Another Woman Says Paraguay President Fathered Her Child, Latin American Herald Tribune, April 21, 2009

Another Woman Says Paraguay President Fathered Her Child

Latin American Herald Tribune
April 21, 2009

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=332340&CategoryId=12394

ASUNCION – A Paraguayan woman said in a statement published on Monday in a daily newspaper that in 2002 she had a son by President Fernando Lugo, who recently acknowledged legally another child born of relations he had while still the Catholic bishop of the central province of San Pedro.

"What I want is that this gentleman acknowledge my son, that's all I ask. I'll wait one day for him, and if he doesn't take responsibility, tomorrow I'll file a complaint," Benigna Leguizamon, 27, told reporters.

"The only proof I'll have will be the DNA, because I'm mad at him (Lugo) and I burned all the photos of us together," Leguizamon said.

The woman, who has three other children, said in a statement published in the daily Ultima Hora, that the head of state is presumably the father of her second child, born Sept. 9, 2002, in a district of San Pedro.

"I'm of humble origins and I'm not ashamed. I work selling detergent to put food on the table for my kids, now that my present husband is sick. It's not right that a child of the current president should live in such need," the woman said in a poor dwelling in Ciudad del Este.

"I went to Monsignor Fernando Lugo because the father of my first child, Francisco Lujan Correa, who was working as an anesthetist in San Pedro Hospital, refused to give me child support," the woman said.

"At that time, the monsignor gave me his support, but took advantage of my great need and induced me to have relations. In a year I got pregnant by him. A midwife delivered my baby in the same house where I was living, whose rent he paid," she said.

Leguizamon recalled that during the campaign before last year's elections she refused to make the story public, even though, she said, they offered her money, but now she did so when the case went public of Viviana Carrillo, 26, who this month filed a paternity suit against the president.

Lugo, 58, five days ago acknowledged his paternity of Viviana's son, Guillermo Armindo Carrillo, born May 4, 2007, five months after the former bishop renounced the priesthood to enter fully into the political arena.

The minister for women's issues, prominent feminist Gloria Rubin, said she will monitor the Benigna Leguizamon case and said that she is ready to resign her post if she discovers any lack of transparency in the judicial procedures.

Rubin, who met Monday with Lugo together with other women in his Cabinet, said that they are waiting for the head of state to undergo a DNA test or that he reach out to the woman so the case can be cleared up, in hopes that this will quiet rumors saying that Lugo could have a number of children. EFE