Horacio Cartes

Horacio Cartes
President of Paraguay
Incumbent
Assumed office 15 August 2013
Vice President	Juan Afara
Preceded by	Federico Franco
Personal details
Born	(1956-07-05) 5 July 1956 Asunción, Paraguay
Political party	Colorado Party
Spouse(s)	former spouse: María Montaña
Children	Juan Pablo Sofía María Sol
Residence	Mburuvichá Roga
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Horacio Manuel Cartes Jara (born 5 July 1956^[1]) is a Paraguayan businessman, and current President of Paraguay, as of the Paraguayan general election, 2013. He is a member of the Colorado Party.^[2]

Cartes owns about two dozen businesses in his Grupo Cartes conglomerate including tobacco, soft drinks, meat production,^[3] and banking. He was president of Club Libertad football club from 2001 until 2012,^[4] and had been the president of the national team department of the Paraguayan Football Association during the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification.^[3][5]

Business career

Cartes' father was the owner of a Cessna aircraft franchise holding company and the young Horacio studied aviation mechanics in the United States. At the age of 19, he started a currency exchange business which grew into the Banco Amambay. Over the following years, Cartes bought or helped establish 25 companies including Tabesa, the country's biggest cigarette manufacturer, and a major fruit juice bottling company.^[6]

In 1986, Cartes spent 60 days in jail during a currency fraud investigation. He was accused of making millions of dollars on a central bank loan obtained at a preferential exchange rate and then moving it through his money exchange business before buying farm equipment in the U.S. The case was eventually dropped.^[7]

Cartes was imprisoned on charges of currency fraud for seven months in 1989. He was eventually cleared by a court.^[8]

In 2000, the anti-drug police seized a plane carrying cocaine and marijuana on his ranch. He claimed that the plane had made an emergency landing, that he had no involvement with the drug trade and that he opposed the legalization of narcotics.^[8]

Cartes' name appears in the Offshore leaks files in connection with a Cook Islands financial entity linked to Cartes' Paraguayan bank Banco Amambay.^[9][10][11] A classified WikiLeaks cable from 2010 mentioned Cartes as the focus of a money laundering investigation by the DEA.^[12][13][14]

Political career

Until 2008 Cartes was uninvolved in politics and he was not registered as a voter.^[15] He joined the center-right Colorado Party in 2009 and said he wanted to counter the swing to the left in Latin American politics. He became known as an efficient politician uncompromised by his party's past support of the military dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner who ruled until 1989.^[15]

In regards to allegation of his connections to the drug trade, as well as being targeted by the DEA,^[16] he said during his presidential campaign: "I wouldn't want to be president if I had ties to drug traffickers. Go to the courts and check. There's nothing, not a single charge against me."^[16]

Presidential campaign

Cartes was the Colorado candidate in the 2013 presidential election.^[6][15] The BBC suggested that his convincing points during his campaign were the promises to raise private capital to upgrade the country's infrastructure, to modernise its public entreprises, to attract international investments, and to create jobs. On April 21, 2013, he was elected President of Paraguay with 45.80% of the vote.^[6] When he took office on August 15, it marked only the second time in the country's 202 years of independence that a ruling party peacefully surrendered power to the opposition.

In regards to the impeachment of Fernando Lugo and the hostile reception the country was given in the aftermath by Latin American leaders, Cartes said that the country should not withdraw from Mercosur due to its economic benefits of free trade: "Paraguay in no way should abandon Mercosur...we have to hold on tight while they bash us a little bit and keep low and don’t play to being giants or annoyed. Mercosur is a common market like is Europe and with our neighbours we also have many coincidences. [In a globalised world] all countries are interconnected and it is out of the questions trying to isolate Paraguay from other countries. The OAS has already began to understand our politics, that we’re a sovereign country, all was done according to the book and the Constitution."^[17] Upon being sworn in he said: "I'm not in politics to make a career of it or become wealthier. I'm in politics to serve my people, make the future better for new generations and build up our identity as a free, independent and sovereign people."^[16] His inauguration was attended by fellow conservative South American, Chilean President Sebastián Piñera who said: "I want to say to President Horacio Cartes that we are very expectant about his future achievements. The slogan of his campaign was 'new directions,' and every country needs new directions and to be confronted with new challenges...the challenge of integration in our Latin America is still a pending challenge and the experience of the 'Alianza del Pacífico' was a great experience which has been very fruitful." Other leaders at his inauguration were Argentina's Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Peru's Ollanta Humala,^[18] Brazil's Dilma Rousseff, Uruguay's José Mujica and Taiwan's Ma Ying-jeou.^[19]

Government

Cabinet

Cartes said of his cabinet that the future ministers have the "enormous responsibility" of honouring those who voted for them and gave them a governing mandate. "It will be the beginning of a story that us Paraguayans want, a government for all, an inclusive government, our great obligation is with the citizens...we need all the Paraguayans to help us, to orientate us."^[19] The majority of them have an overwhelmingly technical profile:^[20]

• Vice President Juan Afara^[18]
• Minister of Finance Santiago Peña^[20][21]
• Minister of Foreign Relations Eladio Loizaga^[22]
• Minister of Defence Gral. Bernardino Soto Estigarribia^[21] Until November 2015 Replaced by Diogenes Martinez
• Interior Minister Francisco de Vargas^[20][21]
• Minister of Industry and Commerce, Gustavo Leite^[21]
• Agriculture Minister, Jorge Gattini^[21]
• Minister of Public Works, Ramón Jiménez Gaona,^[21] a former Olympic athlete^[23]
• Health Minister, Dr. Antonio Barrios, Cartes' personal physician^[21]
• Minister of Education and Culture Marta Lafuente^[21]
• Justice and Labor Minister, Carla Bacigalupo^[21]
• Minister of Women, Ana María Baiardi^[21]
• Sports Secretary, Víctor Pecci^[24][23]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Horacio Cartes.

• Biography of Horacio Cartes by CIDOB (in Spanish)

Heads of state of Paraguay
	Yegros Rodríguez de Francia Yegros Rodríguez de Francia Ortiz Medina Roque Alonzo C.A. López F.S. López Rivarola Machaín Rivarola Jovellanos Gill Uriarte Bareiro Saguier Caballero Escobar J.G. González M. Morínigo Egusquiza Aceval Carvallo Escurra Gaona Báez Ferreira González Navero Gondra Jara Rojas Peña González Navero Schaerer M. Franco Montero Gondra Eusebio Ayala Eligio Ayala Riart Eligio Ayala Guggiari Eusebio Ayala R. Franco Paiva Estigarribia H. Moríñigo Frutos J.N. González Rolón Molas Chávez Romero Stroessner Rodríguez Wasmosy Cubas González Macchi Duarte Lugo Franco Cartes
Italics indicate acting, interim or provisional role.