The Paraguayan congress has just deposed their president for failing to do his job properly. It has all happened very quickly- from what I can understand the house of deputies brings a charge of incompetence, which then gets 'tried' by the senate. Only one congressman was opposed, they have deposed the president and they have installed the vice-president as the president. All within 24 hours.
The president of Paraguay is a controversial figure. A former bishop of the Catholic church who went into politics and in 2008 became the first president from a different party for around 50 years (Paraguay had a dictatorship that pretended to be a democracy from what I can gather). Druing his time in office there have been various scandals to do with alleged children of the former bishop.
But basically it seems the party that supported him in gaining the presidency soon lost confidence when he didn't appoint enough of their party to the cabinet. Recently there has been problems to do with land ownership, including a violent episode involving the death of 17 people. It seems that the politicians have taken the chance to get rid of him- surprisingly though, because he only has another 10 months left of his term and they don't have re-election in Paraguay. Obviously scared of him supporting a successor.
We should pray that peace might prevail as the implications of this seemingly anti-democratic action unfold.
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