With Paraguay’s economy booming, this Sunday’s elections are less about policies and more about the candidates and their party machines.
In terms of growth, this landlocked country -- roughly the size of California -- is one of the few bright spots in Latin America in recent years. Barring an upset, Mario Abdo Benitez, a 46-year old former senator whose father was the secretary of long-serving dictator Alfredo Stroessner, looks set to retain the presidency for the conservative Colorado party. Recent polls put him well ahead of Efrain Alegre, a former minister backed by the Alianza Ganar, an unlikely alliance of right-wingers and leftists.
