Carlos Filizzola

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Carlos Alberto Filizzola Pallarés (born 24 July 1959) is a Paraguayan doctor, union leader and politician. He became the first democratically elected mayor of Asunción, serving from 1991 to 1996. In office, he removed the statue of dictator Alfredo Stroessner from the city’s hilltop and led a series of urban projects and cultural initiatives.

Filizzola led the National Encounter Party from 1996 to 1999 and then founded his own party, the Party for a Country of Solidarity, in 2000. He was elected Senator in 2003 and re-elected in 2008, serving as President of the Senate from 2005 to 2006. In 2011 he was appointed Interior Minister by President Fernando Lugo, a post he held until 2012.

The Curuguaty Massacre in 2012 led to Lugo’s impeachment and Filizzola losing his ministerial position, after which he returned to the Senate. He was elected again in 2013 as part of the Guasú Front, a left-wing coalition formed in 2010. He helped push a controversial constitutional amendment for presidential reelection in 2017. He won a fourth Senate term in 2018 but lost his bid for a fifth term in 2023.

Filizzola studied medicine at the Universidad Nacional de Asunción, graduating in 1985, and became a prominent union leader before entering politics. His cousin Rafael Filizzola is also a politician.