Who Is Soledad Núñez? Asunción’s Mayor-Elect Explained

PROFILE · PARAGUAY

Soledad Núñez is the next mayor of Asunción, the capital of Paraguay. She beat Camilo Pérez, the candidate of the ruling Colorado Party, by 5,024 votes in the preliminary count of Sunday 4 October 2026. Pérez conceded on Monday 5 October.

Núñez is a 43-year-old civil engineer. She spent four years as housing minister in a Colorado government, then joined the opposition. She is the second woman to lead the capital (Última Hora).

For a US reader, the short version is this. An engineer and former minister took the capital of a US-friendly, Taiwan-recognising country from the party that has run it since 2019. National policy does not change now, but the political map ahead of 2028 does.

Who she is

Soledad Núñez Méndez was born on 9 April 1983 in Asunción (Última Hora, Forbes Paraguay). She trained as a civil engineer at the National University of Asunción and later studied public policy abroad, according to Paraguayan press profiles. Forbes Paraguay names Oxford, Harvard and Georgetown among her programmes.

Before politics she worked for Un Techo para mi País, a Latin American housing charity, from 2009 to 2013 (RDN). That work led to her first government job.

From a Colorado cabinet to the opposition

Núñez ran the National Secretariat for Housing and Habitat, known as Senavitat, from 2014 to 2018 under President Horacio Cartes, a Colorado (Última Hora, Forbes Paraguay). Forbes says she led Paraguay’s first national housing policy.

She then moved to the opposition. In 2023 she was the vice-presidential candidate on the ticket of the Liberal Party’s Efraín Alegre. They lost to Santiago Peña, the Colorado who is now president (ABC Color).

Her past in a Colorado cabinet may help explain her appeal beyond the opposition. Núñez herself says she won “with Colorado votes” (ABC Color). Camilo Pérez put the number of voters who split their tickets at about 20,000 (ABC Color).

The alliance behind her

Núñez ran for the Juntos por Asunción alliance. It groups roughly 15 to 16 non-Colorado parties and movements and is backed by the Liberal Party (PLRA), Paraguay’s largest opposition party. Patria Querida, a small centrist party, supplied the party structure for her candidacy, because Paraguayan law requires a candidate to run through a party (ABC Color, RDN).

Her own movement is called Alternativa Asunción. Press accounts differ on her formal party membership, so we do not give her a single party label.

What she promises

After her win Núñez promised to “attack the parallel cash boxes” and to “audit down to the last guaraní” of the administration of former mayor Óscar “Nenecho” Rodríguez and the current one (Diario HOY, Última Hora). She also promised to be the mayor “of those who voted for me and those who did not”.

During the campaign she vowed zero tolerance for “planillerismo”, the Paraguayan term for padding the public payroll with people who do not work (Última Hora). Forbes Paraguay lists plans to digitise municipal taxes, use infrastructure bonds and public-private partnerships, and replace municipal traffic police with a digital mobility office.

The city she inherits

Asunción’s finances are the first test. Rodríguez resigned in August 2025 during a state intervention. Luis Bello, also a Colorado, has run the city since then. Reuters reports that Núñez inherits debt, missed interest payments and stalled public works.

Última Hora put the overdue interest on the city’s bonds at about US$21 million. Bello made a partial payment in September (ABC Color), and the city council blocked a refinancing plan in May 2026. Debt figures differ between reports and will have to be settled by an audit.

A council she does not control

The preliminary count gives the Colorados 15 of the 24 seats on the Asunción city council. The alliance gets six and the Liberals three (Infobae, ABC Color). Núñez will need Colorado votes to pass budgets and bond deals. Última Hora notes she will have to seek consensus.

That sets up the city’s main political fight. Colorado leaders are already blaming each other for the loss. See our report on Camilo Pérez’s concession.

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 the only South American country that recognises Taiwan, and President Peña’s Colorado government backs that line. A Núñez mayoralty does not change foreign policy. It shows the Colorado machine can lose the capital even in a very strong year nationwide.

Investors in Paraguayan debt should watch Asunción’s bond dispute. Expats and visitors will deal with a new city hall from 3 November, including permits and services. Her first budget will show how far an audit reaches.

What is not known

We do not know the official result, which the electoral tribunals have not yet proclaimed. We do not know how deep her audit will go, or how she will pay the city’s bond interest. We do not know her formal party membership. Her family and private finances are outside this profile.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Soledad Núñez?

Soledad Núñez, 43, is a civil engineer and former housing minister who won the Asunción mayoralty on 4 October 2026 for the Juntos por Asunción alliance, with 47.78% in the preliminary count.

Which party does Soledad Núñez belong to?

She ran for the Juntos por Asunción alliance, led by the Liberal Party (PLRA) and using Patria Querida’s party structure. Her movement is Alternativa Asunción. Press accounts differ on her formal membership.

What did Núñez do before becoming mayor-elect?

She worked for the housing charity Un Techo para mi País, served as housing minister from 2014 to 2018 under President Cartes, and ran for vice president on Efraín Alegre’s ticket in 2023.

What are her main promises?

She promised to attack “parallel cash boxes” in the city budget, audit the previous and current administrations “to the last guaraní”, and govern for those who did and did not vote for her.

When does she take office?

She is due to take office on 3 November 2026, after the electoral tribunals judge the tally sheets and proclaim winners between 5 and 23 October.

More: Paraguay election results page, Pérez concedes, 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. Cover photo: Plastic Universe / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.