Translated "Avante!" article by Luis Carapinha, Member of the PCP International Department

The coup which removed from office President Fernando Lugo, in Paraguay, transvestited in spurious institutional legitimacy, is a reality. The former bishop, excommunicated by the church, elected in 2008, was removed during a flash impugnation process, concluded in 24 hours, by the Congress, in Asuncion. Federico Franco, until then Lugo’s vice -president, was immediately conferred in his place. The consummated coup, in June 22nd,assumed special Machiavellian contours. Lugo, the President who defied more than six uninterrupted decades of the Colorado Party in power - who endured Stroessner’s fascist regime between 1954-89, the longest Latin America dictatorship -, was accused of the Curuguaty massacre, which took place a week before, during a throwing out operation of no-land peasants. All happened in a Paraguayan great landowner’s farm and an old Colorado top leader. Eleven peasants and six policeman lost their lives. As stated, it all seemed to have been, a well-planned provocation, within a scenario with snipers, bringing to memory the blood-shed in Caracas during the 2002 coup preparation, in Venezuela. A typical special forces’ action of the CIA’s involvement, which was a pretext for the Paraguayan corrupt political lineage oligarchy take ahead the parliamentary coup and disengage Lugo, 14 months before the ending of his constitutional mandate. It is worthwhile to go through this coup’s accusatory petition:” class struggle instigation”; “land occupation instigation”; “ promoting hate among Paraguayans and the violent fight between rich and poor”; and again, “ attempt against the sovereignty of the Republic of Paraguay” - supreme hypocrisy for an ancient political class ever since submitted to Washington. The USA, Germany and the Vatican, that did not loose time in adorning Franco with the veil of democracy..

Doubtlessly, the coup was aimed against the weaker chain link, being an important threat to the Latin-American democratic and progressive processes and the cooperation and integration dynamics which defy uncle Sam’s hegemony within its “enclosure”. Three years upon Zelaya’s deposition, in the Honduras, in June 28th, 2009, imperialism uses sophisticated means and institutional camouflage, within Paraguay. It has not always been this way. Yet in another June, one can recall, the 39 years ago coup which established a sanguinary dictatorship in Uruguay, lasting unto 1985.There were the times of the tenebrous Condor Operation, monitored by the CIA, within the South Cone countries. Far behind, but yet well present in our memories, in another ill-fated 28th June, in 1954,the USA invaded Guatemala, throwing down Jacobo Arbenz, its legitimate president, with the “ Success Operation”. Currently, Honduras’ and Paraguay’s “success” confronts with the frustrated coup attempts in Venezuela, Bolivia and the Ecuador, countries which integrate the ALBA.

The imperialism anti-democratic and terrorist strategy, responsible for the military dictatorships and hundreds of thousand political assassinations within Latin America, for decades, carries on, well-alive. The coup in Paraguay is also a painful experience. Lugo’s election assumed a genuine popular character. But the system’s parties’ freehold within the two Parliament chambers and the state apparatus never eased up, beginning by Franco, the Liberal Party’s vice-president himself, hindering the democratic advance and reinforcing the president’s isolation away from his social cornerstone. The concessions to the right-wing only increased the weaknesses.

Meanwhile, and recently, the Democracy Defence Front constitution, and the reinforcement initiatives of the Paraguayan popular field unity are a motive of confidence. Such as the firm solidarity of several political forces, together with countries within the region, expressed by the condemnation positions of the coup, adopted during the Mercosur and Unasur summits. Against the forces of the past, one must count with the decisive role of resistance and popular struggles.