Paraguay, une révolution par les urnes Série-Collection : Révolution (vol 2)

Philippe Claude
2009 - 52 min - Digital vidéo - Couleur - France

On April 20th 2008, carried by a tremendous popular support worthy of the greatest South American revolutions, Fernando Lugo, the "suspended" bishop, is elected president of the Republic of Paraguay. After sixty years of absolute power, the Colorado party is compelled to accept the changeover of political power. The very evening, this people who has for so long been oppressed, bursts into joyful revel and pours out into all the streets and squares of the country for a celebration that looks like a liberation.
Paraguay ? A small country squeezed between Bolivia and the two South American giants, Brasil and Argentina. A country born from interbreeding - a unique phenomenon on the whole continent - between a handful of Spanish and Guarani Indians. A region impregnated with idiosyncracies. But above all a country synonymous with corruption and poverty, a lawless land marked by Alfredo Stroessner's dictatorship, the longest dictatorship ever experienced in South America.
This film will enable us discover this scarcely known country nestled deep into the heart of the South American continent, its unique social structure, its painful past and its surprising identity. By listening to the newly elected president, to his deposed Colorado opponents, to the specialists of the history of the country and to the people itself, this documentary will help us understand why the Paraguayans, after so many years of dictatorship and unopposed governing, have entrusted their destiny to a free man : a religious figure who threw himself into the political arena to try and rescue his country of crime, injustice and poverty and to restore democracy.