WEEKLY SELECTION – Paraguay’s Vice-President Killed in Wake of Ruling Party Split

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Carlos Montero

ASUNCION, Mar 27 1999 (IPS) - The vice-president of Paraguay, Luis Maria Argana, was assassinated in the capital of this South American country Tuesday in the wake of a confrontation with President Raul Cubas that led to a split in the long-governing Colorado Party.

Argana, one of the most prominent public figures in Paraguay over the past two decades, was shot and killed at 8:52 local time (12:52 GMT) as he rode through an up-scale Asuncion neighbourhood. His chauffeur and one of his two bodyguards were also killed.

Since August, the ruling party faction headed by Argana has been seeking to impeach Cubas in Congress, accusing the president of releasing retired general Lino Oviedo – who staged an aborted coup in 1996 – from prison and later refusing to recognise a court verdict ordering Oviedo back behind bars.

Argana would have become president if Cubas were impeached, an effort that also has the backing of the opposition parties. If the president is removed from office in the impeachment proceedings scheduled for next month, new elections could be held.

Two of the three High Electoral Court magistrates have already announced their intention to call elections for a new vice- president on Sep 26, although the decision is pending the signature of the president of the electoral court.

Three unknown gunmen dressed in military fatigues opened fire on the vice-president’s vehicle with a shotgun, an M-16 rifle and a revolver. The gunmen, who were not wearing masks, fled in a Volkswagen Gol after setting their Fiat Tempra on fire less than one kilometre away.

Cubas has ordered the borders sealed to keep the assassins from leaving the country, and asked presidents Carlos Menem of Argentina and Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil to collaborate in that task.

The witnesses to the attack were taken from the local police station near the site of the assassination to the Palace of Justice, where they were to give testimony and receive protection. But the building was evacuated due to bomb threats triggered by the presence of the witnesses.

Icho Planas, an advisor to Argana and long-time collaborator of former dictator Alfredo Stroessner (1954-89), said “the people are going to wreak vengeance” for the vice-president’s death.

Laying the blame for the murder on Cubas and the president’s close associate, Oviedo, Planas claimed that 10 Brazilian mercenaries had been hired to kill Argana.

Senator Juan Carlos Galaverna said the murderers “will be well protected in Cubas’ house.” He added that the only thing the president could do to ease the situation was to immediately resign.

Cubas, who was not on good terms with Argana, lamented the vice- president’s death, and urged that “Argana’s sacrifice” give rise to political dialogue.

Congress immediately lifted the session in which it was debating the cancellation of the debts contracted by small farmers holding up to five hectares, just when a march of 30,000 peasant farmers was reaching Asuncion.

The Presidential Guard was put on alert in the Government Palace to protect the president, who called an emergency meeting with his foreign and interior ministers and the chief of police.

Argana’s supporters called a “wake for democracy”, to be held in front of the Government Palace Wednesday.

One of Argana’s followers, parliamentary Deputy Angel Barchini, said that on Monday night the vice-president had been informed of a plot against his life, and responded that his opponents were “cowards and will not dare.”

Independent analyst Jose Nicolas Morinigo said the murder would “lead to chaos and a lack of governance.”

The leader of the opposition ‘Febrerista’ Revolutionary Party, Juan Granada, said “the only way out of chaos is through violence, which is only one step away from a coup.”

The local currency, the guarani, climbed from 2,925 to 3,000 against the dollar, “inflated by the confusion,” according to an executive in the local branch of Citibank, Oscar Biesel.

Argana, who presided over the Supreme Court throughout the 1980s, was a follower of Stroessner, who he assisted in justifying in the courts the use of torture against opponents of the dictatorship and the closure of media organs like the daily newspaper ‘ABC’ and ‘Radio Nanduti’.

Nevertheless, he sat on the cabinet of Gen. Andres Rodriguez, who overthrew Stroessner in 1989.

But he lasted less than a year as foreign minister under Rodriguez due to his opposition to the creation of the Southern Cone Common Market (Mercosur), made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, a free trade bloc that accounts for 80 percent of South America’s combined Gross Domestic Product.

In late 1992, he won the Colorado Party presidential nomination. But the outcome was annulled amidst rumours of a coup d’etat that was to prevent his running for president, and pressures from the U.S. embassy in favour of democratic stability.

The coup was supposedly being planned by Gen. Oviedo, then-head of the first army division, quartered in Asuncion.

At that time, Oviedo backed the candidacy of Juan Carlos Wasmosy, Argana’s rival, who was elected president. But four years later, in April 1996, the general staged an aborted coup after Wasmosy decided to remove him as army chief.

After becoming a sworn enemy of Wasmosy, Oviedo also remained distanced from Argana, who once again became chairman of the Colorado Party on Apr 28, 1996.

After Oviedo was disqualified to stand as presidential candidate, due to his conviction and sentencing to 10 years in prison for the April 1996 military uprising, Argana was authorised to run as Cubas’ running-mate in the May 10, 1998 elections.