Nicanor Duarte Fruits
Óscar Nicanor Duarte Frutos (Colonel Oviedo, Department of Caaguazú, Paraguay, born October 11, 1956) is a Paraguayan politician who was the 47th president of the Republic since August 15, 2003 until August 15, 2008. He submitted his resignation from office on June 23, 2008, with the aim of assuming a seat as a Senator of the Republic, but said resignation was not accepted by the Congress of his country. He was the first Paraguayan president who did not profess the Catholic religion as an adult, instead staying rather close to Protestantism,[citation needed] which generated a series of controversies for a traditionally Catholic country. Since 2018, he has been the director of the Yacyretá Binational Entity, on the Paraguayan side, for the government of Mario Abdo Benítez.
In October 2013, he was invited by President Horacio Cartes to represent the Republic of Paraguay as ambassador to the Argentine Republic. Before the appointment proposal, the Paraguayan Senate unanimously agreed. He held that position until January 2016.
Biography
He was born in the city of Coronel Oviedo, capital of the department of Caaguazú on October 11, 1956. His parents of mixed-race descent came from the countryside and were members of the Colorado Party. He is married to Gloria María Penayo and father of six children.
He graduated as a lawyer from the Catholic University of Asunción in 1984, obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Philosophy from the National University of Asunción in 1989 and a Postgraduate Degree in Political Science from the National University and Hans Seidel Foundation in 1992. He worked as a journalist and lawyer before being Minister of Education during the governments of Juan Carlos Wasmosy (1993-1998) and Luis Ángel González Macchi (1999-2003).
Governing Period
Since the beginning of the electoral campaign, Duarte enjoyed the status of favorite and the polls distanced him from Julio César Franco, for the PLRA, and from businessman Pedro Fadul, star at the time of the new Paraguayan opposition, at the helm of the Dear Homeland Party. These same polls indicated that Duarte could be ousted by a unitary opposition candidate, but the multiparty talks between liberals, the left, and the Oviedistas grouped in the UNACE party, an independent list assembled by General Lino Oviedo as the culmination of the first great schism in coloradismo, did not come to fruition.
Victory
On April 27, 2003, Nicanor Duarte Frutos was proclaimed president with 37.1% of the votes, followed by Julio César Franco with 24% and Pedro Fadul with 21.3%. In the congressional elections, the Colorado Party captured slightly less than a third of the votes and received 37 of the 80 deputies and 16 of the 45 senators. The results, therefore, were far from impressive, and in fact were the weakest achieved by the party in its history, losing a majority in both chambers.
Duarte, sworn in for the 2003-2008 presidential term on August 15, in a ceremony attended by nine Latin American presidents, becoming his party's 11th consecutive president. Self-qualified after the elections as an "emerging leader, a rupture of old paradigms that have impoverished Paraguay and fractured society", and as a "president who reaches the Executive without having agreed with the economic oligarchies parasitic relatives of my party and of the country", in his inauguration speech Duarte claimed intentions that were nothing short of revolutionary and promised virtually everything that could be promised to a nation that was clamoring for drastic changes and regenerations of all kinds. With various criticisms of neoliberalism, which he said had been "a failure"; because "it overwhelms human dignity".
Presidency of Paraguay (2003-2008)
Nicanor was president of Paraguay from 2003 to 2008, his mandate was characterized by sustained growth in macroeconomic matters, with strong inclinations to statism, his close ties with the Latin American left, in addition to belonging to a new generation of the ruling class of the Colorado Party, without a past linked to the regime of the dictator Alfredo Stroessner. His administration was held back by major internal disputes within his own political grouping. With a populist and combative speech, he sought until the last moment of his term the possibility of a constitutional amendment that would enable him to fight for reelection, however, he did not obtain a majority in Congress that would give him a free hand for reelection.
A few months after taking office, he began a renegotiation of the external debt, reaching an agreement for 318 million dollars.
