AMERICA/PARAGUAY - The situation remains very difficult, the Church constantly invokes peace and dialogue to solve problems

Thursday, 11 March 2021 social situation politics coronavirus area crisis local churches

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Asuncion (Agenzia Fides) - "The Church cannot take a position in favor or against the accusation of impeachment of the President of the Republic. The position of the Church is to constantly invoke peace": these are the words of Msgr. Amancio Benítez, Bishop of diocese of Benjamín Aceval and Secretary General of the Episcopal Conference of Paraguay, during an interview on local television, broadcast yesterday.
"In the face of the current crisis, the Church calls for solutions through a peaceful demonstration and, on the other hand, to make an appeal to the government in order to meet the needs of citizens", underlined Mgr. Benitez. Officially he made it clear to the press that until yesterday, March 10, there had been no official request for mediation, either from the political world or from the population.
The intervention of the Secretary of the CEP was made necessary after, through social networks, certain means of communication misinterpreted the visit of His Exc. Mgr Ricardo Valenzuela, Bishop of Caacupé, dated March 9, to the Emergency Commission created in the context of the crisis and formed by the National police authorities together with the direction of the operational table of the Chamber of Senators.
Mgr.Valenzuela, Bishop of Caacupé, had declared, after the meeting, that his first intention was to restore calm and peace between the parties, and then ask for a better management of the Covid-19 emergency that the country is facing. Archbishop Valenzuela also met the Vice President of the Republic, Hugo Velazquez, to whom he declared: "The situation is very difficult. We do not want more people to be hurt. The pandemic has not yet passed, the situation is now worsening and to this is added violence. We have a lot of things to cry for. We must dialogue with everyone to find a way out to better serve our people".
The institutional crisis exploded after a series of protests across the country demanding the resignation of the Head of State and criticizing the policy of the executive in handling the pandemic. The protests began on Friday, 5 March (see Fides, 9/3/2021) and continue to this day.
The health crisis due to the coronavirus pandemic is at one of the most critical moments in Paraguay, where Covid-19 has caused the death of 3,318 people out of a total of 168,043 infected. In recent days, health workers have denounced the lack of medical supplies in hospitals and the delays in the arrival and administration of vaccines against the coronavirus. Paraguay had, just a year ago, imposed a total lockdown in the face of just two proven cases of Covid-19. Today unfortunately the cases are over 2,000 per day. (CE) (Agenzia Fides, 11/3/2021)