He received his basic education at a religious school inEncarnación, and sold snacks on the streets.[4]
His family was not particularly religious; by his own account, he never saw his father set foot in a church.[4] However, they were active inColorado Party politics. His maternal uncle,Epifanio Méndez Fleitas, was a co-conspirator in the1954 Paraguayan coup d'état that helped bringAlfredo Stroessner to power. However, he later fell out of favor with Stroessner and ultimately became a dissident after leaving the country. Fernando's father was imprisoned twenty times, and some of his elder siblings were sent into so-called exile.
His father wanted Lugo to become a lawyer, but at 18 Lugo entered a normal school, and began teaching in a rural community. He was well accepted by the community, which was very religious, but they had no priest. He said later that he was touched by that experience, and so discovered hisvocation to the Roman Catholic priesthood. At age 19 he entered a seminary operated by theSociety of the Divine Word. He was ordained a priest for the society on 15 August 1977. He was sent toEcuador, where he served as a missionary for five years. In Ecuador he learned aboutliberation theology and taught classes at the Centro Biblio Verbo Divino in Quito.
Lugo returned to Paraguay in 1982, and after a year, was sent to Rome for further academic studies.[4] Lugo came back to Paraguay in 1987, two years before the Stroessner dictatorship's fall. Lugo was ordained a bishop on 17 April 1994, and received charge of the nation's poorestdiocese, in theSan Pedro diocese.[4]
Lugo resigned asordinary of the Diocese of San Pedro on 11 January 2005. He had requestedlaicization to run for office. However, theHoly See refused the request on the grounds that bishops could not undergo laicization, and also denied him the requested canonical permission to run for civil elected office.[5] However, after Lugo won the presidential election, the Church granted his laicization[6] on 30 June 2008.[7]
Without doubt it is possible to resurrect a country like Paraguay. We are people of hope, of faith, and I won't be the one killing that hope of the people. I do believe we will resurrect this country, a country deeply drowned in misery, poverty and discrimination. Because I do believe Paraguay could be different. I do not lack faith in this flock. Where there is a scream coming from the poor people, where there is sweat, where people are shoeless, we will be there. Because in such people there is a resurrection; if that exists there, then there is resurrection for Paraguay.
Lugo jumped to the national arena by backing peasant claims for better land distribution. During 2006, opinion polls published byDiario ABC Color newspaper showed him as a possible choice for the opposition's presidential candidacy. Known as "the bishop of the poor", Lugo was seen in subsequent months as the most serious threat to the dominance of theColorado Party on Paraguayan politics. Although he said he found the presidency ofHugo Chávez in Venezuela interesting, he made a point to distance himself from leftist leaders in Latin America, focusing more on social inequality in Paraguay.On 23 February 2007, aPrensa Latina article noted that the Paraguayan Interior Ministry offered Lugo protection because of the death threats he received during the course of his political activities.[9]
According to a poll in February 2007, he was the leading contender in theApril 2008 presidential election, with more than 37% of the voters' intention.[10] On 29 October 2007, he registered as member of the small Christian Democratic Party of Paraguay (CDP), which allowed him to file as a candidate.[11]
The legality of Lugo's candidacy was questioned, because Article 235 of the Constitution forbids clerics of any religious denomination to hold elective office, andPope Benedict XVI had rejected Lugo's resignation from the priesthood.[13]However, on 16 November 2007, PresidentNicanor Duarte Frutos (also Chairman of the Colorado Party) announced that the Party would not object to Lugo's candidacy,[14] In July 2008, the Popelaicized Lugo, which made the question moot.[15]
On 20 April 2008, Lugo won the election by a margin of 10%, gaining a 42.3% vote share. The Colorado Party candidate,Blanca Ovelar, acknowledged that Lugo had an unassailable lead and conceded the race that same night at about 9 pm local time. Two hours later, President Duarte acknowledged that the Colorados had lost an election for the first time in 61 years. Lugo's swearing in marked the first time in Paraguay's history (the country gained independence in 1811) that a ruling party peacefully surrendered power to an elected member from the opposition.[16] He became Paraguay's second leftist president (the first beingRafael Franco, who served from 1936 to 1937), and the first to be freely elected.
