The dangerous hubris of Paraguay’s Colorado Party

On paper, at least, Santiago Peña is in an enviable position.

The 45-year-old president of Paraguay won last year’s election in a landslide, breaking the anti-incumbent trend seen in all of Latin America’s free and fair elections since 2018. His party controls a majority in both chambers of Paraguay’s Congress, something that ambitious neighboring leaders such as Argentina’s Javier Milei or Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva would no doubt like for themselves. 

Not to mention, Paraguay ended 2023 with an impressive 4.8 percent GDP growth rate, higher than any other South American country except oil-rich Guyana, and topped a recent economic climate index by the Brazilian think tank Fundação Getulio Vargas.

Yet Mr. Peña has a problem. 

The image he is trying to sell to the world of his government — and his country — is being tarnished by his own political party, the long-hegemonic National Republican Association, best known as the Colorado Party. And Mr. Peña’s mentor, the billionaire party chair Horacio Cartes (who served as Paraguay’s president between 2013 and 2018), may be the one doing the tarnishing.

Last month, Paraguay’s Senate voted to expel Kattya González, a leading opposition voice, for “misuse of influence.” The entire opposition bench protested the vote, arguing that a resolution passed by the chamber in December meant ousting a senator required a supermajority of 30 votes. 

The removal went ahead anyway, and Ms. González was stripped of her seat one day after the case against her was presented.

Despite being one of only two senators representing a small party, Ms. González has a high profile. She was the country’s fourth most popular senator...