Mudança política no Paraguai e as relações com o Brasil: o caso da renegociação do Tratado de Itaipu

Abstract

In 2008 Paraguay was undergoing an unprecedent political scene composition, with the arrival of the former bishop, Fernando Lugo, to the republic presidency, breaking with more than six decades of the Colorado Party monopoly. Nevertheless, the long process of democratic transition initiated in 1989 showed the permanence of remnants that limits the democracy in the Guarani country, exemplified by Lugo's destitution in 2012. The Paraguayan foreign policy presents close relation with the domestic policy dynamics, such that the relations with Brazil, one of the main partners of the bilateral Paraguayan relations, ends up being influenced by the internal conflicts of the next door country. Moreover, these bilateral relations showed gradual approach, potentiates in continuum after the construction of Itaipu, which generated visceral linkages between the two countries. However, at the same time that Itaipu was a motive for approach, it was also configured as disagreement element contained in the history of such relations. In the wake of this process, the Brazilian chancellery has always sought to comply with the Paraguayan claims, aiming to ensure the Brazilian interests in the regional surrounding. Particularly, in the case of Itaipu, there were many agreements. However, the negotiations in 2009 that culminated in the alteration of annex C that referred to the financial bases of the Treaty, triplicating the value for the energy disposal paid for the selling of the exceeding part of the Paraguayan side, has a singularity: the marriage between the general line of Brazilian foreign policy of Lula's government and the model of regional insertion supported in the idea of solidarity, with interests of keeping Fernando Lugo in power, within the political domestic shocks in Paraguay. That's because the campaign promises of the former bishop had strong connections with Brazil, especially, regarding the renegotiation of the Itaipu Treaty, seen as...