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Fernando Lugo

Fernando Lugo (30 May 1951-) was President of Paraguay from 15 August 2008 to 22 June 2012, succeeding Nicanor Duarte and preceding Federico Franco. He was the first non-Colorado Party president of Paraguay in 61 years.

Biography[]

Fernando Armando Lugo Mendez was born in San Solano, Paraguay in 1951, the nephew of Epifanio Mendez Fleitas and the son of a political activist. Many of Lugo's family members, including his father, were exiled or imprisoned, and he became a Catholic priest at the age of 18 and learned liberation theology in Ecuador. He was ordained a bishop on 17 April 1994, and he presided over the nation's poorest diocese. He championed peasant claims for better land distribution and, using his reputation as "the bishop of the poor," he ran for President in 2008 and ended 61 years of conservative rule with his election. He refused to accept the presidential salary, battled corruption, invested in low-income housing, introduced free treatment in public hospitals, and introduced cash transfers for the country's most impoverished citizens. In 2012, he was impeached by the Chamber of Deputies over nepotism, a controversial land purchase, and a clash between landless farmers and police; many Latin American leaders described his removal as a coup. He continued to serve in the Senate from 2013 until his re-election loss in 2023.

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