Congress approved the bill that includes clubs and tobacco companies within the Obliged Subjects (SO) of the Secretariat for the Prevention of Money or Asset Laundering (Seprelad) last Wednesday.
With this, the Executive has a period of one week to sanction or promulgate the document (until Friday, July 22), considering that it was already sent to the presidency yesterday.
This project adds to other setbacks suffered by the former president’s movement in the last three months. The other political defeats were the loss of the board of directors of the Chamber of Deputies after three years. Also the sanction of the project that establishes a protocol for the commercialization of tobacco, the rejection of the decriminalization of false sworn declarations and the approval of the national register for the Concertación elections.
ELECTION TIME
The sociologist Carlos Peris, expressed that the current situation is pre-election in which the opposition force to Chartism, within the ANR or outside, begins to make its alliances, thinking about the elections in December or April next year.
“The issue with Chartism is that it has a strong vote within the bases, but it generates rejection within an opposition electorate. Since the figure of Cartes is highly criticized. This means that the politicians who are part of the opposition, who perhaps remained lukewarm a year or two ago, now line up under that figure that generates rejection in a certain sector of the population, ”he said. .
It is worth mentioning that the suspicions that revolve around Chartism are the alleged smuggling of cigarettes and money laundering mechanisms.
“This generates a rejection and politicians give signals to the electorate that they are against Chartism. As Efraín Alegre said; ‘country or mafia’. And they begin to line up within an electoral issue. I analyze these questions as defeats of Chartism, but it must be understood within a conjuncture of elections”, he stated.
He finally argued that despite the strong defense of Chartism, there was a serious blow to the “Honor Colorado” movement.
“Chartism has something very interesting, that it emits its messages and its intentions in a very clear way. All people who respond to Chartism fervently opposed these projects. That these have come out within an electoral situation, represents a hard blow. Because it attacks the heart of Chartism, the business issue, of business, ”she concluded.
board of directors
March 3rd. The Chamber of Deputies elected Carlos María López, a Liberal deputy, as president of the Lower House in early March. This during an extraordinary session that tried to be boycotted by some “Honor Colorado” deputies such as Basilio “Bachi” Núñez and Pedro Alliana.
The majority was made up of some llanista liberals such as Hugo Capurro, Manuel Trinidad and Sergio Rojas, who used to vote in favor of Chartism.
Pedro Alliana (chartist) was in office for three consecutive years; 2019 – 2020, 2020 – 2021 and 2021 – 2022. He also presided over the Lower House in the year 2017 – 2018 during the last period.
Alliana no longer had the support of the ruling Colorado movement (“Republican Force, exAñetete) due to internal fights in the Colorado Party over the upcoming internal presidential elections.
Votes: 48 votes in favor, 2 abstentions and 30 absences.
Tobacco Traceability
July 6th. The Chamber of Deputies sanctioned the bill “That approves the protocol for the elimination of illicit trade in tobacco products” at the beginning of July.
Given the lack of 41 votes for its rejection, the Chartist sector proposed the postponement of its entry into force for a period of one year. However, this did not prosper.
This protocol was sent by the Executive Branch and is part of the Framework Convention of the World Health Organization (WHO) for tobacco control, adopted in 2003 and approved by our country in 2006.
The document is in the hands of the Executive waiting to be promulgated or vetoed.
Votes: 40 votes for rejecting the postponement; 37 against; and 3 absences.
Decriminalization of affidavits
July 7th. Already with the new board of directors, the Chamber of Deputies accepted the partial veto of the Executive on the Law of Sworn Declarations. This is the project that modifies Law No. 5,033/13, “Which regulates the presentation of the “Sworn Declaration of Assets and Income of Public Officials”.
The part objected to was article No. 14, which sought to eliminate the power of the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic (CGR) to report voluntary errors and omissions to the Public Ministry, as well as leaving open the period for correcting the document, which which totally distorts the spirit of the affidavits.
At the end of May, Abdo Benítez himself, President of the Republic, posted on his social networks his motivations for not supporting the initiative; “I have decided not to enact the bill that seeks to modify the legal regulation of the sworn statements of officials. The mandatory declaration of assets and income is one of the tools for government transparency and the fight against corruption”, he posted at the end of May on his twitter social network.
Votes: 67 votes in favour.
Clubs and tobacco companies
July 13. The Chamber of Deputies approved the Senate version of the bill that modifies articles 13, 25 and 28 of Law 1,015/1,997, “What prevents and represses illicit acts aimed at legitimizing money or goods”, modified by the laws 3783/2009 and 6797/2021.
The Senate version consisted of clubs and tobacco companies being included in the list of Obliged Subjects (SO) of the Secretariat for the Prevention of Money Laundering (Seprelad). While the version of deputies established that the controls should be carried out by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MIC) and not by Seprelad.
Now it goes to the Executive for its promulgation or veto.
Votes: 40 votes for the Senate version and 40 for the Deputies version. 41 votes were needed for the ratification of the version of the Lower House.
Register open in the Concertación
July 9th. The Superior Court of Electoral Justice (TSJE), through the agreement and sentence 8/2,022, recognizes the political organization “National Agreement for a New Paraguay”, with the votes of its three members.
With this, the request for the exclusion of members of the National Republican Association (ANR) and non-members from the list of inmates was rejected.
The Chartist sector was one of the main detractors. Eduardo González, representative of the “Honor Colorado” movement, described the approval of the use of the national register for the internal elections of the Concertación as an “outrage” to the State institutions.
At the same time, they will resort to a habeas data resource, so that the candidates of their movement are excluded from said list.
