[NYTr] Celebrations erupt as Paraguay coup plotter freed
 
Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2007 18:06:47 -0500 (CDT)


Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
Reuters via Yahoo - Sep 6, 2007
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070906/wl_nm/paraguay_politics_dc

Celebrations erupt as Paraguay coup plotter freed

ASUNCION (Reuters) - A military court on Thursday ordered a former
army general convicted of leading a failed coup attempt released from
prison, and his aides said he intends to compete in next year's
presidential election.

Lino Oviedo was freed after serving five years and six months of a
10-year sentence for attempting to topple the government of former
President Juan Carlos Wasmosy in 1996.

A charismatic figure popular with Paraguay's poor, Oviedo enjoys
backing from the National Union of Ethical Citizens, a political party
that he founded.

Dozens of Oviedo supporters crowded outside an Asuncion military prison
from which he emerged after the court released him on good conduct.

"He's finally free ... and now he's going to start traveling the
country," said Enrique Gonzalez Quintana, the head of Oviedo's party.

Oviedo, 63, was imprisoned after returning to Paraguay in June 2004
following five years in exile in Brazil. He turned himself over to
authorities in a bid to clear his name.

It was uncertain if Oviedo could compete in the April 2008 vote.
Paraguay's constitution bars people sentenced to prison from running.

Also clouding his political future are pending charges that he
masterminded the 1999 assassination of Vice President Luis Argana, a
crime that plunged the country into turmoil and prompted days of deadly
street protests.

A recent poll published by the Ultima Hora newspaper showed Oviedo in
second place behind front-runner Fernando Lugo, a former Catholic
bishop who quit the priesthood to seek the presidency.

Lugo had 37 percent support against 28 percent for Oviedo in the race
to succeed President Nicanor Duarte Frutos, a center-right leader from
the Colorado Party that has long dominated Paraguayan politics.

One of South America's poorest countries, Paraguay was ruled by
dictator Alfredo Stroessner, a former army general, for 35 years until
he was deposed in 1989.

 
                                 *
=================================================================
.NY Transfer News Collective     *    A Service of Blythe Systems
.          Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us          .
.339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012      http://www.blythe.org
.  List Archives:      https://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/
.  Subscribe:    https://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr
=================================================================