The Biden administration has focused tremendous diplomatic attention on Paraguay recently to convince that government that the U.S. is a more “reliable” partner than anything Beijing might offer. Fearful that opposition candidate Efrain Alegre might win in the April 30 presidential elections and follow through on his promise to break diplomatic ties with Taiwan, Washington has deployed aggressively to try to keep the country aligned with the U.S. and guard against Chinese expansion in the region. Current right-wing President Abdo Benitez can’t run for reelection and the candidate of the ruling Colorado Party is not doing well in the polls so far.
On March 28, Foreign Minister Julio Arriola flew to Washington with a delegation to meet with Secretary of State Tony Blinken and receive promises of a much closer future relationship with many economic benefits. Then Deputy Director of the CIA David Cohen flew to Asuncion, Paraguay on March 29 for a closed-door meeting with Abdo Benitez to discuss “national security” matters, after which the President flew to Tampa for two days on March 31 to meet with the Gen. Laura Richardson, commandant of the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) and Gen. Bryan Fenton, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM).
