Paraguay's congress goes into siesta mode, thwarting leftist president's anti-poverty programs

[Judi Lynn]

Paraguay's congress goes into siesta mode, thwarting leftist president's anti-poverty programs
MICHAEL WARREN, PEDRO SERVIN
Associated Press
10:51 a.m. EST, December 25, 2011

ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) — Paraguay's congress closed its doors last week for more than two months of paid vacation, showing no interest in giving President Fernando Lugo anything on his wish list, even after lawmakers return to work next March.

Lugo's allies are also giving him the silent treatment. It's as if the entire political system has agreed to take a siesta until his five-year term is over.

~snip~
Still, the indifference Paraguay's lawmakers have shown to Lugo's proposals is striking. His 2008 election disrupted 61 years of right-wing Colorado Party rule, but he has hardly any reliable votes in Congress and his opponents dominate most government functions. Increasingly, they seem determined to prevent the left-leaning former Roman Catholic bishop from keeping any more of the promises that swept him into office.

Lugo pleaded with lawmakers last week to implement a 10 percent tax on personal income, first approved in 2004. He noted that booming soy and cattle exports boosted Paraguay's gross domestic product to 14.5 percent last year, one of the highest in the world. The windfall profits went almost entirely to a tiny elite, however, the president said, while the government remains starved of revenues.

More:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-lt-paraguays-deep-sleep,0,1039897.story

[Peace Patriot]

1. The rightwing/1%, here and there--greedy beyond the beyond!

Beyond all decency.

Beyond all sense of responsibility to society.

Beyond all redemption?

I will not say that about any person because I am a Buddhist and believe that we are all here to learn and we all--even the worst of us--have the capacity to learn. But it certainly occurred to me. Perhaps people who are as greedy as the predators in Paraguay (and in other countries in Latin America) and the Transglobal predators who rule our land and seek to bully and dominate the world ought to be banished to an island or to a colony on Mars, where they can work out their karma on each other and not on poor peasants and workers, and on the sick, the elderly and children.