by DAWN PALEY
There’s a new President in Latin America, and his name isn’t Nicolás Maduro. The election that brought him to power was called by an illegitimate regime following a coup d’etat, and his name isn’t Porfirio Lobo. He’s a wealthy, conservative businessman, and his name isn’t Sebastián Piñera. His party ruled for over 60 years, and his name isn’t Enrique Peña Nieto.
Horacio Cartes is his name, and he was elected President of Paraguay on April 21. His party, the conservative Colorado (ANR-PC) party, governed Paraguay for 61 years. During 35 of those years, from 1954-1989, dictator Alfredo Stroessner was the party’s leader.
Cartes represents rich new blood in the sagging veins of the old party. According to Spanish newspaper El Pais, even though voting is mandatory in Paraguay, Cartes had never once voted before running for president, and only recently joined the party. “What Cartes brought to the party was the soundness of his immense fortune, built on the tobacco industry, and his experience as a shareholder in 25 companies with 3,500 employees,” reported the Spanish daily on the day of his election.
School of the Americas Watch, which sent a delegation to observe the elections, expressed concern at Cartes’ sympathy for the dictatorship, his public disdain for queer people, and his seemingly totalitarian aspirations.
Cartes’ link to drug traffickers was reported in the New York Times, and his implication in money laundering has been amply documented. “Through the utilization of a [Drug Enforcement Administration] [Buenos Aires Country Office] cooperating source and other DEA undercover personnel, agents have infiltrated CARTES’ money laundering enterprise, an organization believed to launder large quantities of United States currency generated through illegal means, including through the sale of narcotics, from the [Tri-Border Area of Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil] to the United States,” according to a State Department cable leaked by Wikileaks. As if that wasn’t enough, a recent report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists revealed that a bank owned by Cartes opened a secret locale in the offshore tax-haven of the Cook Islands.
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