Bots, Holy Dogs, and NGOers
Trolls gone wild, Mr Milk turns sour, and some very good boys.
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The Headlines:
Anti-NGO senator in NGO scandal.
In recent years, a strange new slur has peppered Paraguay’s talk shows and congressional debates: oenegero, or NGOer. The opposition, the media, and charities — the argument goes — are awash in dark money from murky overseas foundations hell-bent on subverting Paraguay’s sovereignty, imposing “gender ideology,” and installing a rainbow-flag dictatorship.
Yep, it’s nuts. And the talk of transparency is rich coming from the Colorado Party, nearly 30 of whose senior figures have been investigated or convicted for narcotrafficking and money laundering, or even been killed by narcos and the cops. But it’s a great way to divert attention from the real problems facing Paraguay: and to intimidate those exposing official corruption.
Enter Gustavo Leite. The eloquent, cherub-faced Colorado senator, chummy with far-right figures in Hungary, Spain, and Brazil, is the perfect inquisitor and Cartista attack dog. The spokesperson for a congressional money laundering probe, Leite is also a key backer of sweeping legislation requiring NGOs to meet onerous reporting requirements — or face fines of almost US$400,000 and a ten-year ban.
In a recently published audio recording, he admitted to leaking confidential documents in order to harass non-profits, and called the president of the republic, Santiago Peña, a boludo (idiot). “The NGOers don’t want transparency,” he scoffed, seeming to float unscathed above the sleaze afflicting his Colorado colleagues.
That was until last week, when it transpired that Leite himself is an oenegero of the highest degree. He was until recently the treasurer — and his wife is still president — of the Comunidad Cenáculo del Paraguay: a rehab centre just outside Asunción, linked to a religious foundation in Italy.
Not only has the facility refused to hire psychologists (“It’s Jesus that saves,” dixit Leite), neglected to register with the authorities, and failed to file audits with SEPRELAD, the money-laundering agency.
The Comunidad Cenáculo has also received public money from the Itaipú dam, Leite admitted, and donations from Tabesa: the cigarette-manufacturing outfit sanctioned by the US Treasury in August for funnelling millions of dollars to Horacio Cartes. The former president, remember, has been frozen out of the US financial system for alleged mass bribery of senators and doing business with Hezbollah.
Leave aside the efficacy, let alone the morality, of trying to heal desperately vulnerable addicts through Jesus alone. Why is a religious rehab centre run by a senator receiving funds from gambling firms, a notoriously shady tobacco company, and a state-owned hydroelectric facility? How can Leite draft legislation regulating NGOs when he is up to his neck in one?
“I’m a transparent oenegero,” Leite insisted. He promised to reveal all in a press conference today. But in the end, he refused to release the receipts. Meanwhile, changes to the draft legislation at Peña’s request have removed the heavy fines. But among the groups now exempt from additional scrutiny are football clubs and churches: notorious for recent money-laundering cases involving Colorado Party bigwigs.
The affair has highlighted the hypocrisy at the heart of the Colorado crusade against civil society — and the unholy mixture of born-again Christianity, anti-globalist paranoia, and dirty money behind it.
It’s threats and forcible transparency for some, and blessed impunity for others.
Friars bless dogs and cats.
Friday was the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi, the medieval Italian churchman known for his defence of animals. To mark the occasion, Paraguay’s Capuchin brotherhood held their annual pet blessing at chapels across the country.
The faithful brought their puppies, kittens, rabbits, chickens — and even the occasional parrot — to be sprinkled with holy water and receive the sign of the cross. Some of the animals didn’t seem all that happy about it. Others were very good boys.
It’s not the only drive-thru religious rite they offer. In May, the Capuchins also bless people’s trucks, cars, bicycles, motorbikes, and buses in honour of the Feast Day of St. Leopold, and ask for protection for their drivers. If you bring it, they’ll bless it.
Blessings are serious business in Paraguay. Many households still practice the tupanói, where you ask for your parents, grandparents’ or guardian’s blessing when you first see them every day.
