Paraguay's new president was targeted by the DEA

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Associated Press

ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) -- The man taking over as Paraguay's new president Thursday has built a family fortune in one of the most unequal places in South America, dominating industries from banking to tobacco to soft drinks to soccer.

The 57-year-old Horacio Cartes also is a political neophyte who never registered to vote before running for president, and he's often faced accusations that his family's fortune was fed by money laundering, cigarette smuggling and drug trafficking.

Paraguayan voters overlooked these allegations, focusing instead on hopes that the boyish-looking businessman from the dominant Colorado Party can help the country reap more benefit from windfall soy profits that are boosting the economy at 10 percent a year.

His Grupo Cartes has grown quickly to include more than two dozen companies employing 3,500 people, and he won April's election with 46 percent support by promising to use his expertise to create more jobs. Inaugural organizers said his most important encounter Thursday would be a lunch with 150 foreign executives eager to improve the economic infrastructure in the country of 6.2 million people, where 39 percent of people live in poverty.

"We have declared war on poverty, and from this government we will call no truce," Cartes said in his victory speech.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_PARAGUAY_PRESIDENT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-08-15-03-50-34

[Judi Lynn]

1. This is truly interesting. Much in this article many of us haven't seen. Thanks. n/t

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. He has ties to major US neocons

And doesn't expect to be investigated because of those ties he said.



I wrote an article about him some time ago relating to Bush's property in that country and water rights.

The country is almost the last right wing government in S. America. Thus the differences between rich and poor.

BTW.. what happened to GD?

Damn you Snowdon!!!!!

[dipsydoodle]

3. Yes - GD seems to have fuktoff for the time being.

From memory the Bush holdings are top of an aquifer and are heavily guarded.

[Ichingcarpenter]

4. There is also US bases there

I read

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/07/2012718115122519807.html

http://www.war-times.org/node/463

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraguay–United_States_relations


DU is also going very slow too

[dipsydoodle]

5. I've no speed problems.

May be local to you.

[RC]

11. I think it depends on what part of the country the NSA is hoovering up the Internet, as to when DU

is running slow.

Actually, when DU is slow, and it can get very slow, other web sites are still just fine.

[malaise]

6. One more neocon

I want my GD right fuggin' now

[Mnemosyne]

9. xchrom admitted they broke GD in another thread, maybe with Snowden's help!

Moon was also involved in the Paraguay aquifer grab, iirc.

[joshcryer]

7. He's also a homophobic bigot.

[HumansAndResources]

8. More Promises of "More Jobs" (i.e. "working to make others rich")

... I bet the Poor can't wait to play their part.

There is nothing like getting the "privilege" of a "job" working on someone else's farm - while not owning a scintilla of the land and resources that make up your homeland

And, due to your inability to bargain from a position of "de-facto homelessness on your own planet," being "fortunate" to take home a tiny fraction of the wealth your labor generates.

[Octafish]

10. BFEE

Paraguay? Why Not?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3183814