Abdo Benítez, Mario, 1971–, Paraguayan political leader, b. Asunción. The son of Gen. Alfredo Stroessner's private secretary, he served in the Paraguayan armed forces and graduated (1995) from Teikyo Post Univ., Waterbury, Conn. After a business career, he joined the conservative Colorado party (2005) and was a member of its Republican Reconstruction Movement, served as party vice president (2008–11), was elected to the Paraguayan senate (2013), and served as president of the senate (2015–16). In the 2018 presidential election, he secured the Colorado nomination as an insurgent candidate and won a close general election. He has been criticized for his positive comments about Stroessner's dictatorship.
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