WHEN he was a Roman Catholic bishop, Fernando Lugo taught liberation theology to uplift the poor.Now president, he is in the uncomfortable position of sending special forces into Paraguay's northern forests to hunt a band of kidnappers whose leaders include a former student and his former altar boy.
The ties between Mr Lugo and the kidnappers of a wealthy rancher are providing fuel for an effort to impeach the president, whose 2008 election ended 61 years of unbroken right-wing Colorado Party rule.
Mr Lugo's government calls it a hypocritical campaign by politicians who committed far worse sins under the nation's long and brutal dictatorship.
The man known as "bishop of the poor" was elected in large part due to his advocacy of liberation theology, a Catholic movement that found inspiration in faith to push for social change, though the Vatican discouraged its teaching. Mr Lugo renounced his church vows, saying he could do more for the poor as president.
The kidnapping of rancher Fidel Zavala to finance what the band calls a revolutionary movement for the poor now threatens to turn his past against him.
The kidnappers – a group linked to several bank robberies and kidnappings in the past decade – showed up on 15 October at Mr Zavala's ranch wearing military uniforms and calling themselves the Paraguayan People's Army.
The rancher's family pleaded with Mr Lugo not to send in the police, fearing Mr Zavala would be killed. But the president is in a tough spot.
"Fernando Lugo continues to be deeply tied to the kidnappers," senator Juan Carlos Galaverna, of the Colorado Party, said last week. He accused the president not only of mentoring the future kidnappers, but of continuing to act as their "chief, or at least the protector of the band."
Interior minister Rafael Filizzola said that allegation "defies common sense". He has asked Paraguay's Congress for $1 million (£600,000) to finance special forces' overtime and to pay for tips on Mr Zavala's whereabouts. "We have the objective of finding them, capturing them and making them face justice," he said.
The kidnappers' leader, Osvaldo Villalba, has been a fugitive since 2001, after claiming a $2m ransom to release the daughter-in-law of a former economy minister. Police later recovered $600,000 and arrested several members of the group, including his sister, Carmen Villalba, who is among about 40 people serving long prison terms.
The Villalbas – eight brothers and sisters in all – were raised in poverty by a mother who trained as a nun in Europe and promoted liberation theology while working for a bishop who provided refuge to opponents of the brutal 1954-89 dictatorship.
While Mr Lugo denies knowing any of the kidnappers personally, Monsignor Adalberto Martinez, of his San Pedro diocese, acknowledged that several probably studied in the seminary directed by Mr Lugo in the 1990s.
Osvaldo Villalba's brother Jose said one of the leaders was Mr Lugo's seminary student, while former kidnapper Dionisio Olazar said another member of the band, Manuel Cristaldo Mieres, had served as Mr Lugo's altar boy.
Mr Filizzola rejects the idea that liberation theology inspired the gang to become kidnappers, and says there is little evidence of any guiding ideology since they began calling themselves guerrillas.
Mr Lugo's opponents have cited Mr Zavala's kidnapping as evidence of a "failure to fulfil his presidential duties", a vague but impeachable offence in Paraguay.
There were more than a dozen high-profile kidnappings during the previous president's tenure, and no-one pushed for impeachment then, but the threat is real as Mr Lugo can count on only three guaranteed votes among the 125 members of Congress.
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