The Pink Tide Continues - in Paraguay

Whilst the future US presidential election campaign will yet again paint US states in shades of either blue or red, head south and you will see a distinct shade of pink - 'socialism light - slowly covering the Latin American continent. Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela are all currently led by left-of-centre presidents. This week it is now possible to add Paraguay to the list. Former bishop Fernando Lugo and his leftist alliance won a resounding victory in presidential elections in Paraguay, dealing a crushing blow to the world’s longest ruling party and ushering in a new era, after 61 years of one-party government.

Commentators have sought to divide this movement into a 'good Left' (Lula's Brazil, and Bachelet's Chile) and a bad left (Chazez's Venezuela and Morales' Bolivia). For a detailed account of this debate read Jorge Castenada's "Latin America's Left Turn". That this divide has real relevance in Latin America is obvious when Fernando Lugo quickly sought to play down comparisons with the likes of Chavez and Morales. This was in no doubt in a need to calm any future investors in the country. Something Paraguay is in need of, if it is to transform its development from an agricultural-export model to an agricultural-industrial model.

To attract investors he's announced that he would offer them free energy from the huge energy reserves Paraguay has access to from the Itaipú hydroelectric dam situated on the Brazilian-Paraguayan. Given the current commodity boom Fernando Lugo will probably looking to Paraguay substantial soya produce and trying to put in place industries that add value to these exports by means of processing the soya into pellets and oil.