Who Is Miguel Prieto? Yo Creo’s Leader Explained

PROFILE · PARAGUAY

Miguel Prieto is the face of Paraguay’s young opposition. A 37-year-old lawyer, he won the border city of Ciudad del Este in 2019 and was removed from office in 2025. On 4 October 2026 his movement, Yo Creo, won the city again, with 72.83% of the vote for his former aide, Dani Mujica.

Yo Creo is a local reform movement and an opposition force. It is not a Colorado faction and not part of the Liberal Party. Prieto leads it. Reuters calls him a centrist and says he is expected to run for president in 2028.

For a US reader, Prieto matters for two reasons. He is the opposition figure with the clearest national profile after this vote, and Paraguay is the only South American country that recognises Taiwan. His rise would test the Colorado hold on both.

The Paraná River at Ciudad del Este, on Paraguay’s border with Brazil. (File photo) Photo: Falk2, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Who he is

Prieto is a lawyer from Ciudad del Este and, according to Reuters, 37 years old. He entered politics as an independent and won a seat on the city council in 2015.

The rise: 62 years of Colorado rule ends

Prieto won the mayoralty in 2019 with 44.63% of the vote in an extraordinary election after his predecessor was removed, ending 62 years of Colorado rule in the city (La Nación, Diario HOY). In 2021 he won re-election with about 81,000 votes against about 35,700 for the Colorado candidate, Ulises Quintana (ABC Color).

Ciudad del Este is Paraguay’s second-largest city, with 325,819 people in the 2022 census. It sits across the Paraná River from Foz do Iguaçu in Brazil and is known for tax-free trade.

The removal in August 2025

On 19 August 2025 the Chamber of Deputies removed Prieto by 47 votes to 30. La Nación reports that the move followed the report of an intervention team that had audited the city. ABC Color says 46 of the 47 votes came from Colorado deputies, and the news site La Clave called the vote an “atropello”, an outrage, by the Cartes camp.

Prieto did not resign. The city council named María Portillo of the Liberal Party as interim mayor. In a by-election on 9 November 2025, Mujica, who had been Prieto’s director general and finance director, won with 73,597 votes (about 68.7%) against 30,358 for the Colorado candidate (ABC Color, La Nación).

Prieto’s legal position is open. Yo Creo deputy Walter García said in November 2025 that about 40 complaints against Prieto sit at the prosecutor’s office, and that Prieto would not go to prison (Última Hora). By the prosecutor’s count he faces about 49 complaints, and the figure varies by source. Two cases have gone to oral trial: “Tía Chela”, over food kits bought during the pandemic, whose trial opened on 31 August 2026, and “Tajy” (La Nación, RDN, El Trueno). A third accusation has been filed. Prieto says the government is trying to block a possible 2028 candidacy. These are accusations, not convictions.

The 2026 result

Mujica won Ciudad del Este on 4 October 2026 with 72.83%, against 23.80% for Rigoberto Chamorro of the Colorado Party. Yo Creo also won most seats on the city council, according to local reports. Prieto himself was elected a councillor.

Nationally, Yo Creo is small. It fielded lists in more than 150 districts (Última Hora), and La Nación counts three mayoralties for it. The Colorados won 187 of 263. Our analysis explains the national picture.

Prieto and 2028

Prieto has made no secret of his plans. On 20 March 2026, in Carapeguá, he said: “We are going slowly but surely, with firm steps, towards 2028” (ABC Color). Reuters said on 4 October that he is expected to run and could mount the strongest challenge in years to Colorado dominance.

The field is crowded. Former president Horacio Cartes has named Vice President Pedro Alliana as his candidate. Arnoldo Wiens of the Añetete faction also wants the Colorado nomination (Última Hora). On the opposition side, Prieto would compete with figures from the Liberal Party and others, and the Asunción winner, Soledad Núñez, now has a national platform too.

What Prediction Markets Say

No market covers the municipal races or the 2028 presidency. The only Paraguayan contract is a Kalshi market on the 2028 Senate election. Kalshi is regulated in the US by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). At 5:41 p.m. ET on 5 October it priced the Colorado Party at 76% to win the Senate vote and the Liberal Party (PLRA) at 15%. Only 3,773 contracts had traded, so trading is thin. A contract pays US$1 if the outcome happens, so the price reads as a probability. These are bets, not polls.

Why we show this: prediction markets turn real-money bets into a live probability that moves within minutes of the news, which is why investors, campaigns and newsrooms in the United States now follow them closely. We show them next to polls and official results, never instead of them.

What it means for US readers

Paraguay is a soy and beef exporter, and Ciudad del Este is a major gateway for trade with Brazil. Investors should watch the audit and the court cases around him, because they bear on how Paraguayan institutions treat political rivals.

For US policy, Prieto’s Taiwan position is the question. We found no statement from him changing Paraguay’s recognition of Taipei. Travellers to Ciudad del Este and the Iguazú Falls area will deal with Mujica’s administration, whose new term starts on 3 November.

What is not known

We do not know whether Prieto will be a candidate, or whether the cases against him will go to trial. We do not know his foreign-policy platform. We do not know Yo Creo’s final mayoralty count, which depends on the tribunals’ proclamation. Prieto’s private life and finances are outside this profile.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Miguel Prieto?

Prieto is a 37-year-old lawyer who led Ciudad del Este as mayor from 2019 until the Chamber of Deputies removed him on 19 August 2025. He heads the opposition movement Yo Creo.

Why was Miguel Prieto removed as mayor?

The Chamber of Deputies voted 47 to 30 on 19 August 2025, after a state comptroller’s audit listed 11 findings. Most of the votes came from Colorado deputies. Prieto has not been convicted.

Who won Ciudad del Este in 2026?

Dani Mujica of Yo Creo won with 72.83% against 23.80% for the Colorado candidate, Rigoberto Chamorro, in the preliminary count of 4 October 2026.

Will Miguel Prieto run for president in 2028?

Reuters expects him to run. In March 2026 he said his movement was heading “slowly but surely” towards 2028. He had not announced a formal candidacy in the sources we reviewed.

What is Yo Creo?

Yo Creo, “I Believe”, is a local reform movement led by Prieto. It fielded lists in more than 150 districts in 2026 and, by La Nación’s count, won three mayoralties.

More: Paraguay election results page, Pérez concedes, who is Soledad Núñez, why the Colorados won the country but lost the capital, who is Santiago Peña and Paraguay news in English.

Figures are preliminary counts of the electoral court (TSJE) as reported by Paraguayan media. Quotes are translated from Spanish. Allegations are allegations; no conviction has been reported.