Isaías Ricardo Fretes Zárate took over Paraguay’s Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare at a ceremony in the Independence Hall of the Government Palace in Asunción. President Santiago Peña administered the oath after appointing him through Decree No. 6,889, dated September 13, 2026, replacing María Teresa Barán.
The change came after a succession of political and union pressures on Barán’s administration. Horacio Cartes, president of the Colorado Party (ANR), had publicly demanded that Peña prioritize the health crisis. Barán also failed to resolve the doctors’ strike, while the National Medical Association (Sinamed) asked the Executive Branch to take over the negotiations directly. Senators Lilian Samaniego and Noelia Cabrera also became involved in the impasse.
Fretes arrives at the ministry after serving as president of the Board of Directors of the Social Security Institute (IPS), a Paraguayan social security and public health institution that administers mandatory insurance and provides health services. Basilio Núñez, president of the National Congress, and Raúl Latorre, president of the Chamber of Deputies, attended the ceremony, along with civilian, military and police officials.
In his first statements, the new minister promised to bring quality public care “to the farthest corners of the Republic” and strengthen the more than 1,000 Family Health Units (USF) spread across the country. He argued that, in developing countries, health policy cannot focus only on curing disease: “the foundation of good medicine is humanism,” he said, announcing preventive medicine as one of his priorities.
Colon cancer was cited as an example. Fretes said the disease is preventable and is the leading cause of death from cancer of the digestive system in Paraguay, an area in which, he said, the country still needs to make progress.
The minister also made the oversight of the purchase, distribution and use of medicines a priority. For 2027, US$200 million is earmarked exclusively for the purchase of medicines for the National Cancer Institute (INCAN). Speaking as “Juan Pueblo,” or an ordinary citizen, Fretes said in Guaraní that “opá la ñemondá” — an expression meaning that looting must end — and promised rational and transparent use of resources. He also said that, if Barán’s administration saved US$34 million, it would be his obligation to double that result.
He said the savings could finance cutting-edge medical technology and defended the resumption of liver transplants in Paraguay. Regarding possible taxes on tobacco and sugary drinks, he said the proposal needs to be studied and agreed upon, but stressed that prevention must accompany any measure.
Fretes earned a degree in Medicine and Surgery from the National University of Asunción (UNA) and specializes in General Surgery and Coloproctology. He completed postgraduate studies in Coloproctology at the Hospital de Clínicas of the University of São Paulo and at Sainte Marguerite Hospital in Marseille, and has postgraduate studies or specializations, including a master’s degree in Public Health, Hospital Administration and Health Management.
His career includes teaching at UNA’s Faculty of Medical Sciences, heading the IPS Coloproctology Section and creating Paraguay’s first training school in the specialty, with university backing. Fretes chaired the Paraguayan Society of Surgery, the Paraguayan Society of Coloproctology and the Latin American Society of Coloproctology. He also led the Navy Medical Service, the Central Military Hospital and the Armed Forces Medical Service.
Explaining his connection to health care, Fretes said he is the son of a peasant woman and was born and raised among hospitals. His father helped develop coloproctology in Paraguay after working as a rural doctor, and Fretes spent his childhood in the corridors of the hospital in Barrero Grande, now Eusebio Ayala. Early contact with suffering patients, he said, shaped his sensitivity and strengthened his conviction that humanism should be at the center of medicine.