Paraguay

Paraguay's long-dominant ruling party on Monday confirmed that a former Cabinet minister would be its candidate in the coming presidential election, though her nomination faced a court challenge. If elected in the April balloting, Blanca Ovelar would become the country's first female head of state and the third woman elected president in South America in recent years. Women now lead Argentina and Chile.

Health authorities here have launched a massive vaccination campaign as a yellow fever outbreak has panicked residents and sparked fierce criticism of the government's handling of the crisis. Almost 1 million people have been vaccinated in this landlocked nation of 6.5 million, officials said. An aircraft carrying 2 million additional doses of vaccine from France touched down Sunday, local media reported.

A sense of new possibilities courses through the crowd even before "the bishop of the poor" shows up in the plaza of this sugar-cane farming center. "I'm not here to hand out beer, liquor, sausages," Fernando Lugo advises, alluding to the traditional giveaways of Paraguayan pols on the stump. "I'm here to share the hope of change with the people." Tiny, landlocked Paraguay, still recovering from the stultifying legacy of the 35-year dictatorship of Gen.

A former Roman Catholic bishop who championed the downtrodden and challenged the long-entrenched political elite was elected Paraguay's president Sunday, ending six decades of one-party rule in this South American nation. Fernando Lugo, 56, dubbed "the bishop of the poor," was leading by 10 percentage points with more than 90% of the results in, electoral officials said. He had about 41% of the vote to about 31% for his chief opponent, Blanca Ovelar of the ruling Colorado Party.

The election of Fernando Lugo as president of Paraguay signals the latest advance of the left in Latin America and the end of more than six decades of rule by a political party best known for a longtime anti-communist dictatorship. Lugo, a bespectacled former Roman Catholic bishop, appears to be among the more moderate left-leaning leaders of South America, where only two major nations, Colombia and Peru, continue to be run by conservatives.

Former Roman Catholic Bishop Fernando Lugo, whose election broke a six-decade legacy of dictatorship and one-party rule, was sworn in Friday as president of this poor, landlocked nation in the heart of South America. "Today a new Paraguay is born," Lugo told thousands of supporters and various heads of state assembled outside the congressional palace in the normally sleepy capital. "Today marks the end of an exclusive Paraguay, a secretive, notoriously corrupt Paraguay."

An outbreak of dengue fever linked to a hot, wet South American summer has prompted charges here of a botched government response and spurred fear that the disease is spreading to neighboring countries. More than 18,000 people in Paraguay have contracted the mosquito-borne ailment, with at least a dozen fatalities, according to government statistics in this landlocked nation of 6.5 million. An elevated incidence of dengue also has been reported in neighboring Brazil and Bolivia.

Looks as if the U.S. soccer team's trip to the Copa America in Venezuela may be short. Four days after being routed by a superior Argentina squad in their opener, the youthful Americans were humbled again Monday in a 3-1 loss to Paraguay at Barinas that put them on the brink of elimination. "We gave them too many easy chances. When you give good teams and good players easy chances, they're going to beat you," said Kasey Keller, the veteran U.S. goalkeeper.

Placido Osuna points to a crudely stitched scar on his belly and thanks God for the little green herb that his sons encouraged him to grow instead of tobacco and cotton. "Stevia saved my life," says the 68-year-old farmer, dressed in flip-flops and an open shirt, with a machete tucked into his belt.

A reported plan by leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to bolster his influence in Paraguay has sparked a heated debate about alleged foreign "infiltration" in the affairs of this small South American nation. The Paraguayan newspaper ABC Color last week revealed the existence of a 21-page document purportedly detailing Chavez's directives, labeling it "a plan of infiltration."