Fernando Lugo, the former bishop who was elected president of Paraguay in a landslide victory over the world’s longest ruling party on Sunday, now faces the monumental task of resurrecting his country.

Despite being the world’s fourth largest soyabean exporter, and its third biggest electricity exporter thanks to vast hydroelectric reserves, Paraguay is 11th from the bottom in the world competitiveness stakes with a gross domestic product of just $9bn (€5.7bn, £4.5bn). And although the country’s economic growth is at a 20-year-high, one in four Paraguayans still lives in poverty. Most of the land is concentrated in the hands of a few and corruption is deeply entrenched.