Fernando Lugo

According to a poll in February 2007, he was the leading contender in the April 2008 presidential election, with more than 37% of the voters' intention.[14] On 29 October 2007, he registered as member of the small Christian Democratic Party of Paraguay (CDP), which allowed him to file as a candidate.[15]

The CDP became the core of the Patriotic Alliance for Change, a coalition of more than a dozen opposition parties and social movements which backed Lugo for President. Federico Franco of the Authentic Radical Liberal Party, Paraguay's largest opposition party, was the candidate for Vice President.[16]

The legality of Lugo's candidacy was questioned, because Article 235 of the Constitution forbids clerics of any religious denomination to hold elective office, and Pope Benedict XVI had rejected Lugo's resignation from the priesthood.[17] However, on 16 November 2007, President Nicanor Duarte Frutos (also Chairman of the Colorado Party) announced that the Party would not object to Lugo's candidacy,[18] In July 2008, the Pope laicized Lugo, which made the question moot.[19]

On 20 April 2008, Lugo won the election by a margin of 10%, gaining a 42.3% vote share. The Colorado Party candidate, Blanca Ovelar, acknowledged that Lugo had an unassailable lead and conceded the race that same night at about 9 pm local time. Two hours later, President Duarte acknowledged that the Colorados had lost an election for the first time in 61 years. Lugo's swearing in marked the first time in Paraguay's history (the country gained independence in 1811) that a ruling party peacefully surrendered power to an elected member from the opposition.[20] He became Paraguay's second leftist president (the first being Rafael Franco, who served from 1936 to 1937), and the first to be freely elected.

Lugo was sworn in as President on 15 August 2008, saying he would not accept the presidential salary because it "belongs to more humble people" and encouraged other politicians to refuse their salaries as well.[21]

He initially named Alejandro Hamed as his foreign minister. During the campaign, Lugo had suggested that he would switch diplomatic relations from the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the People's Republic of China,[22] thereby depriving the ROC of its last diplomatic ally in South America. However, after the inauguration, which had been attended by President Ma Ying-jeou from Taiwan, Lugo stated that he had no plans to switch recognition.[23]

On 18 August 2008, Lugo named Margarita Mbywangi, a member of the Aché indigenous ethnic group, as secretary of indigenous affairs, the first indigenous person to hold such a position in Paraguay.[24]

Two of the main promises of Lugo's presidential campaign were tackling corruption and encouraging land reform. A number of initiatives were introduced to improve the lives of Paraguay's poor, such as investments in low-income housing,[25] the introduction of free treatment in public hospitals,[26][27] and the introduction of cash transfers for Paraguay's most impoverished citizens.[28]

• Minister of Foreign Relations: Alejandro Hamed Franco,[29] Hector Lacognata[30] and Jorge Lara Castro[31]
• Minister of Finance: Dionisio Cornelio Borda[29]
• Minister of Internal Affairs: Rafael Filizzola (PDP)[32]
• Minister of National Defence: Luis Bareiro Spaini,[29] Cecilio Pérez Bordón and Catalino Luis Roy [33]
• Minister of Agriculture and Livestock: Cándido Vera Bejarano (PLRA)[29] and Enzo Cardozo[34]
• Minister of Industry and Commerce: Martín Heisecke (PLRA)[29]
• Minister of Justice and Labor: Blas Llano (PLRA)[29] and Humberto Blasco[34]
• Minister of Public Works and Communications: Efraín Alegre (PLRA)[29] and Cecilio Pérez Bordón[33]
• Minister of Public Health and Social Welfare: Esperanza Martínez (Frente Guasú)[29]
• Minister of Education and Culture: Horacio Galeano Perrone (ANR),[29] Luis Riart (PLRA)[34] and Víctor Ríos[35]
• Minister of Women: Gloria Godoy de Rubin[36]
• General Secretary of the Presidency: Miguel Ángel López Perito [37]
• Secretary of Public Function: Lilian Soto (Kuña Pyrenda)[36] and José Tomás Sánchez [38]
• Secretary of Technical Planification: Carlos Sánchez[39] y Bernardo Esquivel Vasken[40]
• Secretary of the Environment: José Luis Casaccia (ANR)[36]
• Secretary of Social Action: Paulino Cáceres (Tekojoja)[41]
• Secretary of Culture: Ticio Escobar[42]
• Secretary of National Emergency: Camilo Soares (P-MAS)[43] and Gladys Mercedes Cardozo Zacarías[44]
• Secretary of Childhood and Adolescence: Liz Torres[43]
• Anti-drugs National Secretary: César Damián Aquino[39]
• Director of the National Indigenous Institute: Margarita Mbywangi (Tekojoja)[45]

On 15 June 2012, seventeen people were killed in a clash between landless farmers and the police who were trying to evict them; some sources consider that all this was taken as a pretext to expel Lugo.[46] The Chamber of Deputies cited this event as well as insecurity, nepotism and a controversial land purchase to vote 76 to 1 to impeach Lugo on 21 June 2012.[47] The Senate took up the case the next day.[48] The impeachment was attended by a delegation of Foreign Affairs ministers from the other nations of the Union of South American Nations.[49] The vote ended with 39 votes for Lugo's removal and four for his continuity, which ended his mandate and turned Federico Franco into the new president of Paraguay.[50] Lugo announced that he would denounce the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, stating that the time to prepare a legal defence, just two hours, may be unconstitutional.[51] The removal of Lugo was followed by demonstrations by his supporters.[50]

The presidents of Paraguay's neighbouring countries rejected Lugo's removal from office, and compared it to a coup d'état. Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff proposed suspending Paraguay's membership in Mercosur and the Union of South American Nations. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina, Rafael Correa of Ecuador and Leonel Fernández of the Dominican Republic announced that they would not recognize Franco as president.[52] Condemnation also came from more conservative governments in the region, such as Colombia and Chile. Lugo's removal has drawn comparisons to the ouster of Honduras' Manuel Zelaya in 2009; like the ouster of Lugo it was defended as legal and constitutional by its supporters while being denounced as a coup across the Latin American political spectrum.[53][3]

Lugo himself accepted his ouster, saying that any legal and realistic chance of reinstating him ended when the Supreme Court of Paraguay declared his impeachment and confirmed his removal, and the electoral court recognized Franco as the new president. However, he denounced it as "a congressional coup."[54]

In the 2013 election to replace his interim presidential replacement Lugo ran as a senate candidate.[55] He was elected as member of Paraguayan Senate representing left-wing coalition Frente Guasú.[4]

Lugo fathered several children out of wedlock[59] including one that was allegedly the result of sexual assault.[60] These allegations from four mothers, who claimed that Lugo had fathered their children while under a vow of celibacy, emerged soon after his 2008 inauguration.[61] One of the children was conceived with a sixteen-year-old girl (Paraguay's age of consent is 14[62]) while he was a bishop.[63][64]