A third woman in two weeks has claimed that Paraguay’s bishop-turned-president Fernando Lugo fathered her child, intensifying a political scandal that has made him the butt of lewd jokes and even a pop song.
Damiana Moran, a teacher aged 39, told local media that Lugo was the father of her one-year-old son and she was negotiating child support with the president’s lawyer.
Two days after going public, a second woman, Benigna Leguizamon, 27, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday to get Lugo to take a DNA test to prove he is the father of her six-year-old boy.
PHOTO: AP
Earlier this month, Viviana Carrillo, 26, stunned Paraguayans when she revealed that Lugo, known as the “bishop of the poor” before he quit the church in late 2006 to run for president, was the father of her son, who is almost two.
The president recognized Carrillo’s boy as his son and even remarked that they looked alike, but he has not accepted or denied paternity in the two newer cases.
Many Paraguayans said he was brave to admit paternity in the first case and women in his Cabinet defended the 57-year-old leader, even though Carrillo claimed she started having sex with Lugo when she was 16, below the legal age of consent in Paraguay.
Opposition politicians from the conservative Colorado Party, in power for decades before Lugo’s victory, railed that the president was a national embarrassment and not trustworthy, but analysts said the political damage would be light.
“Yes, a lot of people are indignant and it will damage Lugo’s image, but it’s not going to become a question of state or interrupt the government,” analyst Alfredo Boccia said.
He predicted that the paternity suits would soon move onto the back pages as Paraguayans turn their attention back to perennial issues such as poverty as the economy stumbles.
The president’s office said it was setting up a team to handle the complaints and related media requests.
Political commentators said Lugo’s failure to make good on his promises of cleaning up corruption and finding land for poor farmers would hurt him more than paternity suits.
“In Paraguay, we don’t punish people for moral mistakes. This isn’t the United States. But, if he continues being inefficient in governing that will be a much bigger scandal,” Bernardino Cano Radil, a former congressman with the Colorado Party, told Nanduti radio station.
Many jokes making the rounds in Asuncion focus on Lugo having broken his vows of celibacy as a bishop, but apparently respecting church rules against condoms.
“Lugo’s got heart, but he didn’t use a condom,” go the lyrics of a Paraguayan dance tune.
In fact, in a macho country such as Paraguay, some said Lugo could gain status by breaking priestly vows.
Lugo’s brother Pompeyo Lugo told Argentine radio love is more important than celibacy, which goes against human nature, and said the president had lived the greatest love story in Paraguay in a century.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest