Americas

Ruling party’s Santiago Peña elected president of Paraguay

Colorado Party wins presidential and congressional elections

Santiago Peña, the candidate for the long-ruling Colorado party, and his wife, Leticia Ocampos de Pea, celebrate with supporters after winning Paraguay's presidential election. Photograph: Daniel Duarte/AFP via Getty Images

Michael Stott
Mon May 1 2023 - 19:00

Paraguay’s long-ruling Colorado party has won a convincing victory in presidential and congressional elections, sending a rare message of continuity in a region where opposition candidates have won almost all recent elections.

Santiago Peña, a 44-year-old pro-business former finance minister, profited from a split opposition to win the presidency with 42.7 per cent of the vote, according to official results with 99.9 per cent counted. In his victory speech he focused on boosting growth in the Latin American country, pledging to tackle “the recent years of economic stagnation and fiscal deficits”.

Paraguay is one of Taiwan’s most important remaining allies and Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen was swift to congratulate Peña on his victory in Sunday’s election. She expressed the hope that the country would develop and prosper under his leadership and the diplomatic bond with Taiwan would deepen, her office said in a statement.

The main opposition challenger, Efraín Alegre, had pledged to review Paraguay’s relationship with Taiwan, saying it was damaging the soy and beef export industries by depriving them of access to the huge Chinese market.

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But Alegre’s centre-left alliance mustered only 27.5 per cent of the vote, with far-right populist Paraguayo Cubas close behind on 22.9 per cent. Having failed to win the presidency at his third attempt, 60-year-old Alegre now faces pressure to give way to a younger opposition leader.

Paraguay has no run-off election, so Sunday’s result gives Peña outright victory. The conservative Colorado party, one of Latin America’s longest-ruling political movements, also won a majority in both houses of congress. It secured 23 of the 45 senators, 49 of the 80 lower house deputies and 15 of the 17 state governorships.

Calling for “unity and consensus”, Peña said: “We have a lot to do ... the task that awaits us is not for a single person or party.”

Paraguayans appear to have shrugged off Peña’s close links to former president Horacio Cartes, a business magnate whom the US sanctioned for “significant corruption” and alleged ties to Lebanese Islamist group Hizbullah.

Peña was finance minister in Cartes’ 2013-18 government and the former president stood next to the victorious candidate as he gave his celebratory speech. Cartes said he was “overcome with emotion” and wanted to be “a tool” for the new government.

Cartes had promoted Peña’s candidacy, triggering divisions within the Colorado ranks and a split with current president Mario Abdo Benítez, who had attacked the pair. However, Abdo’s own very low popularity seems to have limited the impact of his criticism.

“Peña’s market-friendly campaign message has been focused on attracting foreign investment to unleash the country’s growth potential by maintaining low taxes, fostering public-private partnerships and facilitating the regulatory framework for foreign investors,” Lucila Barbeito, economic analyst at JPMorgan, said in a note on Monday.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2023

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