The dispute within Honor Colorado, a movement led by former President Horacio Cartes inside the Colorado Party (ANR), has prompted new public statements less than two weeks before the October 4, 2026 municipal elections. The clash involves the future presidential ticket, currently associated with Vice President Pedro Alliana’s pre-candidacy, and the relationship between President Santiago Peña and the party leadership.
Senator Silvio “Beto” Ovelar described the moment as “perhaps one of the most pronounced crises” in the movement’s history. In an interview reproduced by the Paraguayan press, he argued that Alliana should personally choose his running mate to ensure governability. “It’s like a marriage. Imagine sleeping with the enemy,” he said.
Minister Juan Carlos Baruja is among the names being discussed for the slot and has Ovelar’s and Cartes’s support. The senator said, however, that the decision should be made within the Honor Colorado Command and called for an immediate focus on the municipal elections. “There is no 2028 without 2026,” he said, citing the contest for Asunción and the departmental capitals as a priority.
In interviews, Congress President Basilio Núñez rejected the definition of “crisis” and preferred to speak of a “disparity of opinions.” In his view, Honor Colorado allows divergent positions and remains under Cartes’s leadership. Núñez also said he did not see an independent current linked to Peña, known as “Peñismo”: according to his explanation, the president belongs to Honor Colorado itself, and the label was created by new sectors inside or outside the movement.
Núñez further said that Peña has the support of the Colorado Party president, the vice president, the Senate caucus, the governors and the lawmakers. This reading contrasts with the statement attributed to Guairá Governor César “Landy” Torres that the president had the backing of 15 governors and 35 lawmakers, in a political base distinct from Cartes’s leadership. César Sosa, also governor of Guairá and president of the Governors’ Council, appears separately in the interviews for his defense of new leadership; the information gathered provides no basis for attributing the figure of 15 governors and 35 lawmakers to him.
Ovelar specifically criticized Sosa’s experience, saying that he is serving his first term and that the difficult part is remaining in the “first division.” Núñez responded in a similar tone, saying that “Cesarito” had entered the political elite quickly and needed to manage to stay there.
In the interior, Derlis Maidana said in Ayolas that disputes among the party leadership were not harming the campaign in Misiones. Alongside lawmaker Carlos Arrechea, Governor Richard Ramírez and Michel Flores, an adviser to the Yacyretá Binational Entity, he supported José Mutti and 12 candidates for city council. Maidana said the Colorado Party’s goal was to win in all ten districts of the department.
In an interview with radio station 1020 AM, former Senator Juan Carlos “Calé” Galaverna argued that the ANR should still consider a “third way” for the 2028 ticket. He said there was “a lot of ground still to cover” and that the candidate should put the collective interest ahead of personal interests. In Galaverna’s view, the greatest threat to a Colorado victory could lie in internal disputes and individual interests, more than in the opposition.