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GUEST: Michael Fox, FSRN Correspondent in Paraguay

Former Roman Catholic bishop, Fernando Lugo, won the presidential elections in Paraguay, ending 62 years of rule by the Colorado Party. Lugo, whose party, the Patriotic Alliance for Change, is the second largest in the country, has pledged to tackle the country’s crippling poverty. He is being seen in the US as a leftist whose “socialist tendencies resembl[e] those of Evo Morales of Bolivia and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela.” The ruling Colorado Party held a record for being the longest-serving political party in the world. The elections, which were widely deemed free and fair, were only the fourth in the country since the dictator Alfredo Stroessner was ousted in 1989 after 35 years in power.

Listen to Michael Fox’s reports at www.fsrn.org.