{"id":33991,"date":"2017-04-18T11:41:13","date_gmt":"2017-04-18T11:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/horacio-cartes-says-he-will-not-seek-re-election\/"},"modified":"2017-04-18T11:40:44","modified_gmt":"2017-04-18T11:40:44","slug":"horacio-cartes-says-he-will-not-seek-re-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/horacio-cartes-says-he-will-not-seek-re-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Horacio Cartes says he will not seek re-election"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Horacio Cartes rules out running in 2018 vote, seeking to end political crisis unleashed by bid to change constitution.}<\/p>\n

Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes has said he will no longer seek re-election next year, after his bid to change the constitution triggered deadly riots.<\/p>\n

Cartes said in a statement on Monday that he will “in no event” try to run in the April 2018 vote, seeking to end a political crisis unleashed by his push to remain in power another five years.<\/p>\n

Presidential re-election has been taboo in the South American country since the 35-year dictatorship of General Alfredo Stroessner ended in 1989.<\/p>\n

After senators passed an amendment last month to change that, opposition activists stormed Congress, ransacking politicians’ offices and setting them on fire.<\/p>\n

Police shot dead one opposition activist in a raid during the riots. Hundreds of people were injured and more than 200 arrested.<\/p>\n

That triggered calls for crisis talks, backed by Pope Francis. But they fell apart when the main opposition, the Liberal Party, boycotted them.<\/p>\n

Cartes said he hoped his “gesture of renunciation” would “deepen the dialogue aimed at strengthening this republic’s institutions,” the AFP news agency reported.<\/p>\n

But the opposition said the conservative president’s Red Party had not gone far enough.<\/p>\n

“The only way to believe the president’s statements is if the ruling party shelves its attempt to amend the constitution,” said the speaker of Congress, Liberal Party politician Roberto Acevedo.<\/p>\n

But Red Party spokeswoman Lilian Samaniego said party leaders had decided against withdrawing the amendment.<\/p>\n

Cartes’ attempt to change the constitution had the backing of his leftist rival Fernando Lugo, who was president from 2008 to 2012 and also wants to run again.<\/p>\n

But the Liberal Party bitterly opposes changing the 1992 constitution’s limit of a single five-year term.<\/p>\n

Cartes’ change of heart came as international pressure mounted against his re-election bid.<\/p>\n

One of US President Donald Trump’s top envoys for Latin America, Francisco Palmieri, the assistant secretary of state for Western hemisphere affairs, is going to Paraguay for talks on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

And Luis Almagro, the secretary-general of the Organization of American States, is expected on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\"President<\/figure>\n

Source:Al Jazeera<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Horacio Cartes rules out running in 2018 vote, seeking to end political crisis unleashed by bid to change constitution.} Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes has said he will no longer seek re-election next year, after his bid to change the constitution triggered deadly riots. Cartes said in a statement on Monday that he will “in no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[101],"byline":[160],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-33991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-internationl","byline-theophile-niyitegeka"],"bylines":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"contributors":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33991\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33991"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=33991"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=33991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}