Paraguay Presidential Runner Criticizes Gays

Tobacco Magnate Not Gay-Friendly

Horacio Cartes, the front-runner in Paraguay’s presidential election on April 21, 2013, has not been “making nice” with gays in his country.  He likened gays to “monkeys” and the support of same-sex marriage to believing in “the end of the world.”

On the radio this month, Mr. Cartes, 57, a tad dramatic, said “he would shoot himself in the testicles, if his twenty-eight year-old son were to marry another man.”

Response from the Gay Community

This month, a Paraguayan gay rights group, Somos Gay, issued a statement calling Cartes’s comments on same-sex marriage “cruel” and pressing him to apologize publicly.  Said Sergio Lopez, a director of the group, “ The Colorado Party (of which Cartes is a member) claims to protect the Paraguayan family, claiming that if lesbians and gays become visible in our society, the traditional family will disappear.  But in fact, they are ignoring reality since that traditional family is no longer the norm.” Cartes has not issued an apology.

Cartes’s Opponent in Race

Senator Efrain Alegre of the Liberal Party is Cartes’s opponent for President.  They are both ideologically similar, conservative, with business-friendly proposals.  Yet, Mr. Alegre, who believes also that marriage should be between a man and a woman, said on April 16th that he is open to more debate on same-sex marriage.  He called Mr. Cartes’s statements on same-sex marriage reflective of  “the Paraguay of the past.”

Although Cartes was ahead in the polls, one recent poll suggests that the tide is shifting not only because of his stance on gay rights, but also his reputation of possible laundering money and profiting from the smuggling of contraband Paraguayan-made cigarettes into Brazil.  The Colorado Party was ruled for sixty years by Fernando Lugo, a former Roman Catholic bishop who was ousted last year.

Will Paraguay follow Uruguay and Argentina?

Legislators in Uruguay voted this month to legalize same-sex marriage.  Argentina had already voted to do so.  These recent developments in South America have impoverished Paraguay talking about gay marriage.