To make the plan operational, in 2006 the Government launched the National Strategy to Fight Poverty. As a result of this, investment in social development increased from USD 400 million in 2002 to USD 1,507 million in 2007, boosting the domestic market, which led to an average economic growth of 4.8%.
This strengthened an already growing opposition. A protest march was called that brought together the main opposition political parties, the five trade union centrals and more than a hundred civil associations that ended with the fall of his government and his party in 2008. Despite his progressive discourse, social investments were almost non-existent.
During his presidency, 700 km of paving work was carried out.
In 2008, the Government created – through a presidential decree – the Executive Coordinator for Agrarian Reform -CEPRA- whose main objective is to coordinate and promote economic, social, political and cultural development, in addition to promoting the management of public policies in settlements created and contribute to the achievement of agrarian reform.
In 2006, on the occasion of the state visit to Paraguay by the King and Queen of Spain Juan Carlos I and Sofía, on November 6 and 7, he and his wife were awarded the Collar of the Order of Isabel la Católica María Gloria Penayo de Duarte, the Grand Cross of the same Order (B.O.E. 10/28/2006).
Economic reforms
At the beginning of 2003, the Paraguayan economy was in a critical situation: on the verge of a selective default in relation to its international obligations, that is, unable to assume its payment commitments abroad (in 2002 the payment of the external debt came to represent 44.2% of the Gross Domestic Product-GDP), with international reserves falling to USD 600 million, with a per capita income of less than USD 1000 and without enough money to pay salaries of public officials, who in some institutions even had salary arrears of 3 months. It is also important to note that in 2002 Poverty in general represented 49.7% of the population.
Faced with this situation, and from his assumption of command in August 2003, Nicanor Duarte Frutos promoted a series of reforms that began the takeoff of the Paraguayan economy. First, he proposed a tax reform known as the “triple 10”, reducing the income tax of companies from 30% to 10%, continuing with the VAT at 10% and introducing the Personal Income Tax (IRP) of 10%, a tax that was to be paid only by what earns more than 120 minimum annual wages, that is, a tax that those who earn the most would pay. Then, he began the depoliticization of the Central Bank of Paraguay and regained confidence in the financial system, which had suffered the bankruptcy of various banks in the country, years prior to his assumption. In this regard, it is important to mention that distrust in the Paraguayan financial system had led bank interest rates to skyrocket to 58% inclusive.
Subsequently, the government of Duarte Frutos implemented, among others, the following measures:
- It granted, in a totally free way, during its 5 years of government, 25 000 popular homes for poor families.
- It allocated resources from binational hydroelectric plants, Itaipu and Yacyreta to create social funds for investment in rural areas, both in education, construction of schools, access to safe drinking water, agricultural machining accompanied by the delivery of tractors to the governorates without party distinction.
- He created, through the ITAIPU hydroelectric plant, a scholarship quota for 5000 young people a year to start a university career.
- It tripled the budget of the Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare and the Ministry of Education and Culture.
- He granted subsidies to the peasants when the domestic price of sesame and cotton fell.
- It distributed, through the National Institute for Rural and Land Development (INDERT), 250,000 hectares to peasant organizations.
- It implemented the conditional transfer of resources to families in extreme poverty, through a World Bank fund for the first year, and from the second year already with State resources.
- It created the Investment and Exports Network (REDIEX) to boost exports and support investors who wanted to settle in Paraguay.
- It created the Financial Development Agency (AFD), which acted as second-story banking to provide long-term credits for housing and the productive sector.
Financial achievements
With the aforementioned reforms, the Government of Duarte Frutos achieved:
- Not only did Paraguay get out of a selective default state by paying the past international commitments, but it managed to lower the external debt from 42% to 13% of GDP.
- Sextuplicate the reserves of the Central Bank of Paraguay, from USD 600 million in 2002 to USD 3,800 in 2008.
- To keep the external debt to that point that by 2008 Paraguay could cancel all its external debt with its international reserves.
