Golpe de estado

In my opinion, it is a legal impeachment of a good for nothing leader that have neither the approval of the Parlament, nor the approval of the people.

I am Paraguayan, and I had voted for him along with 3 other members of my family.  We had long ago removed our approval for that clown.  Now we and the majority of the country is happy and peaceful knowing that better people will be in charge of the country.

We have elections in April 2013.  I bet you whatever amount of money that these caviar leftist as we call them wont even have 50,000 votes for any Presidential runner.

We Paraguayans thought that they would desappear next year, but the masacre of policeman and landless peasants on June, 15th was the breaking point.

Do any of you know how much time "our ex leader" took to explain the situation and the Goverment possition???? 67 seconds!!!  It was too much and the majority of the inhabitants of my country are very happy indead.

You will see much more people in favour of our current Goverment which was elected along as Lugo as Franco is the former Vice President this Wednesday.

Whatever Argentina, Venezuela et al could do is just smokescreen!!!

Hello. I hope that I am not intruding by asking that you consider signing and posting my petition requesting that the U.S. government not recognize the coup in Paraguay and support legitimate democracy. You can find it here: http://signon.org/sign/support-democracy-in-1

People, before saying anything about the last things that happend in Py, please take your time and read the Constitution of Paraguay. I donŽt agree with what heppend, but the National Constition grants a Super Power to Congress, in a democracy, the National COnstitution is the supreme law, that regulates our lives and we owe her obedience. If this government is not recognized, then the only ones hurt are the normal people. Also the fear of extending the procedure was the past politica trial where lot of people got killed, during a long impeachment process. Also the members of former cabinet threaten congress with asaulting parliament, we were lucky that the police forces and militars refused to do so. Also you seen what the Venezuelan chancelor did. So please before giving an opinion about what happend, please read our Constitution and also our history. I strongly believe that this process (LugoŽs ) should have ended with the next year elections, but regretfully our National Constitution grants that right to Congress to impeach him, and that specific procedure is not regulted.

...and we all know that they only impeached him because it was good for "their" business, otherwise they wouldn't have cared a f******. They only get richer and the people only get f***** no matter which way this turns out...


my 2 cents.

Since when does knowing that one's government wants to do something (to get richer, to support big business, etc.) mean that we shouldn't say that we are opposed to it????

Of course one can and should! This hole impeachment was one big joke, even if the constitution may allow something like that. Thats why the world has only ever laughed about Py and will only keep on doing so...

(maybe for the better)

I agree that the motives that pushed the impeachment are of course economical interests. But laughable, first lets see first world countries: The Invasion of Irak? Afganistan? Apartheid in SA, the Prague trials, etc. etc. Chavez and CastroŽs regimes. Those are things to laugh of or worst feel sorry for.

I donŽt agree with the impeachment, but if you read our Constitution, it is called a Presidential Regime, but in Practice, power mostly relies in Parliament. Senators were voted in democratic elections, the vice (current president) was voted by the people, to comply with the constitution.

The term: "mal desempeño de sus funciones" opens a big rainbow of interpretations that locates our system almost ot an equivalent of parliamentary system, when parliament has no mor confidence in the prime minister.

Form does not accept substance, so I guess unfair or not, the impeachment was legal, Lugo is free to do whatever he wants and there were no people killed. Again I am not in favour of what happend, but it is ridiculous, to be acused by countries such as Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina or even US. Paraguay has proven that is more democratic than most countries, wher freedom of expression is total, I agree the motives of impeachment are obscure, but Lugo did a lot of things that can be considered "mal desempeño", so please read our legal system and read our history before giving an insult to this country.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the original question:

"How is it affecting things in Paraguay?"

Well I'll answer that first:

Life, in general, is pretty much the same.  People go to work, shopping, eat in restaurants, go to the cinema, etc.  As if nothing had happened.  Ok, I haven't been to the city centre, but my stepson lives there and tells me that life is quite normal there as well.  There are some demonstrations, from what I understand, in front of the Public TV Channel, where Lugo's supporters have an "open microphone" and everything they say is broadcasted live on TV.  Does that sound like a dictatorship or lack of democracy?

Some people have also demonstrated in favour of Paraguay's sovereignty, without being for or against Lugo/Franco. Some pro-Lugo demonstrations have also taken place inland, but everything was done PEACEFULLY!

NO, there are no tanks in the streets or military everywhere.

Oh, actually, I've never heard people express their opinions so freely before.  I think it woke up the nation!  And I believe that's good.

Now the Mercosur has decided to exclude Paraguay from political decisions until new elections and the new President takes office in August 2013.  No economic sanctions, but everyone knows that this will affect the credibility of Paraguay in the eyes of foreign investors.  OH!  And they managed to squeeze in Venezuela as a full member, something that Paraguay had been opposed to for years (since Venezuela is not very democratic...).  That was convenient for them, wasn't it?

Now, going to the discussion regarding the impeachment process, YES it was extremely brief and maybe the outcome would have been more accepted internationally if they had given Lugo more time to prepare his defense.  He had 2 hours...Paraguay was not given one second at the Mercosur Summit in Mendoza..."do as I say but not as I do..."

I also believe that it was not right morally, but constitutionally, it seems that it IS possible and legal.  So the real problem here is, that the constitution needs to be changed, since it is too vague at the moment... But that is surely a long and difficult process, although something to think about for the future.

Lugo did some good things for the country, well actually, people always says LUGO, but in reality you should say LUGO's government.  A President cannot take all decisions alone, that wouldn't be democratic, right?

However, from my perspective as a foreigner here (I'm not allowed to vote anyways), Lugo seems to have spoken more to the media AND the people in the last week, then he has done so in the last 4 years!

I don't think that Lugo can come back.  Not legally anyways, so if the people are not happy, then they should say so, peacefully, and then make a big X in April 2013 and vote for the person who can change everything for the best.  I seriously don't know who this person is, but let's wait and see.

The only thing I can see, is that the new cabinet formed by President Franco seems to be very competent.  Only time will tell!

It doesn't change my decision to continue living here.  I love Paraguay and its people, as I have said very often lately, with all of its contradictions!

Have a nice day!