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🇵🇾 Paraguay /Elections & Politics

Censure: Cartista lawmakers block opposition requests for information

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Outcome reported
  • Paraguay's Chamber of Deputies rejected 15 opposition requests for information after a Cartista majority voted them down.
  • Opposition lawmakers said the move blocked scrutiny of Vice President Pedro Alliana, ministers and issues including schools, social programs and alleged overbilling in the “Golden Desks” case.
  • The governing bloc cited its majority, while critics called the action censorship and authoritarian.

Opposition lawmakers in Paraguay's Chamber of Deputies accused the Cartista majority of censorship after it rejected 15 requests for information and declaration projects. They said the decisions targeted proposals that could embarrass government authorities, particularly Vice President Pedro Alliana, who is also the Honor Colorado candidate for president in 2028.

We have to take all the requests for information from this chamber and tear them up. We have to ask our Honor Colorado colleagues for permission to know which request for information we can make.

· Raúl BenítezThe independent deputy criticized the Cartista majority for blocking opposition requests.

The main target, according to several lawmakers, was liberal deputy Diosnel Aguilera of Ñeembucú, who sought information about his department, a political stronghold of Alliana. The blocked requests also concerned ministers including Public Works Minister Claudia Centurión and Social Development Minister Tadeo Rojas.

Honor Colorado's caucus leader, Miguel Del Puerto, read out his rejection of the 15 requests without offering an explanation, according to the report. Opposition lawmakers said the blocked subjects included the condition of schools, social programs, the Zero Hunger program and alleged impunity surrounding $33 million in overbilling in the “Golden Desks” case.

It's a disgrace. We are not paid a salary to come and make this spectacle, week after week, asking for information about the condition of schools, social programs, Zero Hunger, and the impunity surrounding the $33 million in overbilling in the Golden Desks case.

· Raúl BenítezBenítez listed the issues he said the chamber was preventing lawmakers from investigating.

Independent deputy Raúl Benítez condemned the vote, saying lawmakers should simply ask Honor Colorado colleagues for permission before submitting requests. He said the majority was deciding what the chamber could and could not examine, then tore up papers during his protest.

Majorities rule.

· Cartista lawmakersOpposition lawmakers said this was the governing bloc's main justification for rejecting the requests.

Leidy Galeano of Yo Creo and Johanna Ortega of Partido País also joined the criticism. Galeano challenged the Cartista lawmakers' claim that “majorities rule,” arguing that even a request for information should not be blocked. She also told them to provide the chamber's quorum themselves if opposition lawmakers were considered unnecessary.

A single request for information cannot be approved in this chamber.

· Leidy GaleanoThe Yo Creo deputy sarcastically criticized the majority's use of its voting power.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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