Colorado Party millionaire and political neophyte Horacio Cartes won Paraguay's presidential race, officials said Sunday, paving the way for his nation to rejoin the Mercosur trade bloc. Cartes, a conservative tobacco baron, took 46 percent of the vote against 37 percent for his nearest rival, Efrain Alegre of the ruling Liberal Party, Paraguay's top election official said. Alegre quickly conceded defeat.
With the national flag wrapped around his neck, the 56 year-old president-elect said in his victory speech that he would lead Paraguay in "a new direction." Cartes - whose businesses include banks, a sports team, soybeans and currency exchanges - also promised that he would work "for all Paraguayans." The conservative Colorados held Paraguay's presidency for 60 years until leftist former Catholic bishop Fernando Lugo was elected in 2008.
But Lugo was impeached in June 2012, a move that several regional governments saw as a coup d'etat by the conservative legislature. Paraguay was promptly suspended from the Mercosur trade bloc as well as the Unasur group of south American nations. Cartes's election brings Paraguay back into their good graces. Argentine President Cristina Kirchner and Uruguayan President Jose Mujica both congratulated Cartes. "I extend my congratulations to the Paraguayan people for the exemplary civic day. And most importantly: we await you in Mercsour," Kirchner wrote on her Twitter account.
Mujica in turn invited Cartes to the next Mercosur summit, to be held in Uruguay in June. The larger countries need Paraguay: in February, the French and Germany ambassadors in Asuncion said that the European Union would not sign any agreements with Mercosur as long as Paraguay was absent.