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Paraguay has a tough fight against France today, which means President Santiago Peña may have to savor his last chance to wrap himself in the flag of Latin America’s most over-performing team.
Few of the world’s elected leaders have done as much as Peña to associate themselves with their country’s World Cup successes. He has traveled to the United States to watch his team in action, and declared a national holiday after it eliminated former World Cup champions Germany on penalty kicks.
“When Paraguay wins on the world stage like it did against Germany, it becomes clear cause for celebration,” said Greg Ross, a Paraguay specialist at the Washington-based consultancy McLarty Associates. “It also offers an opportunity to project a sense of national unity that is usually difficult to achieve in the day-to-day of Paraguayan politics.”
Peña, a conservative former central banker first elected in 2023, has savored the opportunity. He traveled to the United States for Paraguay’s first match, against the United States, where he met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. But after the team lost to the United States, some of his citizens suggested Peña’s presence might have jinxed the team’s performance. That may have discouraged Peña from attending the team’s second match, against Turkey near San Francisco, despite the fact that some were already working to arrange meetings with Silicon Valley tech leaders to help advance Peña’s agenda to make the energy-rich country a hub for U.S.-backed data centers.
He also skipped the first knockout match, against Germany, this time with a clear excuse. He said he had to remain in Asunción for a previously scheduled congressional address and summit for the Mercosur regional trade bloc, whose rotating presidency Peña now holds.
Peña released a picture on social media watching the Germany match from his living room, wearing the country’s red-and-white striped jersey — from which he scrawled his signature on the order declaring a national holiday. It was a reprise of an earlier Peña move to associate himself with the team’s successes, when he signed a similar order marking a national holiday after Paraguay clinched its World Cup spot in the tournament last September.
He said he intends to be back in the same spot when the team plays France in Philadelphia today.
“I’m going to watch it at home, just like I did last time,” Peña said, according to Paraguayan media. “I always receive invitations for every match as president, and I also have to say that, deep down, I’m a bit of a superstitious person, you know? So, I prefer to just watch from here.”
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