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Updated 3.10pm
A PARAGUAYAN OPPOSITION political activist was shot in the head and killed when police raided his party headquarters during riots against a contested electoral reform, the movement’s leader said today.
Rodrigo Quintana, 25, leader of the opposition Liberal Party’s youth branch was shot as police searched the premises in the capital Asuncion, party leader Efrain Alegre told reporters.
The interior ministry said in a statement that “the authorities are investigating the circumstances of the death, which is presumed to have occurred at the hands of a member of the National Police”.
Police raided the party offices after activists took refuge there during a night of riots, Alegre said.
Furious protesters stormed Paraguay’s legislature, ransacking lawmakers’ offices and setting fires after senators approved a law allowing the country’s president to be re-elected.
The unrest late last night left about 30 people injured, including three lawmakers, according to firefighters and an opposition senator.
Right-wing President Horacio Cartes is seeking to reform the constitution to let him run for office again in an election in 2018 after his current term ends.
Paraguay is still recovering from the 35 year-long dictatorship of general Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989).
To chants of ‘Dictatorship never again!’, hundreds of protesters clashed with riot police and broke into the congress building, battering down entrances and fences and shattering windows.
Once inside, the demonstrators ransacked the offices of lawmakers who backed the reform and started fires, television images showed.
Flames could be seen coming from large parts of the building. Police used mounted units and water cannon to try and disperse the rioters.
Calm was restored at the building at around midnight local time (4am Irish time), where large numbers of police remained on alert.
Cortes’ allies in the upper house of the legislature passed the bill yesterday, sidestepping resistance from opponents who say the it clears the way for dictatorships.
‘Barbarians’
The vote took place in the Senate offices as the main assembly hall was occupied by senators from the opposition Liberal Party which opposes the reforms.
Opposition senator Luis Wagner said those injured included Senate speaker Roberto Acevedo, lawmaker Edgar Ortiz, who was hit in the mouth by a rubber bullet fired by police, and Efrain Alegre, who lost to Cartes in the 2013 presidential elections.
Acevedo has challenged the bill in the Supreme Court, arguing it is unconstitutional. The measure was scheduled to be considered today in the lower house Chamber of Deputies, where the president has a majority.
However, after the rioting, Chamber president Hugo Velazquez announced that the vote has been postponed, and said he was shocked by the violence.
“I hope that calm and harmony will return,” Velazquez said in a televised message.
Since 1992 Paraguay has banned re-election in an attempt to avoid a return to dictatorships such as that of Stroessner. By removing the ban, the reform will also allow left-wing former president Fernando Lugo to run again for office. He held power from 2008 to 2012.
If it is approved by the two houses, the measure is expected to be put to a referendum within three months.
The opposition condemned the move as a “parliamentary coup” and called for “resistance.” “It is a dictatorial plan by Horacio Cartes with the complicity of Ferdinand Lugo,” Senator Carlos Amarilla said.
Cartes labeled the demonstrators “barbarians”, and blamed the violence on “a group of Paraguayans embedded in politics and the media aimed at destroying democracy and political and economic stability”.
“Democracy is not won or defended by violence,” he said on his Twitter account.
“We continue to live in a state of law and we must not allow barbarians to destroy the peace, tranquility and welfare of the people.”
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Can I have my money back now
It’s like’…..burning your furniture – to keep warm!
Why are PwC saying this instead of IBRC and NAMA?
As property prices start to rise nama , ibrc start to dump property
Can someone explain why?
Dumping loans philip, not property. They’re Dumping the loans as they’re non-performing and want to get them off the balance sheet.
If they had the patience, they’d put arrangements in place to allow the properties to return to positive equity and then seek a sale, this recouping more of the tax payers money.
Unfortunately, they’ll sell the loans for a discount and allow the new purchasers to do this and net a tidy profit.
The article outlines that IBRC (IBROKE would probably be a better name) will offload € 15 billion in loans.
Yet the linked article tells us that IBROKE have already offloaded 90% of its loanbook, € 19.8 billion out of € 21.7 billion leaving just € 1.9 billion on hand.
This can only mean, if the previous article is correct, that it is NAMA that is offloading the majority of the loans.
Why the subterfuge?
Why make people think that this is some kind of joint enterprise when it is NAMA that is leading the charge?
Have the shiny suit brigade from the canal something to hide?
Given their obsession with secrecy it would not surprise me if they have, perhaps selling the loans to some preferred customer with an inside track at a serious discount.
The way things go it will all be wrapped up before we know anything, plus ça change.
Who in their right mind would buy this junk?
It might only be worth 30% of face value but if you buy it for 20% it’s a good deal. For the buyer anyway.
@ Irish Revolution
The Banks?
Hedge funds bought it. They will now sell off all the ghost estates etc at a lower price so people that have houses for sale at the min will eventually have to sell for half or take them off the market.
Fab house here in drogheda asking price €325. Hilarious. You could now nearly get a house for that on raglan road or ailsbury road!! So that house is realistically worth less than €150 really.
People and notions ha
What about Bank of Scotland selling on my mortgage & others in their Irish portfolio to a company called Tanager Ltd.
I’m in a tizzy all day because I don’t know what it means for us.
have your say