Martín Burt, former mayor of Asunción and current pre-candidate for President of the Republic for the PLRA, assured that the population has lost confidence in this model of doing politics, which “has been popularized” by the hand of drug trafficking. “Here a sin was allowed. Paraguay is a drug transit country, with all this money for bribes, it is thought that no one is harmed and in the end drug trafficking was installed. The same thing happens with smuggling,” he stressed.
Hand in hand with the Concertación, there is much hope of overthrowing 70 years of government of a regime that has brought Paraguay “from bad to worse,” Burt assured.
“I think that with this government a stage is over. The people, even the Colorados, are saying enough is enough. We are going to retire these players so that a new litter can come in and a different game can start,” he said.
Along these same lines, the pre-candidate for the presidency of the Republic stood out in Paraguayan culture, the authoritarian governments have told the Paraguayan population not to get involved and that they have no interference, but, “we have so many examples of what is achieved with an extraordinary participation of the people. Thus, to cite, the State is incapable of providing drinking water to the population, but some brilliant organisms have been created that are the Sanitation Boards, which are private cooperatives. We have a bright future, but we have to involve the population of Paraguay”, he indicated.
Burt recalled that in Paraguay there are more than 1,800,000 families, which must become the object of the State. “I am not using the family as a concept of political fight. With 9,000 extension agents or social workers at a rate of 200 families each, the family can become the object of the State, not the subordinate of the State. A state with genuine love is needed, which really cares about results and not about budget execution, ”he detailed.
“I don’t want to create more bureaucracy, on the contrary I want to integrate and end this disintegration that exists today. (The state portfolios) function as electoral fiefdoms and have their expenses computer. Here the President of the Republic has to bring the institutions together, integrate everything and work based on demand, based on what families need and not what the State wants to give”, he maintained. Finally, Burt stressed that now political actors must focus on social problems such as school dropout rates that reach 60% or that the National University of Asunción is in position 1001 in the world ranking, leaving aside the old political rivalries.
“Let’s not look at the past anymore, but at the future. We have many beautiful things to do in Paraguay and many important things too”, she emphasized. He concluded that “if these people win again, we will have five more years, where drug trafficking will take over this country.”
