Lugo, Yo Te Banco

Escribo este post en defensa del Señor Presidente de la Republica de Paraguay, Fernando Lugo.

Antes que nada, Paraguay es un pueblo hermano. Nos brindo la posibilidad de ver a glorias deportivas como Pedro Sarabia y Santiago Salcedo. Ademas, ofrece trabajo a futbolistas argentinos que no pueden demostrar sus condiciones en el tan resultadista futbol local. Ni en Europa. Ni en Mexico. A cambio, Paraguay nos brinda mano de obra para la construccion a bajo costo y el servicio domestico.

Fernando Lugo, presidente de tan bondadoso pueblo, fue acusado por tercera vez de tener un hijo no reconocido.
Aparentemente, en esta sociedad conservadora y pesimista, eso es algo malo. Esta sociedad con poca memoria olvida que Lugo fue Obispo y, teniendo en cuenta las acusaciones que reciben los miembros del clero, un hijo es lo mas sano que pudo haber hecho. Lugo, yo te banco.

Abajo dejo tres articulos que salieron en el NY Times.

The New York Times - 22 April 2009
Paraguay: Bishop Says Church Knew of 2 Paternity Claims

A Roman Catholic bishop said Tuesday that before the president resigned from his church leadership position in 2004, at least two women in his parish wrote to a Vatican official that he had fathered their children. President Fernando Lugo, left, was hit with two paternity claims this month, and he has acknowledged fathering a boy born in May 2007, whose mother brought one of the claims this month. Bishop Rogelio Livieres said Tuesday that when confronted with the complaints in 2004, Mr. Lugo, then a bishop, said it was "possible" that their children were his. Bishop Livieres said the church allowed Mr. Lugo to resign without making the complaints public, easing his bid for the presidency. The Paraguayan bishops' conference wrote in a statement that it had never received "formal written complaints" from women about Mr. Lugo, and that it rejected the claim that the church covered up immoral conduct.


The New York Times - 21 April 2009
ASUNCION, Paraguay -- President Fernando Lugo of Paraguay, a former Roman Catholic bishop, was hit with another paternity claim on Monday, just a week after he acknowledged fathering a child while the Vatican still considered him to be ordained.

Mr. Lugo, 57, on Monday did not confirm or deny fathering the second child, now a 6-year-old boy, but read a brief statement promising to "act always in line with the truth and subject myself to all the requirements presented by the justice system."

He also appealed for privacy, referring all questions about paternity claims to his lawyer.

When Mr. Lugo admitted last week that he had fathered a boy, now 2 years old, with a different woman, saying he would "assume all responsibilities" for the boy, analysts predicted that his response would deflect criticism and prevent a huge scandal.

Many Paraguayans said the paternity issue was a black eye for both the government and the Catholic Church, to which 90 percent of Paraguayans belong.

On Monday, the mother of the 6-year-old, Benigna Leguizamon, said Mr. Lugo's admission last week of fathering a child with a woman named Viviana Carrillo inspired her to go public about her son.

Ms. Leguizamon said she arrived in Mr. Lugo's San Pedro Diocese in 2000 at the age of 17 with an infant daughter. She worked in the bishopric, where she began a relationship with Mr. Lugo, she said. Her son was born in September 2002.

She told her story in interviews on Monday with the newspaper Ultima Hora, the Channel 4 television network and the Uno and Caritas de Asuncion radio stations.

Two of Mr. Lugo's cabinet ministries, the Women's Ministry and the Childhood and Adolescence Ministry, started judicial proceedings against him on Ms. Leguizamon's behalf on Monday, and vowed to order DNA tests if the president did not recognize paternity.

Glorida Rubin, the women's minister, said the president later agreed to submit to DNA tests and talk with the woman to try to reach an understanding.

Mr. Lugo resigned in 2004 as bishop of San Pedro, in the landlocked nation's poorest province, and in December 2006 announced that he was renouncing his bishop status to run for president. Pope Benedict XVI did not give him permission to resign and relieve him of his chastity vows until July 2008, after insisting during Mr. Lugo's campaign that he would always be a bishop under church law.


The New York Times - 14 April 2009
RIO DE JANEIRO -- In a stunning confession, the president of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, a former Roman Catholic bishop, admitted to fathering a child while the Vatican still considered him to be ordained.

Mr. Lugo, looking tired and subdued, said during a televised news conference in Asuncion, the capital, that he was the father of a boy, Guillermo Armindo Carrillo Canete, who will be 2 years old in May. The announcement ended a week of incessant reports that the president, who was elected last April, had been sued in a paternity claim.

"It is true that there was a relationship with Viviana Carrillo," Mr. Lugo said, referring to the child's 26-year-old mother. "I assume all responsibilities that stem from that, and I recognize that I fathered the child."

The confession came after lawyers who filed a paternity suit on Ms. Carrillo's behalf had vowed last week to pursue the case, even as Ms. Carrillo seemed inclined to withdraw it.

Mr. Lugo, 57, said he had not wanted to answer questions about the paternity claim last week because of the Easter holiday. The confession was Mr. Lugo's latest setback since his election in April 2008, when he handed Paraguay's Colorado Party its first defeat in a presidential race in more than 60 years. His campaign had portrayed Mr. Lugo an honest and humble man who spent 11 years living and working with peasants as a priest.

He shed his cassock in late 2006 to start a political career. But the Vatican rejected his petition for layman's status, saying his ordination was a lifelong sacrament. The Vatican changed its position after Mr. Lugo won the presidency, and Pope Benedict XVI finally accepted Mr. Lugo's resignation as a bishop last July.

With the Colorados still controlling Congress, Mr. Lugo has struggled to move forward an agenda that included a major agrarian reform.

Walter Ramon Acosta, a cousin of Ms. Carrillo and one of her lawyers, said in an interview that her lawyers had been prepared to continue with the case to recover their fees, which would have forced the president to submit to a DNA test.

"That's no longer necessary," Mr. Acosta said.

He confirmed that Guillermo once fell from the third floor of a building and survived without a scratch. "He is the son of a bishop, no doubt," Mr. Acosta said. "It was a miracle."

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