How the elite, media, and Catholic Church dined on Lugo
Catholic bishops called for the president's resignation to avoid confrontation; lacking clerical, parliamentary, and media support, Fernando Lugo was easy prey for the coup imposed by conservatives in Paraguay; analysis by Leonardo Attuch
Leonardo Attuch _247 – Although the Paraguayan constitution allows for the political trial of its rulers, an impeachment process that unfolds in just two days can only be defined with one word: coup. That is what happened in Paraguay, no matter how much conservative voices, both here and there, defend the legality of the process. Period.
Up to this point, there is not much surprise, since Paraguayan history is marked by coups, dictatorships, and military uprisings. The difference this time was the subtlety of a "parliamentary coup," a "democratic coup." In short, a bloodless coup, imposed by the country's oligarchic elite.
The surprise itself was the reaction of President Fernando Lugo, who offered no resistance whatsoever and passively submitted himself to martyrdom. What accounts for this attitude? Perhaps it stems from his Catholic upbringing. A former priest, and vilified by many for the dozens of children he fathered, Lugo has a Christian soul. Upon leaving power, he offered the other cheek. "I leave through the widest door, the door of the heart," said the former president. Lugo will still try – in vain – to recover his political rights, but that is a lost battle.
In Paraguay, everything seems to be under control: Congress, the media, and even the Catholic Church. In today's Paraguayan newspapers, you won't find a single reference to the coup. Periodicals like "ABC Color" and "Cronica" treat the deposition of an elected president as a commonplace event, like a Cerro Porteño football match. ABC, in fact, ran the following headline yesterday, which already anticipated the Congress's decision: "If he doesn't resign, Lugo will be impeached."
Just like the media, the Paraguayan Catholic Church also joined the conservative elite in the coup plot. Hours before the "political trial," Lugo received, at the country's official residence, a group of bishops from the Episcopal Conference, which is equivalent to the CNBB in Brazil. One of them, Claudio Giménez, stated to the press that the priests asked Lugo to resign to "avoid confrontations."
Passively, Lugo thus summarized his downfall: "It is not Lugo who has been deposed, it is Paraguayan history." Wrong. Paraguayan history was not deposed. It was restored.