Former President Abdo warns Peña of ‘serious damage’ Paraguay’s two-headed government could cause

Asuncion, September 15 (EFE).- Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benitez (2018-2023) warned on Sunday his successor in office, Santiago Peña, of the “serious damage” that would result from the supposed two-headed government that would currently be in place in the South American country.

In an interview with local media ABC Color, Abdo Benitez accused “the president (Peña) of assuming the position of president. Double-headedness generates enormous damage and we have seen it historically when there has been double leadership in Paraguay.” The fact that the Paraguayan government is supposed to be headed by Peña, the head of the ruling Colorado party, as well as the country’s former president Horacio Cartes (2013-2018).

Abdo stressed that during the first year of Benya’s government, which ended on August 15, he saw matters that worried him related to the “independence” in exercising power, not his short-term management.

“This year I’ve seen things that really worry me, not so much in terms of the administration so far because one year is not enough time to evaluate a president’s administration, but in terms of independence,” said the former president, who is also a Republican but is considered an opponent of the government.

In this sense, Abdo Benitez, who reappeared on the Paraguayan political scene last August after a year of silence, criticized that he also did not find “a few dissident voices that could balance” within the current government.

“I see with concern when institutions are undermined and freedoms are threatened,” he added.

The Colorado Party is embroiled in a conflict between two of its most important factions: one led by Abdo Benitez and the other called “Honor Colorado” and taught by Cartes, who is considered Peña’s political mentor.

Abdo Benitez was charged last March with alleged crimes of disclosing service secrets and false declaration, among others, after the first complaint filed by Cartes in July 2023, who warned that since 2018 – the beginning of Abdo’s administration – he had been “persecuted” by “people in the exercise of political power.”

The indictment against Abdo and eight other officials in his administration said that “a scheme was created to bring about criminal investigations” against Cartes and Peña “with the aim of weakening their characters.”

In July 2022, the State Department charged Cartes with “engaging in significant acts of corruption,” and in January 2023, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed financial sanctions on the former president and some of his companies.

(c) EFE Agency