Bishop-presidential contender in Paraguay hopes for great social pact

Published: 2007-01-12

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNS) -- Retired Bishop Fernando Lugo Mendez of San Pedro, Paraguay, who resigned from active ministry to run for president, said he hopes to foster a "great social pact" to achieve national reconciliation in a country with deep divisions. "I believe in collective leadership. ... I'm no messiah," Bishop Lugo, who is leading in opinion polls, told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview in mid-January. "Paraguay has a lot of very qualified people." He said Paraguay was "a champion in corruption," but added, "there are very healthy people who are not tainted by it" and said he would like his running mate -- whom he has yet to pick -- to be a female politician. With nearly 40 percent of Paraguay's 6.5 million people living in poverty -- and half of those poor struggling on $1 a day -- plus rising inflation and Paraguay's reputation as one of the most corrupt nations in the world, Bishop Lugo will have his work cut out if he succeeds in ending the Colorado Party's six-decade grip on power in 2008.

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