A President With Major Daddy Issues

If a child in Paraguay brags that his Daddy is the president, it seems there is a better than average chance he is telling the truth.

In the past two weeks, three women have publicly declared that Fernando Lugo, the president of that Latin American country, fathered children with them out of wedlock. So far Lugo, a former Catholic bishop, has admitted that he is the father of a two-year-old boy with Viviana Carrillo, one of his former parishioners. But he has not admitted to conceiving children with the two other women who have come forward, including a woman the BBC identifies as Hortensia Moran, who has a 16-month-old she says is Lugo’s son.

According to the New York Daily News, Moran also said that six more women may soon announce that their children are Lugo’s. Uh, wow. So which part of all this is most shocking: that the president of Paraguay may have sired many children and didn’t admit it? That he may have fathered at least one of these children while still holding the title of Catholic bishop? That one of the women says she was 16 when their relationship began? Or how about all of the above?

With a scandal this meaty, the media is naturally focusing a lot of their attention on Lugo and the women who have made these claims. But I have to wonder how this will affect the children who resulted from these unions. The oldest one — at least based on the mothers who have stepped forward and made allegations — is 6. So most of them are too young to have a firm handle on exactly what’s going on here.

But as they grow older — assuming Lugo really is their father — I have to assume these kids will want to know who their dad is. And once they know, they may want to establish some type of relationship with him. How does President Lugo plan to handle that? If he ignores them, what kind of impact will that have on these children?

And more importantly, doesn’t anyone in Paraguay use birth control??

Image: BBC