PARAGUAY- Paraguay will have a woman president for the first time in its history, at least for now, after outgoing leader Horacio Cartes stepped down on Monday ahead of schedule.
Vice President Alicia Pucheta, 68, will complete Cartes’s mandate after he resigned to become a senator.
Maro Adbo Bentiez a fellow conservation will be inaugurated on August 15, after he was elected in April 22 polls, to begin his five-year term as president to one of Latin America’s poorest countries.
On Wednesday Cartes’s resignation will be confirmed by parliament and proclaim Pucheta as interim president.
Pucheta is from the right-wing Colorado Party, she is opposed to the legalisation of abortion, the Colorado Party has been in power in Asuncion for decades.
Opposition Senator Desiree Masi said she does not see Pucheta’s nomination as an advance for women in Paraguay.
She said, “A woman who has shown her complete submission to those in power does not represent us,”
“One day, a woman will come to power as she should, through the ballot box.”
However Lilian Samaniego, a senator from the Colorado Party disagreed and hailed the former lawyer’s acceding to the position as an example to “motivate Paraguayan women to continue to fight for real equality of opportunity with men”.
But women representation in the senator house is only eight women among its 45 senators, and 11 among the 80 members of the lower house.
Cartes’s resignation was not surprising and was expected, after he was elected to the Senate in the April elections. On June 30, the new senators will be sworn.
Photo Credit- The Express Tribune
Leave a Reply