IPS-English PARAGUAY: Oviedo's Release Will Weaken Opposition
 
Date: Fri, 07 Sep 2007 14:42:16 -0700


PARAGUAY: Oviedo's Release Will Weaken Opposition Candidate
David Vargas

ASUNCIÓN, Sep 7   (IPS)  - The release of former army chief Lino 
Oviedo in Paraguay will weaken the presidential candidacy of 
former Catholic bishop Fernando Lugo, the front-runner in the 
polls for the April 2008 elections, say analysts and politicians.

Paraguay's Supreme Court of Military Justice decided to release 
the former general on parole Thursday after he served half of his 
10-year sentence for attempting to overthrow then president Juan 
Carlos Wasmosy in April 1996.

Oviedo, 63, has thus returned to the political arena when the 
country is in the early stages of the campaign for next year's 
general elections.

Observers told IPS that Oviedo's release will modify the 
political map and present a challenge to the Concertación 
Nacional, an opposition coalition of political parties and social 
movements, whose presidential candidate is Lugo, known as ”the 
bishop of the poor”.

The three-man military tribunal argued that former Paraguayan 
army strongman Oviedo had served more than half of his term, 
because he had been in prison in Paraguay since Jun. 29, 2004, 
and had earlier spent 18 months in jail in Brazil, before 
returning to Paraguay. In addition, he was held for nine months 
in an army barracks in Asunción in 1998 before escaping to 
Argentina.

When Oviedo left prison at noon Thursday, he was cheered by 
hundreds of his supporters, who had gathered outside to greet 
him.

In brief comments to the press, the former general reiterated his 
argument that the sentence he was given was ”merely disguised 
political persecution.”

The former army chief said he would dedicate himself to ”God and 
my family” and excused himself from making any political 
statements. But he announced that he would tour Paraguay's 
hinterland to ”express his gratitude” to the people who supported 
him during his time in prison.

Senator Enrique González Quintana, the president of the Unión 
Nacional de Ciudadanos Éticos (UNACE) party founded by Oviedo 
from prison, said once again that he hoped the former general 
would stand for president in the coming elections.

However, Paraguayan law prohibits ex-convicts on parole from 
running in elections.

Judge Gustavo Gorostiaga explained to IPS that Oviedo ”can engage 
in politics in the broad sense of the word, but cannot run for 
office.”

”His rights are restricted and he cannot be elected, but he can 
campaign and take part in a rally,” added the judge.

González Quintana told IPS that although Oviedo's legal status 
implies some restrictions, ”he has every right to tour the 
country and engage in politics.”

”The only limitation he has is that he cannot be a candidate,” 
said the senator. ”But that is just for now, because a request 
for a review of his sentence has been filed with the Supreme 
Court.”

The speed with which the military tribunal rendered its opinion 
revived rumours of eventual negotiations between UNACE and the 
Colorado Party, which has governed this land-locked South 
American country for 60 years, aimed at weakening Lugo's 
candidacy.

”The whole thing has been thought out to weaken the Concertación 
coalition,” said political analyst Alfredo Boccia.

President ”Nicanor Duarte pushed for Oviedo's release to weaken 
Lugo, who heads all of the opinion polls. UNACE forms part of the 
Concertación, but its supporters will press for Oviedo to be the 
presidential candidate,” he argued.

Senator Armando Espínola, of the Partido Liberal Radical 
Auténtico (PLRA), the leading opposition party, which also forms 
part of the coalition, said Oviedo ”is a political phenomenon 
that is impossible for the Concertación to ignore.”

”We should immediately talk to him,” he told a local radio 
station.

Oviedo's release has further muddied the waters for the 
Concertación, which is already in crisis since two of its largest 
parties, UNACE and the Partido Patria Querida (PPQ), have refused 
to recognise Lugo's candidacy.

In its convention on Sunday, UNACE made it clear that it did not 
accept the Concertación's choice of candidate, Lugo, or of his 
running-mate, an as-yet undesignated member of the PLRA.

The convention described Lugo's designation as candidate as 
”hasty” and called for respect for a February agreement which 
established that the opposition alliance would elect a candidate 
through a popular survey or vote.

”This will create a whole new scenario, because a large part of 
the electorate that might support Lugo would back the UNACE 
candidate, even if it is not Oviedo himself,” PPQ Deputy Héctor 
Lacognata told IPS.

After Raúl Cubas became president in August 1998, he had Oviedo 
released by decree, which triggered a political crisis that 
culminated in the March 1999 assassination of then vice president 
Luis Argaña and the shooting deaths of seven young 
anti-government protesters outside of Congress three days later.

Oviedo was charged with planning Argaña's assassination and of 
being responsible for the deaths of the protesters, and he fled 
the country. He was given political asylum in Argentina, under 
the government of Carlos Menem (1989-1999).

But in late 1999, he went into hiding, and was captured months 
later in Brazil, where he stayed until he decided to return to 
Paraguay in June 2004, when he was arrested and thrown into 
prison.

In July, the Supreme Court handed down rulings in favour of 
Oviedo with regard to Argaña's assassination and the killings of 
the seven protesters.


***** + PARAGUAY:  Stroessner's Death Closes Dark Chapter of 
History (http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34367)


(END/IPS/LA IP HD MX/TRASP-SW/DV/07)


 
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