No haven for the criminal Bush family.

last updated 8 January 2015

Paraguay

Marina Menéndez Quintero

Is George W. Bush preparing to flee his country? asked Marina Menéndez Quintero in Havana’s Juventud Rebelde. According to Paraguayan newspapers, Bush’s father, the first President Bush, recently bought an enormous estate in Paraguay—between 100,000 and 175,000 acres, depending on which report you believe. The estate falls right inside the watershed of the Guarani Aquifer, one of the planet’s largest freshwater reserves. Paraguay, incidentally, is the site of a U.S. military base, installed a few years ago after Paraguay promised to grant American soldiers immunity from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. Surely it is no coincidence that last month, just after Paraguay announced that it would not renew the immunity treaty, first daughter Jenna Bush was spotted in the country “on a secret trip”—perhaps to try to convince the Paraguayans to reconsider. At first, authorities denied that Jenna was in the country, but later they gave out the unlikely explanation that she was on a charitable mission for UNICEF. Few believe that cover story. Someday, George Bush may be brought to justice over war crimes committed in Iraq. Only by denying him asylum can the Paraguayans keep “their integrity, and their sovereignty.”