Paraguay's Chamber of Deputies included in the agenda for its regular Tuesday session a request to summon the Minister of Public Works and Communications, Claudia Centurión. The proposal, listed as item 7 on the agenda, questions the condition of national and departmental highways affecting road safety in the country.
The summons was prompted by a fatal accident that occurred last weekend in Pedrozo, Ypacaraí, where six people died after being hit by a truck that lost its brakes on a downhill slope. The local traffic light, criticized for being poorly positioned, has already been removed, and an overpass that was supposed to be completed in March has not yet materialized.
However, the chances of the summons moving forward are considered minimal. Deputy Jorge Ávalos Mariño (PLRA) stated that the opposition would gather only 31 votes, needing at least 41 – an absolute majority – to approve the summons. The Cartista bloc, loyal to former President Horacio Cartes and the majority in the chamber, has already signaled it will not support the request. Its leader, Miguel Del Puerto, publicly declared that the group will not back the summons.
This would be the eighth summons request shelved by the government majority in the current legislative term. Strategies such as lack of quorum or delaying tactics in committees have been used to avoid formally rejecting these requests.
Paradoxically, the same agenda includes the expected approval of a new $1 million credit for the Ministry of Public Works and Communications. The funds, from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), would be allocated for developing a logistics and transportation infrastructure project in the Itapúa department – meaning not for construction work, but for preliminary studies.
This amount adds to other recent loans approved for the ministry, including $286 million from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the Bioceanic Corridor and $75 million for the construction of rural roads.