By IANS,
Asuncion : Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo, who hogged the headlines recently by admitting to have fathered a child while he was a bishop, has now been fined for violating the country’s traffic rules, EFE reported Sunday.
Highway transit chief Eduardo Petta said that he imposed a fine of 520,000 guaranis (about $100) on the head of state for illegally overtaking another vehicle between the towns of Paraguari and Carapegua, some 100 km southeast of the capital Asuncion. His driving licence had also expired.
“When I got up to the vehicle, I saw that President Lugo himself was behind the wheel. I explained why I had pulled him over and asked for his driver’s licence – which was out of date, because it lacked authorization for the year 2009,” Nanduti radio quoted Petta as saying Saturday.
“For the two infractions I fined him 520,000 guaranis. He has five days to pay the ticket,” he said, adding that Lugo, who was driving to the south of the country to visit family members, has five days to pay the fine and the penalty imposed is typical for that type of violation.
Lugo, a former Roman Catholic bishop, typically drives one of the three black SUVs that make up his presidential convoy for extra-official activities.
The president’s image has been tarnished after he was forced to acknowledge having fathered a boy, now two years old, while he was a bishop following the complaint by the mother.
After that case was made public, two other women claimed to have had children by Lugo, one of whom also has taken him to court.