Paraguayan presidential candidate for the Colorado Party, Santiago Peña (C), celebrates with his wife, Leticia Ocampos de Pea (R), and Paraguayan former President Horacio Cartes, after winning the presidential election in Asuncion on April 30, 2023.
Norberto Duarte | AFP | Getty Images
Paraguay’s ruling candidate Santiago Pena, 44, scored a big win in the country’s presidential election on Sunday, tightening the conservative Colorado Party’s political grip in the country and defusing fears about the end of diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
Pena, who has pledged to maintain Paraguay’s long-standing Taiwan relations, had 42.7% of the vote with over 99% of ballots counted, a more than 15-point lead over center-left rival Efrain Alegre, who has argued for switching allegiance to China.
“Thank you for this Colorado victory, thank you for this Paraguayan victory,” Pena said in a speech. Alegre acknowledged the result. Current President Mario Abdo congratulated Pena as “president-elect,” as did the leaders of Brazil and Argentina.
Colorado and right-wing party candidates also performed strongly in congressional elections and governor races, with some provinces recording a historic Colorado majority over opposition rivals.
The election result leaves Pena facing a challenge to rev up Paraguay’s farm-driven economy, shrink a major fiscal deficit and navigate rising pressures from soy and beef producers to ditch Taiwan in favor of China and its huge markets.
“We have a lot to do, after the last years of economic stagnation, of fiscal deficit, the task that awaits us is not for a single person or for a party,” Pena said in his victory speech, calling for “unity and consensus.”
It also underscores the dominance of the Colorado Party, which has ruled for all by five of the last 75 years and has a fierce campaign machine, despite rising discontent from some voters over the slowing economy and corruption allegations.
“Once a Colorado always a Colorado,” said Eugenio Senturion, 65, as he…
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