...a former bishop, known as the "bishop of the poor," who lived his whole life with the poor, and who was the only one who could pull the fractious left and other political parties in Paraguay into a coalition to defeat the fascist Colorado Party rulers, who had held power for 60 years, including a period of heinous dictatorship.
His win of the presidential election in 2008 was such a triumph for Paraguay and for the leftist democracy movement that has swept Latin America. Evo Morales sent him this message of congratulations: "Welcome to the Axis of Evil!" They all attended his inauguration for a wonderful celebration, and there are memorable photographs and one fabulous tape of President Lugo and President Chavez getting on stage together to do a rendition of "Todo Cambio" ("Everything Changes").
What a loss to Paraguay, and to all of Latin America, if Fernando Lugo loses his battle with this scary form of cancer--non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Here is a web site that explains his chances. We don't know what kind he has (but his age is against him, apparently) so we can't know how long he may have.
http://www.umm.edu/patiented/articles/how_serious_non-hodgkins_lymphomas_000084_5.htm One of causes of the poor that Fernando Lugo championed was the poor farm workers' struggle against toxic pesticide spraying. We can only wonder if his health was affected by those toxins, as so many farm workers and their children and their animals are.
There were news articles not long ago that he had had to purge rightwing coupmongers from Paraguay's military, who were plotting against him (something Rafael Correa in Ecuador also had to do, after the U.S./Colombia bombing/raid on Ecuador in early 2008, and Chavez had to do in Venezuela after the 2002 coup attempt). Also, Lugo just recently refused to accept U.S. troops on Paraguay's soil--a view he has long held, opposing this violation of Paraguay's sovereignty that the Colorado Party leaders had welcomed. Lugo's serious illness makes Paraguay once again vulnerable to fascist forces who are--no doubt in my mind--allied with the U.S. in the cause of destroying democracy and any hope of social justice in Latin America.
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