Paraguay and pride hurt by the Itaipu Dam

Paraguay experiencing a deep institutional crisis stemming from an agreement signed on May 24 with Brazil for the shared energy offered by the Itaipu Dam. The secret of the agreement first triggered the departure of the Chancellor, then the Paraguayan ambbadador to Brazil, from two front line officials involved in the energy and energy sector. at the request of political trial against the presidential duo.

It is not yet known what happened, but in Paraguay, there is a strong suspicion of officials signing a deal favorable to their powerful neighbor. After the resignation of the Chancellor, the first directive received by his successor was to ask Brazil to cancel the bilateral act as part of a very rare act of diplomatic relations.

The Itaipú Dam was built on the Paraná River, very close to the triple border between Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina and the famous Iguazu Falls. Because of its power, it is considered the one with the largest production of hydropower in the world and has always been a cause of conflict with Brazil.

The early stages of its construction when there were military governments in both countries and although the 1966 agreement recognized Paraguay's sovereignty to more than 50% and its right to export, the mistrust mutual aid did not serve to design projects for regional integration. The many treaties signed for years between Brazil and Paraguay have always been surrounded by suspicions of corruption and it is only in 2009, with Presidents Lula de Silva in Brazil and Fernando Lugo in Paraguay, that They have begun to have an integrative view although Brazil – a great power – It has always wanted to impose conditions and prevent Paraguay freely dispose of hydroelectric energy that it could not consume in order to export this surplus to third countries.

The Bilateral Act signed in Brasilia last May sparked many demonstrations because the Itaipu Dam and the energy it generates are considered a matter of patriotism and national pride, as the Declaration of the Conference even points out. Episcopal of Paraguay.

Next year, it will be 150 years after the end of the "Triple Alliance" war, which took place between 1865 and 1870 and destroyed an autonomous project of capitalist industrial development, often described as the most important outside Europe after Muhammad Ali in Egypt. A few years earlier. For the Paraguayan population, the war that decimated the country of men is not just a paragraph in a history book. In Paraguay, the wounds are not healed and it seems that the government of President Mario Abdo has kicked them out.

NOTE PUBLISHED IN CNN IN SPANISH