The President Has...Hijos?

5-21-09

I believe I mentioned that the community center has continuing education classes for mechanics, hair dressers, and pastry chefs. The classes are free for students and open to anyone over the age of 14. They have 3 months of classes and then are set up with an internship around Limpio or Asuncion. This is all part of a project between the Ministerio of Justice and Trabajo and SINAFOCAL (National System for Labor Formation and Training). I know that translation is poor but you get the idea. SINAFOCAL have a bunch of programs including microfinancing for small business owners, helping youth find their first job, and helping rural businesses or individuals market their products. Last night I went with the students from our community center to the closing ceremony for thousands of students in Central. There were rumors that Lugo, Paraguay´s president, was going to attend. There were a bunch of camoflaged guards outside with automatic weapons, but my bag has certainly been more thoroughly searched at concerts. The whole set up was really impressive. There were lights, two huge projection screens that frequently showed crowd members for uncomfortably long periods of time, and booths set up along one side with photo slide shows of classes and internships. They also showed two long videos that included lots of techno music in the soundtracks. The head of SINAFOCAL spoke for a while, then President Lugo got up to speak!

He started off with the completely necessary jabs at himself for the most recent scandal. He used to be a Catholic bishop but stepped down to assume his role as Paraguay´s president in August. This marks the first time in 61 years that the Colorado party hasn´t held the presidency. Lugo ran on the fact that he was clean--and a Bishop!--open, and uncorrupt. He was seen as a man without special ties to one political party or other. (Sidenote: He was also very active in Liberation Theology, which was what I wrote my thesis on.) Regardless, the past two months have been full of gossip like you wouldn´t believe. It turns out that Lugo has a two year old son--yes, that means he fathered the child when he was still a man of the cloth. He came out and admitted it immediately upon being accused. This happened during Holy Week--not a great time to be seen offending the Church or one´s family. Since then, many women have come out of the woodwork to claim that Lugo is their baby´s daddy too. The count, depending on whom you ask, is up to as high as 16 kids. Absurd. For mother´s day, one of the major cell phone companies showed a commercial (at nauseum) of Lugo as a baby smiling up at women as his stroller was pushed down the street. The women would immediately become pregnant. Silly.

Regardless, in last night´s event, Lugo obviously poked fun at himself. He had to. In his campaign, his slogan was "Lugo has heart" but last night he asked, "Lugo has WHAT?" Some people yelled "Heart!" but he corrected them..."Hijos!" (Children) I was pleased to have had my first presidential spotting, though hopefully next time I can shake his hand...while avoiding eye contact.