The Money Circle

Money tends to flow more easily for those who already have it, and in my country, it's no different.

For those who have money, double surnames, important social contacts, and studied at top schools and universities, making money is very easy.

In fact, making money is so simple for those who belong to the right circles that they even invent and direct public tenders.

As happens in the case of the President of Paraguay, whose brothers and son benefited from multimillion-dollar tenders of dubious legitimacy, making money is so easy that envelopes containing several thousand dollars even appear and disappear.

On the other hand, for those who don't have a surname and high social and economic standing, it's very difficult to make money despite whatever academic merits they may have.

Salaries also tend to vary according to social reasons rather than capacity and academic training.

It's often said ironically, but no less truthfully, that Paraguay is the country of friends. If you have the right friends, whatever businesses you start will be successful and profitable.

Of course, there will be success stories of people who manage to earn a lot of money on their own, but that tends to be extremely unusual.

The country's largest business holdings were born from the illegal "businesses" that the powerful of the day granted to people they favored. The smuggling of goods, cars, and drugs had a green light directly from the top of power.

Some of them managed to launder their fortunes and today they form companies with a greater degree of legality, but with practices we could call unethical at best.

So making money in this country is not simple, it's not achieved through honest effort, sacrifice, and studies, but rather something society tries to hide by yielding a few positions to people who are not part of the circles.