Paraguay rioters target former president Cartes on third night of protests
Hundreds of Paraguayan demonstrators moved their third day of protest on Sunday in front of the house of former president Horacio Cartes (2013-2018), in Asuncion, after several hours stationed near the presidential residence of Mburuvicha Roga to demand the resignation of President Mario Abdo Benitez for another day.
The decision to march to Cartes' home, relatively close to the presidential residence, is a response to the fact that Abdo Benítez's salvation from the impeachment trial that the opposition is seeking depends on the position that the Honor Colorado bench, led by the former president, will take in the coming days.
For this reason, the demonstrators see Cartes as another target of their protests, in addition to the fact that he also belongs to the Colorado Party, which many hold responsible for the corruption and lack of development in the country, since the conservative party has been in power for decades, interrupted only by an opposition legislature between 2008 and 2013.
Moved by shouts of " Let's go to the house of HC (Horacio Cartes)!", hundreds of protesters changed the location of their protest, after nearly five hours in the vicinity of Mburuvicha Roga, heavily surrounded by fences and police, to gather in front of the former president's house.
They were met by a group of riot police in front of the main entrance of the house and the demonstration went on peacefully for a couple of hours, until around 23.00 local time, when the clashes started again.
Police sources and also several witnesses at the scene confirmed to Efe that a group of hooded men, possibly barras bravas (fierce gang), approached to confront the riot police, while another group burned bags of rubbish in a nearby street.
The riots began somewhat further away from the main protest area, and the first shots fired by the police and the presence of hydrant cars surprised the few demonstrators who remained calmly demonstrating in the area.
After a few minutes of uncertainty, the situation was brought under control, although some people were injured by rubber bullets.
In addition, in these moments of confusion, some demonstrators also threw toilet paper at Horacio Cartes' house and painted "Narco" and "Mafia" on the walls of his house.
Before going to the residence of the former Paraguayan president, a much larger crowd gathered near Mburuvicha Roga to demand the departure of Abdo Benítez, the vice-president, Hugo Velázquez, and his entire cabinet.
Despite the fact that the presidential residence was protected at all entrances, with several blocks fenced off, the demonstrators agreed to move to the nearest area and hold their protest for nearly five hours.
For another day since Friday, Paraguayans let the president know that they are not satisfied with his cabinet changes and will not stop until he leaves.
"Every day, until he resigns!" has become one of their main slogans, along with others such as "Let them all go, let not any of them stay!".
Demonstrators at Mburuvicha Roga were responsible for keeping the most exalted protesters calm and managed to defuse the few tense moments themselves.
The first of these occurred when a car was forced to open the fence to gain access to a nearby hospital and some people tried to take advantage of the moment to enter the cut-off area.
However, it was the demonstrators themselves who prevented them from doing so and raised the fences again to delimit the area.
A few hours later, a man tried to pull down the fence to get closer to Abdo Benítez's residence and a group of students reminded him that this was a peaceful demonstration and they would comply with the rules.
Paraguayans began taking to the streets on Friday to express their dissatisfaction with the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has left more than 3,000 dead and more than 168,000 infected in a year.
