The indigenous community of Espinillo is 21 kilometers from the nearest polling place — and no one owns a car.
So, on the eve of Paraguay’s elections, which were held on April 30, Miguel Paredes, a retired ambulance driver turned local politician, loaded indigenous families onto a bus and dropped them off a short walk from the urns. “We want to take care of themhe said, standing guard with six men he called colleagues.
Then after dark The New York Times uncovered a blatant display of vote buying.
Paredes, 65, and his colleagues rounded up some of the Indians and wrote down their identification numbers. He told them they should vote for the Colorado Party—Paraguay’s dominant right-wing force—and to make sure others did as well. The men showed them how to use the voting machines in Paraguay, guiding them to vote for the Colorado candidates.
with journalists from The Times within earshot, Milner Ruffinelli, one of the men, spoke Guaraní, the indigenous language. “That money that they promised you, there it is, and Miguel Paredes is going to see how he gets it to you“, said. “We can’t give you anything here. You know why”.
Democracy is being tested all over the planet. In some countries, leaders have attacked democratic institutions, including in the United States, Turkey, Brazil, and Mexico, while in other places they have upended the democratic process entirely, such as Russia, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. But In many nations, a different threat afflicts free and fair elections: vote buying.
Political parties in Mexico have handed out gift cards and groceries. Election observers in the Philippines said last year’s voting was plagued by “flagrant vote buying”. In February, a politician in Nigeria was caught with $500,000 and a list of potential recipients on the eve of national elections. Last month in Paraguay, a nation of 7.4 million people in South America, The Times witnessed representatives of the ruling Colorado Party attempt to buy indigenous votes, and more than a dozen indigenous people said in interviews that they had accepted money.
A Colorado gubernatorial candidate hand-delivered 200,000 guaraníes per person, or nearly $30, to more than 100 indigenous voters outside a polling place, according to interviews with five indigenous people who accepted the money. That amount is equivalent to the earnings of several weeks for the poorest in Paraguay.
Néstor Rodríguez, head of the Tomáraho indigenous community that received the money, said it was standard procedure. “It’s just to buy clothes and things for your family“, said. He voted for Arturo Mendez, the Colorado candidate, because of promises of jobs and a new path, he said.
Mendez won handily. In an interview, he admitted to giving people money, but said it was only because they needed food and clothing, and the government had forgotten about them. “Yes, we help them, but not to induce their vote,” he said.
Paying people to vote a certain way is illegal in Paraguay.
Before last month’s elections, party workers fanned out across the Chaco, a vast and arid region. Workers loaded people onto buses, herded them into fenced off sites and gorged them on meat and beer until the vote., affirm electoral observers, activists and indigenous people. The goal is to control a community before a rival group does.
On election day, party workers paid indigenous people for their ID cards—preventing them from voting—or bused them to the polls and handed them cash.
“It is as if we were animals what to buysaid Francisco Cáceres, 68, a member of the Qom indigenous group.
Among Paraguayans, vote buying is an open secret. “It’s almost like without it, it’s not an election,” said Father José Arias, a Catholic priest who discourages his flock from selling his votes. “People agree in theory,” he said. “But many of those who agree also accept” the bribes.
Paredes and Ruffinelli said they were not handing out bribes. The Colorado Party paid for the bus, as well as the chicken, noodles and cooking oil they gave to the community, they said. But they were there because they had built relationships over time, they said, and they were promoting the Colorado candidates because they were the best.
Everyone was free to vote however they wanted, Ruffinelli said, but he hoped they would vote for Colorado. “They already promised it,” he said.
JACK NICAS
THE NEW YORK TIMES
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/6729335, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-05-24 23:00:07
#vote #buying #works #Paraguay #animals #buy