The Importance of Paraguay

 What happens in Paraguayan politics matters not only to people who live there, but for the rest of the region and the world. It’s a member of Mercosur, at a time when that bloc’s future is in flux, and a key part of the rising strategic competition between the U.S. and China in the region — Paraguay remains one of a few nations who still recognize Taiwan. In recent elections, the country went against a regional wave of anti-incumbency sentiment by choosing a candidate of the ruling Colorado party, which has been in power for almost all of the past seven decades. In this episode, we do an overview of Paraguay, looking at the consequences of elections to the rest of Latin America, how it fits into the growing U.S.-China competition, and why Paraguayan voters bucked a 5-year-long regional trend by voting for more of the same. Our guest is Julieta Heduvan, a Paraguayan foreign policy analyst and author of Paraguay, Política Exterior e Integración Regional.