Paraguay’s president takes paternity test

Asuncion, Aug 25 (IANS/EFE) Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo had a paternity test as ordered by a court following scandals caused by paternity lawsuits that shook his government during his first year in office.

The 59-year-old former Catholic bishop had his blood sample taken at the presidential residence that was ordered Aug 10 by Judge Ana Ovelar.

At the same time, blood samples were taken from the three-year-old boy at the centre of the issue as well as from his mother named Hortensia Moran, who says she became pregnant during an affair with Lugo while working for his election campaign.

The DNA analysis will be performed by three private laboratories in Asuncion, but the results will not be known for two weeks, authorities said.

“The samples were taken in a completely normal way from Hortensia Moran, from the minor, as well as from the president,” Lugo’s attorney Marcos Fariña told reporters.

“We believe in the seriousness, the responsibility and above all in the honesty of the laboratories,” Moran said.

Another woman who brought a paternity claim against Lugo, Benigna Leguizamon, 27, said earlier that she will try to reopen her case alleging that the president did not keep the promises made to her last year to settle the case.

Leguizamon, who lives in Ciudad del Este, 330 km from Asuncion, said she was seduced by Lugo when she was employed in cleaning chores for the Diocese of San Pedro, where Lugo served as bishop.

She claims Lugo is the father of her son, born in September 2002.

Paternity scandals shook Lugo in April 2009, just one year after his electoral victory while leading a coalition that put an end to the 61-year reign of the right-wing Colorado Party.

–IANS/EFE