Juan Carlos Wasmosy

Juan Carlos María Wasmosy Monti (Asunción, Paraguay, December 15, 1938) is a Paraguayan politician and businessman. He was the 47th President of the republic during the period from August 15, 1993 to August 15, 1998.

Wasmosy was the first democratically elected president after the dictatorship of General Alfredo Stroessner and the 1989 coup in Paraguay, in which he was overthrown by General Andrés Rodríguez Pedotti who formed a provisional government and made a democratic transition.

Family

Her paternal ancestors were of Hungarian origin who settled in Brazil, where they changed their original surname Vámosy to Wasmosy (there are still relatives who carry that surname). Upon arriving in Asunción (Paraguay) they changed their last name again, now to Wasmosy.

Professional life

He entered the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Mathematics (Engineering) of the National University of Asunción, driven by a source of inclination towards the exact sciences. From the third year he found an opportunity to integrate technical teams with professors from said faculty and then he was able to complement the academic program with the execution of works and at the same time receive the first income through the chosen career.

Already awarded the title of Civil Engineer, in 1962 he created his own company and carried out numerous projects in the private sector, but his great opportunity was the construction of the largest hydroelectric dam in the world, ITAIPU, where He headed the Consortium of Paraguayan Companies (CONEMPA) which was in charge jointly with the Brazilian group UNICOM of the civil works of that project, which is currently in operation. He also devoted much of it to the cattle industry.

Political career

The President of the Republic, General Andrés Rodríguez Pedotti, who took office after the overthrow of Stroessner and leader of the movement on Thursday, February 2 and Friday, February 3, 1989, appointed Wasmosy as Minister of Integration in 1991.

In the general elections of Sunday, May 9, 1993, Wasmosy faced the economist Domingo Laíno of the Authentic Radical Liberal Party (PLRA) and the businessman Guillermo Caballero Vargas of the National Encounter Party (PEN), resulting in victory with 39.9 % of votes. Thus, Wasmosy became the first civilian president after successive military governments in Paraguay.

Presidency (1993-1998)

However, Wasmosy did not support the reforms initiated by his predecessor Rodríguez, keeping former Stroessner collaborators in his government, and being unable to continue the reforms initiated by Rodríguez, Wasmosy became increasingly unpopular. In the opinion of former President Andrés Rodríguez, the choice of Wasmosy as his successor was so that he could carry out a series of reforms contemplated in the new constitution, promulgated in 1992. The Supreme Court of Justice and powers had to be adapted to the new democratic institutionality and organs of the Paraguayan state. The Council of the Magistracy was born as an institution as well as the Governors and the Departmental Boards. What was being proposed was a "canned transition," with the consent of the United States.

Wasmosy received personal advice from the former finance minister of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and mastermind of the "Chilean miracle," Hernán Büchi. The system did not give the expected results, since the economic and social reality of Paraguay was very different from the Chilean one, since the state of the Andean country had numerous important companies and industries created in industrialization processes in the middle of the century XX, Chilean companies also enjoyed great international prestige for the quality of their services and products, which was not the case in Paraguay where there were few companies and in general not very large to this we must add that Chile has large mining deposits owned by the Chilean state, which did not have the economic capacity to exploit them, for which Buchi and Pinochet's economic team devised a mechanism in which the state associates with international mining companies to exploit them, in Paraguay the mineral wealth is almost unknown because it is essentially an agro-livestock country, also in Chile the state is demanding in collecting taxes, the penalty for debtors is very high and no one is saved, even the former dictator Pinochet he was sentenced for tax fraud and tax evasion, in Paraguay, on the other hand, there are almost no taxes and the evasion is gigantic, for another, in Chile there is a large middle class that served as the basis for launching the Chilean pension system and that allowed the spectacular economic growth and in terms of lower-class workers, in Chile Chilean legislation guarantees a minimum remuneration for their work, on the other hand, in Paraguay the middle class almost does not exist and lower-class workers are generally indigenous and peasants on whom there is great abuse.

Journalistic information reported from 1993 to 1998 the actions of a cousin of Juan Carlos Wasmosy, José Luis Manzoni, a businessman from the Paraguayan agro-export sector. Called by some sectors of the press as El Primazo, they accused him of being the executing arm of the President of Paraguay regarding any business that could be carried out with the Paraguayan State. The complaints ranged from parallel collection in the institutions of the Paraguayan State, interference in public tenders, the process of privatization of public companies and the process of undue aid from the Central Bank of Paraguay to some bankrupt banking institutions linked to President Wasmosy. He has several open legal cases in relation to these illegal acts.

It was essential, according to data provided by journalistic media, that Wasmosy obtain the means to meet his commitments with parliamentarians from the argañismo, from the opposition parties and mainly to align a part of the then loyal military leadership the Commander of the Army, Lino Oviedo and the Carlos, commanders of the feat of February 2 and 3, 1989.

In his report to the Paraguayan Congress' Bicameral Commission on Illicit Laws about the reasons for the crisis on Monday, April 22 and Tuesday, April 23, 1996, General Lino Oviedo said that Wasmosy had asked him for support for his companies in the project of construction of a bridge over the Paraná River, which would unite Paraguay and Brazil, "noting me that parliamentarians cost him a lot of money to get laws approved." Later, the retired general maintained that before Wasmosy's supposed proposal to accompany him in a "fujimorazo", he expressed his total disagreement. “To his proposal to close Parliament, I expressed my total disagreement and that his bad relationship with it was perhaps due to the lack of a good lobby and good interlocutors. I made the same suggestion in relation to the comptroller, ”he recounted. (ABC, 06/06/96, Page 4).

