Paraguay
Rodrigo Franco warned about Asunción’s municipal structure and questioned local leadership
The mayoral candidate said the city government is constrained by a machine of nearly 10,000 employees and called for a reduction in the apparatus. He also took aim at long-serving councilors and former mayors of the capital.
Asunción mayoral candidate Rodrigo Franco said, according to ABC Color, that whoever takes charge of the Municipality could end up in an even worse situation than Hugo Javier, because of the weight of a structure that, he said, has accumulated decades of growth and political constraints.
In a video posted on his social media accounts, Franco said the Municipality of Asunción is dominated by an apparatus of nearly 10,000 employees that expands with each election. He also criticized the “eternal councilors,” referring to Liberal councilors with more than 25 years on the Municipal Board, and said they are increasingly discredited.
According to ABC Color, the candidate said that structure demands more positions, money, privileges and contracts, and argued that the solution does not lie with a “lukewarm” mayor, but with shrinking the Municipality. In that context, he suggested that Mario Ferreiro was one of those moderate city leaders and recalled that his resignation paved the way for Óscar “Nenecho” Rodríguez to arrive first as interim mayor and later as elected mayor in 2021 with Cartismo support.
Franco also said Asunción needs a mayor who does not negotiate governability with people who, he said, should be in prison. He added that the payroll workers, parallel slush funds and business deals must end, and stressed that anyone who steals must go to prison, because otherwise the Municipality will continue to be, in his words, “the cemetery of any politician.”
In another piece cited by ABC Color, Franco linked Hugo Javier, Mario Ferreiro and Óscar “Nenecho” Rodríguez to the argument that they said they had not stolen, but surrounded themselves with people who did. Referring to El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, he said leaders cannot come to power as the public’s hope and then betray that expectation.
According to ABC Color, Franco is running outside the Alianza Unidos por Asunción, which ultimately chose Soledad Núñez as the opposition’s joint candidate. The politician, from a Cartista Colorado family, said he had distanced himself from that space and had been active in the PLRA and the PDC under the influence of his stepfather, former judge and former Liberal senator Tadeo Zarratea, who heads his councilor list.
The outlet added that in his speeches Franco repeatedly criticizes both Soledad Núñez and the PLRA councilor list headed by Augusto Wagner, prompting accusations from Juntos por Asunción figures, who accuse him of splitting votes to benefit the Colorados. Arlene Aquino also left that alliance, after leaving the Partido Cruzada Nacional and running for the Partido Patria Soñada.
Sources
About this note. Written by El Notero with the assistance of artificial intelligence, based on what was published by the cited outlet. El Notero did not conduct its own reporting on this event.
