In a year without elections and an historic new government, 2009 seemed full of possibilities for important new directions in both policy and in the political process. However, the internal weaknesses of the coalition that brought Fernando Lugo to the presidency in 2008, the limits on the power of the executive branch, and the daunting challenges presented by Paraguay’s socioeconomic structure and by the political inheritance of more than 60 years of single-party rule
made 2009 a year in which very little seemed to change.