The then President Wasmosy affirmed that Oviedo was lying and that the coup attempt he denounced on April 22, 1996 was not a theatrical act, despite the fact that there were neither troops nor tanks in the streets nor preparations in the Cavalry. "And the pronouncement of the president at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, April 22, 1996, was it all fiction, a circus or a theater as they want to paint?" He responded to Oviedo's accusations (ABC, 04/23/97). According to the Oviedistas, Wasmosy mobilized a whole propaganda machine supported by a message to the nation, reinforced with another message from the North American Embassy to create a public psychosis in the style of "Citizen Kane" by Orson Wells, with the aim of reversing his decayed public image. Wasmosy had to get rid of some political allies, circumstances forced him to make new alliances if he wanted to complete his presidential term.

By 1995, Juan Carlos Wasmosy had retired most of the Carlos, a name given to the commanders of military units participating in the military coup that overthrew Alfredo Stroessner on February 2 and 3, 1989, very loyal to General Andrés Rodríguez, leader of that revolution.

At the beginning of 1994, Wasmosy promoted the Governance Pact. Through the media, the presidents of the Colorado Party, the Liberal Party, and the National Encounter Party agree on the positions of the new Supreme Court of Justice. Negotiations begin to replace the members of the Supreme Court of Justice, the judges of all the country's courts and all other positions such as the Attorney General of the Republic and the fiscal agents of all jurisdictions.

The elections to elect the new President of the Colorado Party were to be held at the end of 1995. Luis María Argaña, Angel R. Seifart and Blas N. Riquelme were present. There were serious complaints about the electoral rolls, so the elections were held only after the events of April 22 and 23. It is speculated that Juan Carlos Wasmosy, seeing that the polls gave his candidate the Vice President of the Republic Angel R. Seifart as the loser, secretly agreed with Argaña to be able to complete his constitutional term, with the promise that he would support him in his campaign for the presidential elections. of 1997. Within that package, the immediate departure of Lino Oviedo from the government was agreed for having asked the people not to vote for Argaña in 1992 during the presidential primaries where Wasmosy and Argaña faced each other, which Juan Carlos Wasmosy finally won.

Wasmosy retires Lino Oviedo, at the request of Argaña. To calm down the military leadership, on April 22 he retired and on April 23, 1996, he appointed him Minister of Defense by decree. However, Argaña organized a demonstration against the ex-commander of the Army and finally Wasmosy gave up naming him, despite having signed the mandatory decree, which constituted a fact for the anecdote, commented on by the citizens and the media. Oviedo is left alone in the Presidential Palace where he should be sworn in, while Wasmosy leaves through the back door of the government palace and leaves the premises in a helicopter. Although not much publicity has been given, journalistic media have highlighted at the time that Lino Oviedo's son, Ariel Oviedo, was studying at university in the United States at that time. Lino Oviedo's son shared an apartment, that is, he lived in the northern country, with one of President Wasmosy's sons.

One week after the events of Monday, April 22 and Tuesday, April 23, 1996, Wasmosy accused Oviedo of rebellion. The judge in the first instance Alcides Corbeta processes him immediately. An appeals court later finds him not guilty in 1997.

On April 28, 1996, after the events of Monday, April 22 and Tuesday, April 23, the Wasmosy Vice President, Ángel R. Seifart, was crushingly defeated by Luis María Argaña, who in this way took control of the Presidency of the Colorado Party.

There the wasmoargañismo arises. The distribution of all positions in the Paraguayan Supreme Court of Justice is agreed. Argaña, knowledgeable about the subject, since he was president of the Court of Justice in Stroessner's time, requests and places many relatives in key positions in Justice. Wasmosismo takes another important percentage and the rest is distributed among the opposition Liberal Party and National Meeting, both of leftist tendencies.

When Oviedo wins the presidential primary elections within the Colorado Party, on September 7, 1997 and the latter goes on a tour abroad and from there makes strong criticisms of the government. Wasmosy arrested him for indiscipline, applying an article of military law for times of international war. He orders the violent search of the Oviedo residence. The images were broadcast by the media. At that time, candidates for senators and deputies were in the house in Oviedo, and the man who would be Wasmosy's successor, Raúl Cubas, was seen lying on the ground in television images and photographs in the printed media.

Oviedo is considered detained and once in the hands of the military leadership at that time, Wasmosy creates a Military Tribunal, for times of international war, and via decree integrates that tribunal with Generals he trusts. These sentence Oviedo to 10 years in prison. Oviedo is disabled. Raúl Cubas replaces him as President and Argaña, the losing candidate, receives the Vice Presidency.

During his government, Paraguay became part of Mercosur and, between 1995 and 1997, the economy grew an average of 3%, but at the same time bankrupted the country's financial system, diverting millions of guaraníes of the Banco del Paraguay to rescue one of the important bankrupt banks.

His successor, Raúl Cubas, who had been Lino Oviedo's vice-presidential candidate, but since the latter was sentenced to prison before the elections, was left as a presidential candidate along with the later assassinated Luis María Argaña.}

Post-presidency

On August 15, 1998, Juan Carlos Wasmosy handed over the presidential command to engineer Raúl Cubas Grau, who had been elected in the elections by the vast majority of Paraguayans. Once retired from the presidency, Wasmosy no longer fulfilled preponderant political tasks, dedicating himself fully to business activity until today. Without a doubt, Wasmosy marked the 1990s in Paraguay, especially due to the financial crisis unleashed in 1995, which caused the bankruptcy of banks and finance companies throughout the entire republic.