Fernando Lugo

Fernando Lugo

Infobox President-elect
name = Fernando Lugo



order =
office = President of Paraguay
vicepresident = Federico Franco
term_start = August 15 2008
term_end =
predecessor = Nicanor Duarte Frutos
successor =
birth_date = birth date and age|1951|05|30|mf=y
birth_place = San Solano, Paraguay [ [http://fernandolugo.blogspot.com/2007/12/quin-es-fernando-lugo.html Fernando Lugo Presidente: ¿Quién es Fernando Lugo?] ]
death_date =
death_place =
party = APC
religion = Roman Catholic

Fernando Armindo Lugo Méndez (born May 30, 1951) is the current President of Paraguay and the former Roman Catholic bishop of the Diocese of San Pedro.

Early life and history with the Church

Lugo's family was not particularly religious; by his own account, he never saw his father set foot in a chapel. However, his upbringing was emphatically political. His uncle Epifanio Méndes Fleitas was a noted Colorado Party dissident and was persecuted and exiled by General Stroessner's regime. His father was imprisoned twenty times, and some of his elder siblings were sent to exile too.He received his basic education at a religious school in Encarnación, all the while he worked selling snacks on the streets.At age 17 or 18, against his father's wishes of him becoming a lawyer, Lugo entered a normal school, and began teaching at a rural community. He was well accepted within this people, who were very religious, but they had no priest. He recalls that he was touched by that experience, discovering his vocation, and so he decided to enter a Society of the Divine Word seminary at age 19. Lugo was ordained a priest on August 15, 1977. That same year he was sent to Ecuador as a missionary for five years. There he had the opportunity to learn about the controversial Liberation theology.He returned to Paraguay in 1982, and after a year, the regime's police asked that he be expelled from the country. The Church complied and sent him to Rome for further academic studies.Lugo returned to his homeland in 1987, two years short of the Stroessner dictatorship's ultimate fall. He was ordained Bishop on April 17, 1994, and received the nation's poorest diocese, in the San Pedro department. [ [http://www.brasildefato.com.br/v01/agencia/entrevistas/fernando-lugo-trajetoria-pessoal "Interview with Fernando Lugo, by César Sanson for Agência Brasil de Fato"] ] Following his presidential aspirations, Lugo resigned as ordinary of the Diocese of San Pedro on January 11, 2005. He had requested laicization in order to run for office. However, the Holy 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. [ [http://www.episcopal.org.py/comunicados/segundanotaalugo.htm Documento sin título ] ] Subsequently following his declaration of candidacy, the Holy See imposed on him the penalty of suspension from the discharge of the ordained ministry, but did not dismiss him from the clerical state. [ [http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0700644.htm Catholic news service] ] In July 2008, the Vatican reversed its decision and Pope Benedict XVI accepted Lugo's request for laicization. [cite web|url=http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=59958|title=Paraguay's president, ex-bishop, granted lay status|publisher=Catholic World News|date=2008-07-30|accessdate=2008-07-31]

Presidential candidacy

Lugo jumped to the national arena by backing peasants' claims for better land distribution. During 2006, wide-spectrum opinion polls published by Diario 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 the subsequent months as the most serious threat to the dominance of the Colorado Party on Paraguayan politics. Although he has said he finds the presidency of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela interesting, he has also made a point to distance himself from populist leaders in Latin America, focusing more on social inequality in Paraguay.

On February 23, 2007, a "Prensa Latina" article noted that the Paraguayan Interior Ministry offered Lugo protection because of the death threats he has received during the course of his political activities. [ [http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={754FE77C-C350-4C2C-B5F8-41779C905010})&language=EN Paraguayan Gov't Offers Lugo Protection] ]

According to a poll released in February 2007, he was the leading contender in the April 2008 presidential election, with more than 37% of the voters' intention. [ [http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/14863 Angus Reid Consultants] ] On October 29, 2007, he registered himself into the tiny Christian Democratic Party of Paraguay in order to get his bureaucratic habilitation to run for office. [cite web|url=http://www.abc.com.py/articulos.php?pid=368460|publisher=ABC Digital|date=2008-05-31|title=El ex obispo Fernando Lugo se afilió al Partido Demócrata Cristiano|language=Spanish] That party integrated a coalition of more than a dozen opposition parties and social movements, named Patriotic Alliance for Change. Federico Franco, from the center-right Authentic Radical Liberal Party, Paraguay's largest opposition party, was his running mate.

Even though on November 16, 2007, the Chairman of the National Republican Party (ANR, Partido Colorado), then-sitting President Nicanor Duarte Frutos, announced that the Colorado Party would not initiate any proceedings to block Lugo's candidacy, [ [http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=54823 Catholic World News : Suspended bishop cleared as presidential candidate in Paraguay ] ] there is a debate going on about its legality, because Article 235 of the Constitution forbids ministers of any religious denomination to hold elective office, [cite web|url=http://www.servat.unibe.ch/law/icl/pa00000_.html|title=Paraguay Constitution|publisher=International Constitutional Law Project of the University of Bern|accessdate=2008-04-21] and Pope Benedict XVI rejected Lugo's resignation from the priesthood. [ [http://www.abc.com.py/articulos.php?pid=388865 "Impugnación de Lugo será tratada por el comité ejecutivo de la ANR"] , abc.com.py es icon.] In July 2008, however, the pope downgraded Lugo to layman's status in order to allow him to assume the presidency without violating church rules. [cite web|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/world/americas/31brief04.html|title=Paraguay: Special Dispensation for President-Elect|publisher=The New York Times|date=2008-07-31]

On April 20, 2008, Lugo won the election by a margin of 10 percentage points, although far short of a majority. The Colorado Party candidate, Blanca Ovelar, acknowledged that Lugo had an unassailable lead and conceded the race that same night at about 9 p.m. local time. Two hours later, President Duarte acknowledged that the Colorados had lost an election for the first time in 61 years. Lugo became Paraguay's second leftist president (the first being Rafael Franco, who served from 1936 to 1937), and the first to be freely elected. Also, his 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.

Lugo was sworn in as President on August 15 2008. He said that he would not accept the presidential salary because it "belongs to more humble people" and encouraged other politicians to refuse their salaries as well. [ [http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hqFLYrBs7ry_miqB_KSjyiqy2J_Q "Latin America's left wing swells with new Paraguay president"] , AFP, August 15, 2008.]

Since Lugo has no spouse, he recently announced the designation of his elder sister, Mercedes Lugo, as First Lady of Paraguay. On August 18, 2008, he named Margarita Mbywangi, a member of the Aché indigenous ethnic group, as minister of indigenous affairs, the first indigenous person to hold such a position in Paraguay. [http://www.democracynow.org/2008/8/19/inauguration_of_paraguays_new_president_fernando]

During the campaign, Lugo had suggested that he would switch diplomatic relations from the Republic of China on Taiwan to the People's Republic of China, [http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/22/america/LA-GEN-Paraguay-Lugo.php] thereby depriving the ROC of its last diplomatic ally in South America. However after the inauguration. which had been attended by President Ma Ying-Jeou from Taiwan, Lugo stated that he had no plans to switch recognitions. [http://www.redorbit.com/news/business/1523297/taiwan_president_attends_inauguration_of_paraguayan_president/index.html]

Blog

Lugo began writing a blog on the web site of newspaper "ABC Color" in March 2007. [ [http://www.abc.com.py/blogs/list.php?autor=4 ABC Blogs - Asunción - Paraguay ] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/blume.html Fernando Lugo on Catholic Hierarchy]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/27/world/americas/27paraguay.html Feb. 27, 2007 New York Times article on Lugo's possible candidacy]
* [http://www.worldpress.org/Americas/2686.cfm Feb. 22, 2007 article on Lugo from Worldpress.org]
* [http://jimjay.blogspot.com/2006/12/church-right-wing-shocker.html Dec. 30, 2006 Daily (Maybe) blog on background to Lugo's presidential bid]
* [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080421/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/paraguay_election Lugo Wins Election at AP]
* [http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0418/p04s05-woam.html April 18, 2008 article on Lugo and Paraguay elections from The Christian Science Monitor]
* [http://www.guardianweekly.co.uk/?page=editorial&id=691&catID=1 "Rise of the Red Bishop"] "The Guardian Weekly", August 14 2008

Persondata
NAME=Lugo, Fernando
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Méndez, Fernando Armindo Lugo
SHORT DESCRIPTION=President-elect of Paraguay
DATE OF BIRTH=May 30, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH=San Pedro del Paraná, Itapúa department
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Fernando Lugo — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Fernando Armindo Lugo Méndez …   Wikipedia Español

  • Fernando Lugo — Fernando Lugo, April 2008 Fernando Armindo Lugo Méndez (* 30. Mai 1951 in San Solano, Departamento Itapúa, Paraguay) ist seit dem 15. August 2008 Staatspräsident von Paraguay. Von 1994 bis 2005 war er Bischof der römisch katholischen Diözese San… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Fernando Lugo — Fernando Lugo, le 14 mai 2009 (fête de l Indépendance) Mandats 52e président de …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Fernando Vera Sánchez — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Fernando Vera Sánchez Abogado, político, contador Datos personales Nacimiento 30 de agosto de 1919 Asunción, Paraguay …   Wikipedia Español

  • Lugo (homonymie) — Lugo Cette page d’homonymie répertorie les différents sujets et articles partageant un même nom. Communes Lugo : chef lieu de la province de Lugo, en Galice au nord ouest de l Espagne Lugo : commune italienne de la province de Ravenne… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Lugo (Begriffsklärung) — Lugo steht für: Lugo, eine Stadt im Nordwesten Spaniens Lugo (Emilia Romagna), einen Ort in der Provinz Ravenna in Italien Provinz Lugo, eine Provinz im Nordwesten Spaniens Lugo di Nazza, eine Gemeinde auf Korsika, Frankreich Lugo (Alabama), Ort… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Lugo (disambiguation) — Lugo can refer to:*Lugo, a city in Spain. *Lugo, Italy *Lugo (province), Spain;People *Alonso Fernández de Lugo (? 1525), Spanish conquistador *Fernando Lugo, current president of Paraguay *Julio Lugo, baseball shortstop *Pedro Fernández de Lugo… …   Wikipedia

  • Lugo (desambiguación) — Lugo puede designar: a Lugo, ciudad en Galicia, España, capital de la provincia y comarca del mismo nombre; a Lugo, provincia de la comunidad autónoma de Galicia, en España; a Lugo, comarca de la provincia de Lugo; a Lugo de Llanera, parroquia y… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Lugo, Fernando — ▪ 2009 Fernando Armindo Lugo Méndez  born May 30, 1951, San Pedro del Paraná, Itapúa province, Para.       On Aug. 15, 2008, former Roman Catholic bishop Fernando Lugo was inaugurated president of Paraguay after having led an opposition coalition …   Universalium

  • Lugo — Cette page d’homonymie répertorie les différents sujets et articles partageant un même nom. Communes Lugo : chef lieu de la province de Lugo, en Galice au nord ouest de l Espagne Lugo : commune italienne de la province de Ravenne Italie …   Wikipédia en Français

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”