"To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limitation committed to writing,
if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained?"
-- Chief Justice John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, 1803

Sunday, April 20, 2008

It looks like Hugo the Horrible’s dream of a united socialist South America all going down the shitter together is one step closer to being realized:

A former Roman Catholic bishop and self-styled champion of the poor on Sunday broke the 62-year grip on the presidency by the ruling party here, the longest-serving political party in the world.

The former bishop, Fernando Lugo, who resigned from the church two years ago to run, will be the first Paraguayan president since 1946 not to be from Colorado Party. “Today we’ve written a new chapter in our nation’s political history,” he said in a speech late Sunday, after his opponent, Blanca Ovelar de Duarte, conceded defeat.

With more than 92 percent of the ballots counted, Mr. Lugo, 56, had 41 percent of the vote and Mrs. Ovelar de Duarte, 50, had 31 percent.

No other country has a political party with a longer hold on the presidency than the incumbents, also known as the National Republican Association, not even the Kim family’s Communist dynasty in North Korea.

This all sounds good.  The Colorado Party is, well…

The Colorado party is one of the most corrupt political organizations in Latin America (and that’s saying something). Fifteen out of its 20 leading Senatorial candidates—including the current president Nicanor Duarte—have been investigated for corruption.

Paraguay is one of the poorest countries in Latin America. Its GDP per capita (PPP adjusted) in 2006 was only $4,040. During 1995-2005, Paraguay was the world’s 10th slowest growing economy at 1.2 percent a year. Lack of an independent judiciary, crippling regulations on labor and businesses, and widespread corruption are the primary reasons why Paraguay is stuck in poverty.

Well, in Duarte’s defense, at least he’s not pulling a Robert Mugabe.

So things are going to get better, right?  Well, let’s not book our vacations to Asuncion just yet. Not when the winner has embraced Hugo Chavez’s socialist nonsense.  Lugo is downplaying his connections to the man who is currently ruining Venezuela.  But this whole “champion of the poor” thing tends to go badly in South America.  It’s not like the US, where “champions of the poor” inevitably end of as “slave to unions” and/or “defendant”.

All things considered, the Paraguayan election was like a game of Russian Roulette in which every chamber had a bullet. Or like the 2004 presidential election. I’m glad Colorado is out; I’m nervous that Lugo is in.

And, of course, it isn’t helping our position on our neighboring continent that while socialists are winning elections, the Democrats have spinelessly—and illegally—refused to vote on a free trade agreement with one of few remaining allies.