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Days before the national elections in Paraguay (April 30), “gender ideology” and the “2030 Agenda” are once again taking center stage, fueled by candidates on social media. Using narratives based on discriminatory arguments, they seek to delegitimize, primarily, the proposal of the “Concertación para un Nuevo Paraguay” (Coalition for a New Paraguay), a political alliance of the opposition. However, the Concertación has not publicly endorsed people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities.

When and what is elected in Paraguay

General elections will be held in Paraguay on April 30th. In addition to the presidential candidates, voters will elect senators, representatives, governors, and members of the Departmental Board. With the political campaigns comes a rise in online hate campaigns and gender-based disinformation. 

What is gender misinformation?

Gender disinformation consists of spreading false, misleading, or inaccurate information and images that perpetuate stereotypes and reinforce biases against politicians, activists, journalists, and public figures . This campaign, which typically intensifies during election periods, is often accompanied by online violence. These attacks disproportionately target women politicians and candidates belonging to LGBTQ+ and feminist groups.

Those who call themselves “pro-life and pro-family” often base their accusations against gender equality and LGBTQ+ rights movements on a “global agenda” that threatens the traditional family structure and national identity. These actors attack any progress in human rights and sexual diversity, and they are increasingly organized and transnationally funded. 

These are some examples of gender misinformation that we at Agencia Presentes have identified. To report others, please write to us at contacto@agenciapresentes.org

Why this photo released by councilwoman Sandra Miranda is fake

On April 16, a photo circulated on social media showing Soledad Núñez, the vice-presidential candidate for the Concertación coalition, accompanied by congressional candidates, councilwomen from Asunción, and a group of transgender women. Sandra Miranda, shared the photo on her Twitter account, accusing Núñez of being a globalist. However, this photo is fake.

The day before, La Nación, a newspaper that has been campaigning for Santiago Peña, the Colorado Party's presidential candidate, published an article criticizing a campaign tour of bars in Asunción undertaken by Soledad Nuñez, the Concertación's vice-presidential candidate. The photo accompanying the article was taken from an Instagram story posted by Fiorella Forestieri, one of the Asunción city councilwomen who was present.

The original photo of the vice-presidential candidate was taken during that tour. Soledad Blanco, the National Encounter Alliance party's candidate for Congress representing the Central Department, shared an Instagram reel with the original photo on April 15th and also uploaded it to her Twitter account .

While none of these publications specify the location, a Google Maps search revealed that the Refugio Patagonia bar (located on Senador Pierce Long Street near Héctor Vera, in the Villa Morra neighborhood) matches the characteristics of the establishment's facade in the photograph. It's important to note the angle from which the photo of Núñez with the other female politicians was taken.

The photo of the bar crawl was taken as a selfie from above. We don't know who took the photo of the trans women, but we do know it wasn't taken that night and had nothing to do with the crawl. Furthermore, in the doctored photo, the trans women can all be seen facing forward. This also explains the difference in body proportions between the trans women and the politicians in the selfie .

Among other flaws in the doctored image, Fiorella Forestieri (wearing orange pants) had her left foot erased. Several Twitter users came forward to debunk the image and responded by sharing the original photo of the trans women that had been circulating online. Miranda quickly deleted the post. However, screenshots of the fake material continued to circulate on the social network and in anti-rights WhatsApp groups.

The post also contained an error in the text. “With the head of FEIPAR (Families for Comprehensive Education in Paraguay) and those who accompany her, we have a great future! Especially for our children,” the candidate from the Patria Querida party stated in the post. FEIPAR is an organization that seeks to guarantee access to a comprehensive, secular, and scientifically based education that aims for inclusive, intercultural education with a gender perspective. For years, it has supported educational reform and warned against the religious interference of anti-rights groups in the process. But the “head of FEIPAR,” as Miranda describes the organization's president, is not in the photograph. Neither in the original nor in the fake one. 

Anti-rights candidates behind the video with fabricated content

On April 11, Lizarella Valiente, the Colorado Party's candidate for senator, shared a video containing hate speech against LGBTQ+ people. On April 14, Dannia Ríos, the Unámonos Party's candidate for senator, also shared it on her Twitter account.

“They are coming for our children to kill their identity. They want to impose their culture of death. Without a homeland and without God. This is not what we want for our children. They want to kill Paraguayans in their mother's womb by legalizing abortion. They want to silence us and destroy our freedom and sovereignty,” the video says. 

What is manufactured content?

Claire Wardle, co-founder of First Draft News, calls this type of disinformation “fabricated content.” It is 100% false information designed to deceive and harm an individual, group of people, or a community. Most of the time, it has characteristics of conspiracy theories. It often targets and discriminates against vulnerable groups, ignores scientific evidence, and polarizes society with serious consequences.

That's the tone of the video Ríos and Valiente shared. Later, the unidentified speaker continues: “Don't let this destructive ideology take root in our country. Raise your voice, don't be silent. Paraguay is forever a free and independent nation, free from all foreign powers. Let's vote overwhelmingly for candidates committed to respecting life, family, and sovereignty.”

Dannia Ríos is an anti-rights activist known for spreading manipulated information and persecuting LGBTQ+ activists . In an interview , she stated that she was working on a project she would like to present as a citizen-initiated bill in the Senate. This bill proposes amending Article 135 of the Constitution to classify the "promotion of gender ideology" as child abuse and punish those who "promote it." She even called a press conference to announce this project.

Lizarella Valiente is also an anti-rights activist and the wife of the mayor of Asunción , Óscar “Nenecho” Rodríguez. She has been spreading misinformation about the National Educational Transformation Plan (PNTE). In an interview , she specifically targeted the “interculturalism” proposed in the plan (one of its key programmatic pillars), claiming it constitutes “indoctrination” in favor of transgender people.

As we explained in other articles , in 2017 the Ministry of Education and Science took a step backward when the Riera resolution prohibited references to “gender ideology” in educational materials, and the then Minister of Education, Enrique Riera, threatened to burn books containing the word “gender.” But to this day, the Ministry has not explained what it means by “gender ideology .