Since Friday, July 22, the United States Government has used the visa withdrawal tool and “significantly corrupt” designations to confront corruption in our country. The first victim of these ads was Horacio Cartes, former president of the Republic. And to make it clear that this is not a political issue, just 20 days later, on August 11, Hugo Velázquez, Vice President of the Republic and opponent of Cartes, suffered the same fate.
During the past week, the news focused on the visit to our country of Mark Wells, deputy assistant secretary of the United States Department of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. For Mario Villalba, a political analyst, Wells’ visit was to prepare the ground and ensure that everything is ready for a future extradition request to be successful.
Sarah Villalba
Sara Villalba, a political scientist, expressed that historically, according to the mandate of each president, he emphasizes certain aspects and certain regions. “What we are seeing with the Biden presidency is that he is refocusing on Latin America, something that had not happened during the Donald Trump administration. This necessarily affects the countries of the region and has to do with these declarations, meetings and work plan that they include within their State policies. With this, it would also be logical that they look at countries with a high rate of corruption, ”she explained.
The analyst points out that there are reports on the countries that lead the corruption indexes and among them is Paraguay. Therefore, it is reasonable that these announcements occur in our country.
MARIO VILLALBA
Political analyst Mario Villalba pointed out that the United States is aware of the political effect triggered by the announcements they make. “They have the experience of Honduras, based on that learning they are seeing how they can work against corruption and impunity. This goes step by step to prepare the ground so that if an extradition occurs, it prepares the political ground and sees what alliances it can make with the different power groups in the country, ”he said.
He argued that if the northern country sends a representative to Paraguay it is because actions will come and the strongest would be the extradition of Cartes as Velázquez.
CASTIÑEIRA
Selva Castiñeira, a political scientist, expressed that it is clear to her that the United States is determined to make decisions that concern it at the regional level. “These are issues that we should deal with as a country and as a government. That is very embarrassing that our rulers do not have the ability to take responsibility for our mistakes. When the only job that is asked of them is to look after the interests of the country, casting their votes with confidence. We are so incapable of doing investigations that show who the corrupt are,” she commented.
The analyst warned that organized crime is taking over the state and could thus decide the course of a government and a country. “If the President of the Republic is asking a third country to deal with all the problems that concern us, it makes it clear that we do not have the capacity to govern a country,” she commented.
