Santiago Peña, a former economist, is Paraguay’s next president
But a nationalist firebrand got 23% of the vote
Pundits predicted a tight race. In the end, it wasn’t even close. Santiago Peña, a 44-year-old former finance minister and economist at the IMF, took nearly 43% of votes in Paraguay’s presidential election on April 30th. Mr Peña hails from the conservative Colorado Party that currently governs the country. By the time his five-year term, which begins on August 15th, is over, the Colorados will have held power for 75 out of the last 80 years.
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “Stability amid chaos”
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