Paraguay in the Twenty-First Century: From the Rise of Progressivism to Conservative Rearticulation

Abstract

This chapter undertakes a political, social, and economic analysis of Paraguay’s recent history, with an emphasis on the first two decades of the twenty-first century, its main actors, proposals, and characteristics, in a context marked by sinuous and accelerated transformations. The chapter begins with an examination of the most important antecedents, focusing on the scope and singularities of the development of structural adjustment policies in Paraguay, within a regional scenario characterized by the apogee of neoliberalism, with the Washington Consensus as its main reference. Starting from the aforementioned conditions, the chapter presents an analytical overview of the post-neoliberal experiences that took place on the national scene, clearly influenced by a regional framework of crisis, political rearticulation and contestation of structural adjustment policies throughout the American subcontinent. Along these lines, this analytical approach presents the central characteristics of the regional experiences, as well as the governments headed by Nicanor Duarte Frutos (2003–2008) and Fernando Lugo (2008–2012). Finally, the author investigates the features of the Paraguayan new political conservative climax following the controversial removal from power of former president Lugo (2012) while considering how this new cycle arose in an international and regional context in which conservative ideas are on the rise, taking as their banner a set of anti-rights proposals and repositioning the old repertoire of slogans raised during the Cold War on political agendas.