PARAGUAY: OPEN FOR BUSINESS

The recently elected Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo has recently celebrated his first hundred days in office, to distinctly mixed reactions from both the general population and the blogging community online. Seattle-based Paraguayan blogger Muna, who writes the most informative and best-established blog on Paraguay, has recently collected together views of different bloggers.

You might have seen something on the news about the protests in Paraguay. Protests seem to be a regular occurence in Asuncion, something that has not changed under the new Presidency. I was last there in November and saw thousands of people being bussed in from the countryside to protest about various matters. The most controversial lately was the story about Brazilian farmers taking over indigenous lands – and the legal victory of an indigenous tribe.

The first question many people ask when I talk about investing in Paraguay, particularly when it comes to land in the Chaco, is whether title is safe and new landowners won’t be accused in the way that happened with these high profile cases.

The answer is that the Chaco is an entirely different case. Generally, when people are looking at buying land in the Chaco, they are thinking of buying land on which there simply are no people, indigenous or otherwise. The Chaco is a vast, barren expanse, in no way comparable to the populated areas in the south and near the Brazilian border where the problems have occured.

Lugo, however, does give the impression that his initial strategy is to dig himself in politically, strengthening and reinforcing his political power. While this might well be necessary to get things done, it will not reassure his detractors abroad, who have watched how Chavez took over Venezuela using democratic institutions then changed things around to make his power absolute.

100 days is still a short time. We will reserve judgement. Anyway check the link to Muna’s blog above for more commentary from the Spanish language Paraguayan bloggers.