- Achieve an average of 5.4 per cent growth in the economy from 2002 to 2008.
- Triplicate Gross GDP from USD 6 billion in 2002 to over $18 billion in 2008.
- Regularize payment and increase salaries of public officials.
- Triplicate per capita GDP to over USD 3000.
- Twice exports from USD 951 million in 2002 to USD 4,463 million in 2008.
- Triplicate tax collections, despite having reduced income tax from 30 to 10%.
- Reduce interest rates for banks to less than 10%.
EVOLUTION TRIBUTARIA RECAUDATION PARAGUAY - Government of the Republic of Korea - Decreasing poverty, from 49.7% of the population in 2002 to 37.9% in 2008.
Poverty reduction
The 2010 World Bank Report on Poverty in Paraguay concluded, among other things, that from 2003 to 2008 (Duarte Frutos government):
- The gap between Paraguay ' s per capita GDP and the average for Latin America and the Caribbean increased since 1990 and has continued to increase at a higher rate since 2003.
- Paraguay achieved real improvements in the well-being of its population between 2000-2008, despite the long-term consequences and the unfavourable comparison with ALC and the other countries of the region.
- Significantly, poverty rates decreased during the period 2003-2008... The reduction of 6.1 percentage points in moderate poverty during that period, of 44a 37.9, was mainly the result of growth in income (-4.1) but also of improvement in income distribution (-1.5).
- Inequality in Paraguay declined significantly in the period 2003-2008.
- Paraguay also shows improvements in almost all labour market indicators during the growth of 2003-2008.
- As to “Access to key goods and services: The best quality of housing and especially the increased access to services since the year 2003 is consistent with the poverty reduction reported until 2008.
Likewise, in 2012 the World Bank issued a press release entitled "New World Bank Report reveals that the middle class in Paraguay has increased in the last decade." Said report mentions that "...the middle class in Paraguay increased by 45 percent, going from 1 million to 1.5 million people in the last decade and representing 24% of the population in the year 2009." He then goes on to detail that "...the region's middle class grew to comprise some 152 million people in 2009, compared with 103 million in 2003, an increase of 50 percent. For Paraguay, the middle class increased in that period by almost 500,000 more people, a figure that represents a growth of 7.6 percent of the total population of the country who have been able to access the middle class in the last decade.&# 34;
Conflicts with the press
During the years following his assumption of power and more precisely during the final stage of his term, some controversies arose between Duarte and the country's main media, run by large conservative groups that were in opposition to his government.. His criticisms were mainly directed at the newspaper Última Hora and the Telefuturo channel, whom he accused of campaigning for his vice president, Luis Castiglioni, who had become his main opponent.
In his criticisms, Nicanor made evident his tension against media managers, accusing them of journalistic and business mismanagement. On numerous occasions he questioned the fortune of its owners and how they came to dispose of such monetary sums in their estate.
During a political act, Nicanor stated the following:
“(The media owners) were enriched by devoting themselves to turbid activities by the hands of the shifting bosses, evading taxes, exploiting the peasants, bribing the state and previous governments.”
Attack
On February 14, 2008, Duarte Frutos initially denounced that, during his routine stay in the Paraguayan commando of military forces, they tried to kill him by poisoning with muriatic acid. This complaint is made in the context of a national health emergency by endemic outbreaks of yellow fever in a city near the capital of Paraguay and deforested regions in the interior of that country.
Resignation
On June 23, 2008, Duarte Frutos presented his resignation to the president of the Senate, with the intention of taking office as a senator by popular vote and not for life, however his resignation was rejected by congress and although he could not swear still as active senator.
Ambassador
In October 2013, he was appointed ambassador of Paraguay to the Argentine Republic, after friction in relations during the presidency of Federico Franco and the suspension of Paraguay from Mercosur.
| Predecessor: Luis Ángel González Macchi | .svg){kind=small} President of the Republic of Paraguay 15 August 2003 – 15 August 2008 | Successor: Fernando Lugo |