Asunción: In near-secret secrecy and for fear of possible surveillance or reprisals, Mario Abdo Benítez and Hugo Velázquez have held daily meetings with second- and third-tier leaders from different parts of the country in their respective offices near Asunción.
The extreme discretion of the agendas and movements of the former president and his vice president corresponds to a main objective: to achieve the unification of “soldiers and not generals” in a national alliance that opposes Honor Colorado and recomposes the structures for the municipal elections and the elections for the leadership of the Colorado Party, currently in the hands of Horacio Cartes.
Abdo has taken the initiative to call for silence and cut off all communication with the Paraguayan media in order to fulfill his promise to President Santiago Peña not to harass him during his first year in office, a promise that expires in less than two weeks.
The ANR electoral court on Tuesday rejected the request for Marito’s expulsion, which had been submitted by a chairman of a local branch in the capital. For the party’s spokespeople, the decision of the highest party body would open the door for the former president’s return to the political stage.
Despite two investigations by the Comptroller of the Republic into administrative irregularities in his companies and another related to the accusations made by Cartes himself for allegedly leaking sensitive information from Seprelad, Abdo never left meetings with party colleagues who were angry with the party leadership.
“Yes and no. The rejection of the expulsion request was to be expected, but that has not prevented the meetings that the former president holds every day with the grassroots leadership in different parts of the country,” commented Gerardo Soria, a former ANR member.
The rejection of the expulsion request was expected, but that has not prevented the meetings the former president holds every day with grassroots leadership in different parts of the country.
The political strategy of the dissidence is to reach a consensus with the grassroots structures of the departments of Alto Paraná, Central and San Pedro, contrary to the orders of the Honor Colorado Command to absorb as many opposition senators, deputies and governors as possible to draw them into the ranks of HC.
Velázquez is also not far away, preparing his return after a judge ruled in mid-March to dismiss the lawsuit against him and his former legal adviser in Yacyretá, Juan Carlos Duarte, for alleged bribery that began after he was classified as “significantly corrupt” by Ambassador Marc Ostfield in August 2022.
The former vice president was accused of offering a million dollars to a US government official to obstruct an investigation against him. This fact came to light in the midst of preparations for his candidacy for the Presidency of the Republic and caused him to abandon his claims, thus opening the field for Peña to achieve victory in the last presidential elections in 2023.
“Hugo is also preparing himself with everything and is receiving leaders from the inside in his office. He is arming himself with the soldiers. I mean, with the leaders of the people, who are already distant and angry with HC. But the entire leadership of Marito, we are talking about the base, has never gone to Honor Colorado. Only the parliamentarians and the governors, but the leadership is intact,” commented a leader from the capital.
The internal movements led by Senator Lilian Samaniego and her brother Arnaldo, as well as former Vice President and current Senator Juan Afara, are in the process of signing participation deals with Abdo, who is consolidating his position as the most powerful opposition figure. Internal sectors of Colorado Añetete and Fuerza Republicana are also joining forces to form a new dissident movement with national reach that will emerge in the coming months and try to regain power in the ANR.
Weekly newspaper / LPO
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