Asunción, Jan 10 (EFE).- The president of Paraguay, Mario Abdo Benítez, defended this Tuesday the unity of the ruling Colorado Party, but ratified his refusal to approach former president Horacio Cartes (2013-2018), who defeated him in the internal elections on December 18 and will assume the leadership of the ruling party for the next five years.
“We have defended some values and we have to be consistent with our discourse to continue having credibility in the future and not jeopardize our credibility under the cloak of a unit where we are all mixed,” declared the head of state during a visit to the department of Cordillera (center) for the delivery of works in different locations.
Abdo Benítez was consulted by journalists about the act of proclamation of the new authorities and candidates of the Colorado Party with a view to the general elections on April 30, which the Paraguayan leader is not expected to attend, according to the agenda released this Tuesday by the Executive.
In those primaries, ex-minister Santiago Peña – of the Honor Colorado movement, led by Cartes – prevailed as a candidate for the Presidency, who defeated Arnoldo Wiens, of the Fuerza Republicana faction, backed by Abdo Benítez.
Traditionally, the colored groups in dispute carry out the so-called “embrace” or reconciliation after the results of the internal ones are known.
Peña and Wiens announced their rapprochement on January 5 and this Monday, the Honor Colorado and Fuerza Republicana benches did the same in the Chamber of Deputies.
Asked about a possible “hug” with Cartes, Abdo Benítez described the question as “very repeated” and later said “no” on several occasions.
The president admitted that they carried out a “strong campaign”, assured that they defended “some principles and values” and said he was convinced that his line of thought “represents authentic Coloradism.”
In this context, he indicated that he works to build an itinerary that allows “the unity of the Colorado Party within the individuality and identity of each movement,” and in which each political actor “feels comfortable.”
In any case, he refused to be an “obstacle to the unity” of his party and refrained from ruling on the official candidate for the Presidency.
“I don’t want to destroy. I am going to build and I am going to build with my vision and in many cases I am going to build with my silence. But today I am not going to issue any judgment and I am not going to make an obstacle to the unity of my party, because above Mario Abdo Benítez is the Paraguayan nation and I believe that the great tool that the nation has, despite the mistakes that we could have had in our history, it is still coloradism, “he settled. EFE
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