of character. Personally a quiet, unpretentious and serene individual, Lugo cares little for physical possessions. He typically wears sandals, because that is who he is. (He says he has owned two suits in his life; one for high school graduation and another for his ordination. He bought his third for the May 16 Ibero-American Summit in Lima, Peru.) However, his strong populist leanings -- including a reputation for detesting flaunting of wealth by the rich -- could lead to rifts with the political establishment. Likewise, even Lugo's closest advisors worry that he will walk away from conflict within his own alliance. His reportedly strained relationship with Vice President-elect Federico Franco indicates that he may not be able to work effectively with influential members of his own alliance (let alone with the Colorados). But he also has demonstrated an iron will, and is not easily moved from strongly held positions.

Given his career as a member of the Catholic clergy, Lugo is unmarried (although he is rumored to have fathered several illegitimate children). Lugo said he admires Nelson Mandela, and particularly, how Mandela defied predictions of impending social strife to bring his country together and move it forward together. Lugo speaks Spanish, Guarani, Portuguese, Italian, and at least some German. He has also studied English.

Lugo leveraged his status with the Catholic Church and reputation for honesty to win the presidency, but he would need more than just a little help from "upstairs" to govern as president. It is unclear whether Lugo had the skills needed to run Paraguay (he reportedly caused an NGO he managed for one year to fail), but his historic win with over 40 percent of the vote gives him strong momentum that will help him govern in the short term. He is a leftist at heart, but given the Liberal Party's influence in his coalition and Congress' strong role in the Paraguayan government, he would have to steer a center-left course.

Barely a year into his term, Lugo was already facing threats of impeachment. Using the Curuguaty massacre as a pretext, the political elite rushed to convene a political trial against the president. On June 21, 2012, the two establishment political parties, the Colorado Party of the Stroessner dictatorship and the right-wing Liberal Party launched impeachment proceedings against Lugo. A day later, having been given only two hours to prepare his defense, the Paraguayan Senate, dominated by opponents, voted to impeach Lugo and remove him from office.

Lugo opted not to fight his ousting and was quickly replaced by his vice president, Federico Franco, a member of the Colorado Party who had earlier broken with the president. Franco quickly restored the old way of doing things in Paraguay, reversing many of Lugo's policies. Horacio Cartes, also of the Colorado party, was subsequently elected president in elections held April, 2013.

Before being temporarily suspended from her post as president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff warned the country could face a “Paraguay-style” coup. She would eventually be proven right when in May 2016 the Brazilian Senate voted to proceed with impeachment proceedings, forcing Rousseff to temporarily step down. US Ambassador to Brazil Liliana Ayalde previously served as ambassador to Paraguay in the lead-up to the 2012 coup against Lugo.