Tests negative in paternity suit against Paraguay’s president

Asuncion (Paraguay), Sep 24 (IANS/EFE) All three blood tests conducted to determine the paternity of a boy whose mother had a relationship with Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo came back negative, the head of state’s lawyer said Thursday.

“With this third negative sample, the paternity suit is over,” Marcos Fariña said during a family court hearing in Asuncion.

The mother of the three-year-old boy at the centre of the case, Hortensia Moran, said she was not surprised by the test results and that “time and history” would resolve the question of her son’s paternity.

“I won’t accuse any laboratory. I have no conclusive evidence, but I do have the right to maintain my position,” she said when a reporter brought up her earlier allegations about manipulation of the blood samples.

The blood used for the tests, which were carried out at three different labs, was drawn Aug 24, days after Lugo underwent his first chemotherapy treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

But Fariña rejected Moran’s claim that the anti-cancer drugs could have distorted the results of the blood tests.

Moran, the 40-year-old director of a day care, contends her son was the result of a liaison with the former Catholic bishop while she was working on his political campaign.

Another paternity suit, brought by Benigna Leguizamon, was settled out of court in December 2009.

Leguizamon, 27, said she and Lugo, 59, became romantically involved when she was working as a cleaner for the Catholic Diocese of San Pedro, where the future president served as bishop for 10 years.

Earlier this year, Lugo publically acknowledged paternity of the three-year-old son of another woman in her 20s.

Lugo’s 2008 election at the head of a broad-based coalition ended 61 years of rule by the right-wing Colorado Party.

–IANS/EFE