Fernando Lugo, a mild-mannered leftist who quit the cloth three years ago saying he felt powerless to help Paraguay's poor, ousted the ruling Colorado Party in Sunday's election with promises to tackle inequality and stamp out corruption.
"We ask you never to abandon us. We'll make democracy together!" the bearded, bespectacled 56-year-old former Roman Catholic bishop told cheering supporters as firecrackers resounded around Asuncion on Sunday night.
"Today we wish to renew our commitment to the Paraguayan people...to the poorest," he added. "We will give our best to ensure our people are respected and known from here on in for their honesty, not for their corruption."
Lugo calls himself an independent and has steered clear of Latin America's more radical left-wing leaders, such as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales in Bolivia.
But he is seen as a likely ally of moderate leftist presidents in the region, which has steadily turned away from the right-wing dictatorships, extremely corrupt governments and Marxist rebellions that were so prevalent in the late 20th century.
Lugo will take office on Aug. 15 and has vowed to carry out agrarian reform to ensure poor peasant farmers can till their own land in a country where a small, wealthy elite owns the vast majority of farmland and cattle ranches.
Nearly four in every 10 Paraguayans are poor.
"If you have a left candidate who is clearly identified with the poor...and if he can break the grip of the longest ruling party in the world, a right wing party, I think it shows how much South America has changed and how much democracy has taken hold," said Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a US-based think tank.
