With double digit growth forecast for the coming year, Paraguay will need capable stewardship to seize the opportunity to develop from one of Latin America’s poorest countries into a strong emerging economy - as the country’s lawyers point out, perhaps it is no surprise that it is a businessman rather than a politician the country has elected.
Although there were several candidates in the running, the election was fundamentally a two-horse race between Horacio Cartes and the liberal party’s Efraín Alegre. Alegre is more politically experienced than Cartes, who is a businessman with a fortune built through a portfolio of over 20 companies, but both are centre-right candidates with fundamentally similar policies.
In fact, for many, it is this distance from the political system which has set him apart. “I believe this is a message from the voters who are saying ‘we are tired of traditional politics’,” says FERRERE Abogados (Paraguay) partner Nestor Loizaga.