Paraguay’s President Fernando Lugo Pays Official Visit to Cuba

During his stay in the Caribbean nation, Presidents Fernando Lugo and Raul Castro are scheduled to hold official talks. The distinguished visitor will also tour places of economic, scientific and historic interest.

Fernando lugo Mendez was born May 30, 1951 in the locality of San Solano, in the Paraguayan department of Itapúa. Since very young, he had an inclination to Catholic religion and in 1970 he began his novitiate with the Verbo Divino (Devine Word) missioners. He took higher education studies at the Nuestra Señora de la Asuncion Catholic University, in San Salvador where he got his Bachelor diploma on Religious Sciences.

He was ordered Bishop of the dioceses of San Pedro locality, the poorest area in his country, on April 17, 1994.

Pope John Paul II ordered Lugo´s retirement as bishop in 2004, following Lugo´s own request. And in December 2006, he presented his resignation of his priestly ministry to launch his presidential campaign, though he requested the Vatican to maintain his membership at the Catholic Church.

Lugo launched his campaign for the Alianza Patriotica para el Cambio, an organization made up of several center-left political parties, backed by the main opposition party Partido Liberal Radical Autentico (PLRA), along with other political, social, union, cultural and sports movements.

Lugo got his victory at the polls April 20, 2008 with 40,80 percent of the votes in his favor to become president-elect. The event put an end to 61 years of rule by the Partido Colorado party in Paraguay. Fernando Lugo was inaugurated as Paraguayan President on August 15, 2008.