Meet the young economist who will preside over Paraguay sheltered by coloradism

With the image of a technocrat and a solid public experience as an economist, the former Minister of Finance santiago pena became this Tuesday the new president of Paraguayansheltered by the Colorado Party, which has ruled the country almost uninterruptedly for the past 71 years.

At 44 years old and with an ascending professional career, Grief was sworn in as ruler for the period 2023-2028, after the five-year anniversary of the also Colorado Mario Abdo Benitez.

Linked in his youth to the ranks of the Authentic Radical Liberal Party (PLRA), in 2016 the new head of state joined the ruling party backed by then-President Horacio Cartes (2013-2018), considered his political mentor.

Peña, then Minister of Finance of Cartes, faced his first blank in politics in the Colorado Party, when he registered his presidential candidacy for the inmates that year in 2017.

He ran for the Honor Colorado movement, the faction that Cartes heads within the ruling party.

And it was in December 2022, with just six years of Red militancy, when he won the candidacy of the ruling party in the internal elections, with which he won the general elections on April 30.

“My conviction that we can be better is growing day by day and we are going to work tirelessly to make that a reality.”, Peña tweeted that same day, who has made economic management, the generation of 500,000 jobs and not increasing taxes as a priority for his Government “to nobody”.

Party Centenary Renewal

The new ruler presents himself as the renewal within his party, which has already celebrated 135 years, 71 of them in power, except during the unfinished term of leftist Fernando Lugo (2008-2012) and his successor, Federico Franco.

“What more renewal than a person affiliated with another political party, without a track record and militancy, today on the verge of being the next president of the Republic?” Peña declared in an interview with EFE after winning the Colorado candidacy.

Young father and civil servant

Youth has been the trademark for Peña. At just 17 years old, he became a father and at 19 he married Leticia Ocampo, with whom he has two children.

He entered the Central Bank of Paraguay (BCP) as an economics student, later studied Public Policy at Columbia University (United States) and, after leaving the issuer, joined the Africa department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), time during which he lived in the United States.

Upon his return to Paraguay, he headed the BCP, a post he resigned after Cartes appointed him Finance Minister. “At the age of 35 I became Minister of Finance, head of the economic team, president of the council of public companies,” Peña recalled in statements to EFE.

In the last five years, according to his profile on the Linkedin professional network, he has been part of the board of directors of Banco Basa, whose main shareholder is Sarah Cartes Jara, sister of the former president.

And after general elections in which he prevailed with a resounding 42.74% (1,292,079 votes) compared to 27.48% (830,842 votes), Peña becomes the new president of Paraguay this Tuesday, accompanied by vice president of former deputy Pedro Alliana.

Source: EFE