Lugo was sworn in as President on 15 August 2008, saying he would not accept the presidential salary because it "belongs to more humble people" and encouraged other politicians to refuse their salaries as well.[17]
He initially namedAlejandro Hamed as his foreign minister. During the campaign, Lugo had suggested that he would switch diplomatic relations from theRepublic of China (Taiwan) to the People's Republic of China,[18] thereby depriving the ROC of its last diplomatic ally in South America. However, after the inauguration, which had been attended by PresidentMa Ying-jeou from Taiwan, Lugo stated that he had no plans to switch recognition.[19]
On 18 August 2008, Lugo namedMargarita Mbywangi, a member of theAchéindigenous ethnic group, as secretary of indigenous affairs, the first indigenous person to hold such a position in Paraguay.[20]
Two of the main promises of Lugo's presidential campaign were tackling corruption and encouraging land reform. A number of initiatives were introduced to improve the lives of Paraguay's poor, such as investments in low-income housing,[21] the introduction of free treatment in public hospitals,[22][23] and the introduction of cash transfers for Paraguay's most impoverished citizens.[24]
In May 2011, representatives of the Itaipu Pension Fund (Cajubi) met with Lugo and the Director General of Itaipu, Gustavo Codas, to discuss Cajubi's problematic investments abroad.[25]
In May 2012, during Lugo's presidency and with Diego Bertolucci as Itaipu's Legal Director, former prosecutor and Cajubi lawyer Rafael Fernández obtained an investment recovery contract with a fee of USD 4 million, of which USD 500,000 was paid upon signing.[26][27]
In early June 2012, during Lugo's presidency, Itaipu's Legal Director, Diego Bertolucci, publicly dubbed Cajubi's investments abroad "The Heist of the Century." Bertolucci told the media that he had orders from the President of the Republic, Fernando Lugo, to recover the embezzled funds.[28]
On June 14, 2012, ABC Color reported that, during Lugo's presidency, Itaipu Binacional assumed responsibility for the total amount of the "theft of the century."[29]
In August and September 2012, under the presidency of Lugo's successor,Federico Franco, the contract for attorney Rafael Fernandez's fees in Cajubi was rejected and renegotiated. The incoming Legal Director of Itaipu, Eusebio Ramon Ayala, described the contract as quasi-criminal and exploitative. Fernandez's fees were reduced from USD 4 million to USD 2 million.[30][31][32]
On 15 June 2012, seventeen people were killed in a clash between landless farmers and the police who were trying to evict them; some sources consider that all this was taken as a pretext to expel Lugo.[50] TheChamber of Deputies cited this event as well as insecurity, nepotism and a controversial land purchase to vote 76 to 1 toimpeach Lugo on 21 June 2012.[51] TheSenate took up the case the next day.[52] The impeachment was attended by a delegation of Foreign Affairs ministers from the other nations of theUnion of South American Nations.[53] The vote ended with 39 votes for Lugo's removal and four for his continuity, which ended his mandate and turnedFederico Franco into the new president of Paraguay.[54] Lugo announced that he would denounce the case to theInter-American Court of Human Rights, stating that the time to prepare a legal defence, just two hours, may be unconstitutional.[55] The removal of Lugo was followed by demonstrations by his supporters.[54]
The presidents of Paraguay's neighbouring countries rejected Lugo's removal from office, and compared it to a coup d'état. Brazilian presidentDilma Rousseff proposed suspending Paraguay's membership inMercosur and theUnion of South American Nations.Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina,Rafael Correa of Ecuador andLeonel Fernández of the Dominican Republic announced that they would not recognize Franco as president.[56] Condemnation also came from more conservative governments in the region, such asColombia and Chile. Lugo's removal has drawn comparisons to the ouster ofHonduras'Manuel Zelaya in 2009; like the ouster of Lugo it was defended as legal and constitutional by its supporters while being denounced as a coup across the Latin American political spectrum.[57][2]
Lugo himself accepted his ouster, saying that any legal and realistic chance of reinstating him ended when theSupreme Court of Paraguay declared his impeachment and confirmed his removal, and the electoral court recognized Franco as the new president. However, he denounced it as "a congressional coup."[58]
He is considered in the polls as the best president in the contemporary history of Paraguay.[59]
In the2013 election to replace his interim presidential replacement Lugo ran as a senate candidate.[60] He was elected as member of Paraguayan Senate representing left-wing coalitionFrente Guasú.[61]
Lugo fathered several children out of wedlock[66] including one that was allegedly the result of sexual assault.[67] These allegations from four mothers, who claimed that Lugo had fathered their children while under a vow of celibacy, emerged soon after his 2008 inauguration.[68] One of the children was conceived with a 24-year-old woman who says they began a sexual relationship when she was sixteen (Paraguay'sage of consent is 14[69]) and while he was a bishop.[70][71]
^Fernando Lugo cannot use the honorific prefix "His Excellency" for he was removed from office viaimpeachment, losing that honour as well as the "Senador Vitalicio" position.
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