It seems like traditional Guaraní beliefs and centuries of Catholicism have combined, producing a deep-rooted religious sensibility where almost anyone can give a blessing, and just about anyone (or anything) can receive it. It’s one of the many things that makes Paraguay such an interesting place to live.
I’m not about to sprinkle my hell-raising adopted street cats with holy water, though: they’d probably burst into flame.
Culture Corner
🎼 👩🏾🌾 I loved this round-up by Sintonia of contemporary musicians doing interesting things with Paraguay’s rich folkloric genre, featuring Passiflorx, Mbaraka Trío, Bohemia Guaraní, Jazmín del Paraguay and favourites Purahéi Soul. These songs are way too good to be left to barrel-chested blokes in ponchos and EDM bros wearing eyeliner and headdresses.
🎞️🍿🎥 Last week saw the fourth ASU.FICC film festival. A packed house last night in the Alianza Francesa watched six shorts by young, home-grown filmmakers. My faves were the intriguing EL ÚLTIMO CAMPEÓN (Katia Acosta), set in a claustrophobic German colony in 1976; punchy historical drama EL COLOR DE LA YERBA (Cecilia Ortiz); and EN LA FRONTERA (Alvaro Leoz), a stylishly-shot parable about the insanity of war.
🍸🍺🎧 For fans of fine coctelería, don’t miss the takeover of Koggi by Baker’s Bar, a fêted crew of mixologists all the way from Cordón, Montevideo (Sat Oct 12, from 6pm, free entry). The 2022 50 Best Discovery list called Baker’s “the place to go for serious craft cocktails.” Mine’s a Me Mataste, or “you killed me” (Aperol, ginger syrup, passion fruit and orange juice).
🍹⛪🌴 La Ruta de la Caña, a guided tour to Paraguay’s rum-making heartland at Piribebuy, is running daily October 12-19 (Gs. 390,000 pp). The coach leaves at 7am, giving you time to check out the historic plantation owned by Fortín, sample their open bar, and enjoy a leisurely lunch before sleeping it off on the way back.
🏢🏛️🏠 For your fix of historic facades, stained glass and opulent tilework, follow Belluras del CHA. The group is championing Asunción’s smorgasbord of architectural gems, and leads regular tours of private residences and ministries normally off-limits to the public.
What we’re reading
Eva* wants to talk to you. The 28-year-old — one of 400 women incarcerated for drug trafficking in Paraguay — has spent 10 months in the Buen Pastor prison without being sentenced. You can ask her whatever you like via an AI chatbot, pre-programmed by El Surti with responses drawn from interviews with the real-life Eva (not her real name). “This was an opportunity for Eva to narrate her own story,” reporter Juliana Quintana told LatAm Journalism Review.
Welcome to the troll farm. At ABC Color, Fiona Aquino reveals how social-media trolls, and seemingly overseas bots, collaborated with newspaper La Nación and Colorado senators to spread misinformation and impeach Kattya González — an outspoken critic of corruption — in February.
Last Tuesday was the award ceremony for the Premio Nacional de Periodismo Ambiental 2024. The winners were Fidelminio Losa Toews with a podcast on the drought afflicting the Yalve Sanga community; Yehimy Alison González with a video package on gold fever and its fallout in Paso Yobai, and Lourdes Pintos Báez on Paraguay’s growing vulnerability to wildfires. Felicidades!
The Río Paraguay keeps falling. Remember: we get nearly all of our imports and fuel via the river. It if drops much further, they’ll have to be transported by truck, driving up prices and possibly triggering a economic and political crisis. For more, check last week’s Post.
In other news: Brazil seizes smuggled Tabesa smokes | Some interesting maps | This village is entirely cut off | Why the secrecy re: Itaipu talks with Brazil? | GM crops and pesticides advance | Studying on the street | Paraguay could be LatAm’s richest nation, says Santi | Endangered jaguars and giant otters | VIP cells for PCC mob bosses | Smoky South America