Brian Turner, professor and chair of the Department of Political Science at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va.: “The most pressing issues facing the new government in the near term include renegotiation of the Itaipu Treaty with Brazil, managing the macroeconomic fundamentals to control inflation and promote growth, and fighting corruption and the influence of ‘uncivil society’ actors like narcotraffickers. For all these matters, the fragile institutionalization of the state, begun unevenly during the government of Nicanor Duarte Frutos in 2003, must continue, to improve the provision of social services and rationalize the size and function of state agencies. However, the initial signs from Peña’s cabinet appointments and his allies in Congress suggest that the state’s first concern is protecting Peña’s political patron, former President Horacio Cartes, from legal jeopardy after Cartes (and others) were declared ‘significantly corrupt’ by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control. This bodes poorly for…”