Woman questions ex-president's paternity test in Paraguay

A woman who claims that former president Fernando Lugo fathered her son charged Friday that the laboratory being used in the paternity case belongs to one of his political allies, AFP reports. Benigna Leguizamon, who worked as a cleaning lady for Lugo when he was a Roman Catholic bishop, said she did not know of the connection when she agreed to have the LB laboratory perform DNA tests to establish paternity. She said she learned later, after allowing her blood to be taken for the test on March 25, that it was owned by the wife of the treasurer of Lugo's political movement in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay. "I trusted (in the laboratory) because I was sure that my son is Fernando's son," she said. "I had proposed another laboratory but they told me there was little time. So I accepted it." But she said if the test proves negative "I'm not going to forgive anybody," adding that she would consider further legal action. The development comes just days before national elections in April 21 in which Lugo is running for a senate seat. He was forced out of the presidency in June after being impeached by the Congress over his handling of a deadly land dispute near the end of his four year term in office. Leguizamon, who said she was 19 when she began have sexual relations with Lugo, brought the paternity suit in 2009 after another woman charged that Lugo had fathered her child, which he acknowledged. He has recognized another son with a third woman. A fourth woman lost a paternity suit against him.

A woman who claims that former president Fernando Lugo fathered her son charged Friday that the laboratory being used in the paternity case belongs to one of his political allies, AFP reports. Benigna Leguizamon, who worked as a cleaning lady for Lugo when he was a Roman Catholic bishop, said she did not know of the connection when she agreed to have the LB laboratory perform DNA tests to establish paternity. She said she learned later, after allowing her blood to be taken for the test on March 25, that it was owned by the wife of the treasurer of Lugo's political movement in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay. "I trusted (in the laboratory) because I was sure that my son is Fernando's son," she said. "I had proposed another laboratory but they told me there was little time. So I accepted it." But she said if the test proves negative "I'm not going to forgive anybody," adding that she would consider further legal action. The development comes just days before national elections in April 21 in which Lugo is running for a senate seat. He was forced out of the presidency in June after being impeached by the Congress over his handling of a deadly land dispute near the end of his four year term in office. Leguizamon, who said she was 19 when she began have sexual relations with Lugo, brought the paternity suit in 2009 after another woman charged that Lugo had fathered her child, which he acknowledged. He has recognized another son with a third woman. A fourth woman lost a paternity suit against him.

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