Paraguay’s Congress ditched Fernando Lugo as president in an impeachment vote called over his handling of a fatal land eviction. The vote in the Senate was passed by 39 to 4, bringing to a dramatic end the lightning two-day impeachment. According to the constitution, deputy president, Federico Franco, was sworn in until presidential polls in April 2013. Lugo's election in 2008 ended one-party rule by the Colorado party, which had been in power for 61 years, leaving a trail of corruption. Lugo has branded the move “an express coup d’état” and a number of LatAm countries have come out in protest. But the decision was pretty overwhelming within Paraguay with a 76-1 vote in the lower house and even the Bishops urging Franco to quit (Lugo comes from their ranks). Fathering two children while he was a priest probably didn't help. Lugo is now hoping that popular support may return him to power. Paraguay is the world’s fourth biggest soya exporter but the economy lags way behind its continental peers. Over the past two decades per capita GDP has risen just 11% against 129% in Chile and a doubling in both Argentina and Peru. Paraguayan AM stations are heard from time to time, some of them playing the beautiful Paraguayan harp music. They are hard to QSL (I have sent reports to Radio Nanduti on 1020 several times) and the only one I have is from Radio Nacional de Paraguay heard on short-wave in Johannesburg in 1987.
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