President Lugo fires Paraguay's military chiefs

[Bacchus39]

President Lugo fires Paraguay's military chiefs

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091105/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_paraguay_lugo

By PEDRO SERVIN, Associated Press Writer Pedro Servin, Associated Press Writer –

ASUNCION, Paraguay – Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo fired his military chiefs Wednesday, a day after denying he had worries about a coup amid calls for his impeachment.

In a statement given to journalists at the presidential palace, Lugo named new commanders for the army, air force and navy without explaining his reasons. The new chiefs will assume their posts Thursday, said the statement signed by the president.

There was no immediate reaction from the military or from the political opposition, which controls Congress.

The new military commanders must be approved by the Senate, but Lugo had not yet submitted a formal request.

The shuffling in the military command came only one day after Lugo, a left-leaning former Roman Catholic bishop, publicly dismissed speculation about a possible coup as he struggles with Congress over implementing economic and social changes.

"I can assure you as commander in chief of the armed forces that, institutionally, there is no danger of a military coup," he said Tuesday when asked about coup rumors. "There could be small military groups that are connected to or could be used by the political class, but institutionally, the military does not show any intent of reversing the process of democratic consolidation."

The rumors were apparently prompted by tanks seen headed from Paraguay's Brazilian border toward the capital. It turned out the tanks were simply returning after maintenance work in Brazil.

Since winning the presidency last year and ending 61 years of domination by the conservative Colorado Party, Lugo has been trying to push reforms that aim to benefit Paraguay's numerous poor.

He has criticized an elite class that "sits comfortably in air-conditioned offices," while the poor "survive on just one meal a day if they are lucky ... without safe drinking water, surrounded by misery."

Lugo's rivals have been searching for ways to force him about of office before his term ends in August 2013.

Last week, a majority of lawmakers threatened to mount an impeachment trial over comments he allegedly made in a poor neighborhood that some interpreted as a call for class warfare. Lugo denied saying that.

Amid his troubles with the opposition, Lugo also drawn criticism from some supporters who are becoming disillusioned by his failure to find ways of using the power of the presidency to overcome the opposition.

[Peace Patriot]

1. Oh dear. The rightwing coup in Honduras haunts this article, though they never mention it.

This is one of the reasons that the Honduran coup still being in charge in Honduras, with martial law still in place to prevent rebellion, is so important as a really bad precedent in Latin America. Ousted President Zelaya has a 67% approval rating in Honduras, and President Lugo at one point, just after his election, had a 90% approval rating--and I'm sure it's still high, in the 70% range. It takes violence, suspension of civil rights, and forced removal of a popular president, for 30% of the people (the rich elite ) to rule over 70% of the people (the poor majority).

There are some differences between the two countries. Paraguay is not so much a client state of the US as Honduras is. There is no US military base in Paraguay, and I believe the US troops who were there, in some kind of joint maneuvers with the Paraguayan military, are now gone. Paraguay is also bordered by a powerful ally, Brazil and its president Lula da Silva, who helped stop a Bushwhack-instigated rightwing coup in Bolivia last year, and is permitting Zelaya to use the Brazilian embassy in Honduras as a refuge. Honduras has countries with leftist governments on every border, but they are not Brazil. Also, there is not as much US corporate business in Paraguay as in Honduras. And Paraguay doesn't have Honduras' dreadful history as a "lily pad" country for Reagan's bloody aggressions against Nicaragua, El Salvador and others. Paraguay has less strategic importance than Honduras. John McCain has telecommunications interests in Honduras, and poured $43 million of US taxpayer dollars (through his "International Republican Institute," via the USAID) into coup-supporting groups in Honduras. Several big US clothing retailers (Gap, for instance) have sweatshops in Honduras. Chiquita also has big operations in Honduras. And there are war profiteer and war planning interests in Honduras at the Pentagon. Honduras also has a long coast on the Caribbean with US naval facilities, while Paraguay is landlocked. Finally, Paraguay has fewer resources than Honduras--though both are resource-poor. What I'm saying is that it's possible that corpo-fascists here may not have as much motive to pour money into rightwing groups in Paraguay and there is less motive for private or CIA instigation of a coup.

But President Lugo's firing of the top Paraguayan military is quite worrisome, as a possible sign that a coup was in the works. President Zelaya's firing of the head of Honduras' military was one of the triggers of the Honduran coup.

It's interesting that, in Bolivia, the Bushwhacks and the white separatists waited until Evo Morales had renegotiated Bolivia's gas contracts with multinationals, doubling Bolivia's revenues from one billion to two billion dollars per year, and then struck with civil rebellion to try to split off Bolivia's gas rich eastern region into a fascist mini-state in control of the resource. I thought this was very ironical. They wait for a leftist to do the hard business dealing, then create mayhem, rioting and killing, to take advantage of it. President Lugo in Paraguay just finished renegotiating the contracts for Paraguay's hydroelectric power (virtually its only resource) on much better terms for Paraguay than the rightwing party, in power for 61 years, were ever able to achieve, and now they may be threatening a coup? The buggers!

Just remembered, there is one other big difference between Honduras and Paraguay that may protect Paraguay's democracy, and that is MERCOSUR. Paraguay is a member of the MERCOSUR trade group, and they have democracy requirements for membership. (In fact, Paraguay had to rescind its non-extradition law, and its law giving immunity to US military personnel--a violation of its sovereignty--to become a member.) Another irony: The rightwing members of Brazil's senate have been trying to prevent Venezuela's full membership in MERCOSUR on the grounds that Chavez is not democratic. This is rather laughable coming from the rightwing, but there you are. In any case, their hypocrisy would be exposed if they were to argue that a coup government (of Paraguay) should remain in MERCOSUR, while Venezuela's honestly, transparently elected government cannot join the club. This and other benefits of abiding by the rule of law--such as Paraguay's membership in the Venezuela-organized Bank of the South--may protect Lugo's presidency and Paraguay's democracy.