Santiago Peña, Paraguay’s conservative former finance minister, won the Paraguayan presidential election on Sunday (April 30), in a victory for the country’s dominant Colorado Party. He beat opposition lawmaker Efraín Alegre by more than 15 points.
Peña has pledged to maintain Paraguay’s close relationship with Taiwan, easing concerns that the country could switch its diplomatic alignment to China, a prospect floated by Alegre during the campaign.
Paraguay is the only remaining nation in South America that recognizes Taiwan as a sovereign state, making it difficult for soy and beef farmers—core to one of Paraguay’s largest industries—to sell to China. That support is high-stakes for Taiwan, given that Paraguay is one of just 13 countries with formal diplomatic ties to the island nation.
“We have a lot to do, after the last years of economic stagnation, of fiscal deficit, the task that awaits us is not for a single person or for a party,” Peña said in a speech following the election results. “Thank you for this Colorado victory, thank you for this Paraguayan victory.”
The election also gave the Colorado Party majorities in the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, as well as netting it 15 of the 17 governorships. The party has held the presidency for nearly all of the past 75 years.
Despite recent polls that showed Alegre closing the gap with Peña, his support weakened due to the campaign of Paraguayo Cubas, a right-wing populist who outperformed polling expectations and effectively split the vote. Peña finished with a plurality (43%), substantially less than the combined totals for Alegre (27%) and Cubas (23%).
Peña is expected to be inaugurated on August 15. At just 44, he will be Paraguay’s youngest-ever president.
Paraguay is one of a handful of countries in Latin America that recognize Taiwan
The Colorado Party: a brief history
Peña is a member of the Colorado Party, as is current president Mario Abdo Benítez. In fact, 15 of the last 16 elected Paraguayan presidents have belonged to the conservative establishment party.
This, of course, includes Alfredo Stroessner, the right-wing dictator who ruled Paraguay for more than three decades in the 20th century. From 1954 to 1989, Stroessner’s Colorado Party led the country with repressive authoritarian rule, rigging elections, torturing political dissidents, and making Paraguay a haven for escaped Nazi war criminals, including Josef Mengele.
Stroessner’s regime was financially and politically backed by the US, in return for Paraguay’s support of a covert anti-communist operation in South America dubbed Operation Condor.
Since Stroessner was removed from power in the late ’80s, the Colorado Party has embraced a more moderate, neoliberal platform.
In 2008, the party’s rule was temporarily broken by Fernando Lugo—a former Catholic bishop—who was elected on a progressive platform, only to be impeached partway through his term, an act that some neighboring countries deemed a coup d’état.
His successor, Horacio Cartes, was elected in 2013 as a member of the Colorado Party. One of the wealthiest men in Paraguay, Cartes became chair of the party a few years after leaving office in 2018 and has been functionally bankrolling it for the past decade.
Earlier this year, the US Treasury Department sanctioned Cartes for “rampant corruption that undermines democratic institutions,” accusing him of cultivating ties with Hezbollah, which Washington has deemed a terrorist organization.
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