The Paraguay Domino

["bon moun" <sherrynstan@xxxxxxx>]

7/16/2002
02.22
Fighting Breaks out in Paraguay

* Economic turmoil and political crisis grip the country
* Paraguay-Next domino almost ready to fall


Rather than revolution, a long-feared violence in Paraguay has
erupted in the form of political repression. Yesterday, those opposed to
President Luis Gonzales Macchi staged protests in ten locations around the
country calling for his resignation. The Paraguayan president publicly
blamed his nemesis, former Lieutenant General Lino Oviedo for plotting the
demonstrations. The Asunción daily Ultima Hora reported that Radio Uno
possessed a recording of a telephone conversation in which Oviedo organized
the demonstrations from behind the scene. However, mobilization also came
from within the government, as Vice President Julio Cesar Franco's Liberal
party encouraged its supporters to join in the "legitimate" protests
against
a "corrupt" president and the economic collapse afflicting the country. In
an effort to remove Macchi, 500 demonstrators blocked the International
Bridge of Friendship that connects Ciudad del Este to the Brazilian city of
Foz de Yguazu, while 5,000 protesters vandalized stores and looted
supermarkets in the area. Similarly, 4,000 cut off the bridge connecting
Paraguayan city Encarnación and the Argentine city of Posadas, and 500
protesters demonstrated outside the Congress in Asunción. Two protesters
were killed as a result of gunfire and 90 were injured as President Macchi
ordered a state of emergency which suspended constitutional rights in an
alarming reminder of the 30-year state-of-siege under dictator Alfredo
Stroessner, who suspended all rights to expression and assembly. Macchi's
order will likely bring more violence to the country, as a communiqué from
Oviedo's UNACE has indicated that his party would not respect the state of
emergency. The statement specified, "As of today, the demonstrations will
continue tomorrow. We will invite the Paraguayans to rise up, including
those who are not members of the Oviedista movement."
Paraguay now represents yet another of Latin America's fragile
democracies that have been hobbled by economic policies that emphasize
privatization and market reform over urgent issues of social justice. By
ignoring the voice of the people and pressing in favor of IMF and World
Bank
policies, the U.S. has cajoled a series of Latin American countries into
alienating their populations from the democratic process, which has now led
to the wave of populism that is today sweeping the hemisphere. Seeing the
failure of their vote, the Paraguayan people have turned to angry protest
to
bring about the changes they wish to see, and the country is once again
gripped in a violent struggle between the government and those it is
supposed to serve.

Democracy and Corruption in Paraguay
Democratic change in Paraguay has encountered continuous obstacles
since the end of the Stroessner dictatorship, the subsequent 1989
democratic
election of Andrés Rodríguez and a new constitution which promised freedom
and opportunity for the country. However, the credibility of successive
administrations has been marred by instances of impunity, corruption and
violence.
Democratic prospects turned sour with the election of President Juan
Carlos Wasmosy, who came after Rodríguez in 1993. Accused of gaining the
office through electoral fraud in the Colorado party primaries, Wasmosy was
recently sentenced to four years in prison for embezzling public funds. In
1996, democracy was further threatened when former General Lino Oviedo led
a
failed coup against Wasmosy. Oviedo was subsequently sentenced to a
ten-year
prison term. He served only three months before Raul Cubas Grau, a close
ally of Oviedo who succeeded President Wasmosy in 1998, ordered his
release.
The pardon of Oviedo contradicted a military tribunal ruling, thereby
flouting the executive powers spelled out in the Paraguayan Constitution.
Oviedo fled into exile as impeachment proceedings to remove Cubas for his
unauthorized pardoning of Oviedo successfully passed the lower house of the
Paraguayan Congress.
Political developments turned violent with President Cubas'
suspected involvement in the March 1999 assassination of Vice President
Luis
Maria Argaña and his ensuing flight to Brazil. Argaña, a strong Oviedo
opponent, had consistently criticized the Cubas administration,
particularly
the decision to release Oviedo. Cubas returned from exile last February and
is currently under arrest for his alleged involvement in the death of nine
demonstrators who joined a massive protest calling for his resignation
following Argaña's murder. Paraguay's current president, Luis Gonzales
Macchi, assumed power after Cubas' resignation and inherited the same
serious difficulties that weakened all of his immediate predecessors'
attempts to maintain democratic order.

The Case of Oviedo
Following his release from prison, Oviedo fled to Argentina and then
to Brazil, where he currently lives and is seeking legal residence.
Asunción
has unsuccessfully tried to extradite the former general, despite the
serious charges it has levied against him: implication in the murder of
Argaña; involvement in the death of the March 1999 protesters; eluding a
ten-year prison sentence for his failed coup attempt in 1996; and, most
recently, allegations of drug trafficking. Oviedo denies the charges,
claiming that they stem from the severe political persecution he has had to
face from Macchi's corrupt government. In an interview with ABC Color,
Oviedo stated, "I have been in prison three times for unjust causes . . .
[but] I have evidence signed by the Supreme Court of Brazil . . . I will
make presentations before the Paraguayan justice which will make inevitable
the reclaiming of my trampled rights." Oviedo is now attempting to have his
ten-year sentence revoked on technical grounds. He and his coup accomplice,
Colonel José Bóveda, allege that the military judge who tried the case and
sentenced the two to prison did not have the appropriate rank, prompting
Bóveda to ask that the Supreme Court to overturn the verdict.
Brazil has denied all attempts to extradite Oviedo, citing the
political persecution that he would face in his native country. The
Brazilian Supreme Court defended Oviedo, stating, "Oviedo constitutes a
major threat to the hegemony of the current political group dominant in
Paraguay and the most important adversary in future elections." The party
that Oviedo leads from exile, the National Unity Movement of Ethical
Colorados (UNACE), "does not recognize Luis Gonzales Macchi as the
president
of Paraguay" and calls for his immediate resignation and election of a new
leader.
>From Brazil, Oviedo has organized political meetings and other
activities, recently drawing 5,000 of the party's members to a rally in the
Brazilian border city of Foz de Yguazu on July 6. This number represents
only a fraction of the group's estimated 100,000 supporters. Furthermore,
Oviedo directly challenged Macchi's government in his July 6 ABC Color
interview, stating, "The country is in a calamitous state that it cannot
endure for much time.  Nobody knows what could happen in 15 days.  Hunger
and insecurity are what govern along with these thieves." His supporters
have suggested a possible presidential campaign for Oviedo in the upcoming
2003 election, and the exiled general then explained that his return was
inevitable. The presidential hopeful urged Paraguayan voters to register
"because with their vote we will make a revolution, so that we will no
longer be pariahs in our own land.  The only wealth that remains is the
vote.  The democratic revolution is ready and about to be realized."
In response, President Macchi argues that Oviedo's "violent
criticism" is destabilizing the current government and has insisted that
Oviedo's political meetings should be restricted. However, the Brazilian
Supreme Court has assured Oviedo all of the rights of expression and
association guaranteed to any citizen or legal resident. In order to
"neutralize" the meetings and demonstrations of Oviedo's supporters, and to
track down the general himself, Macchi has mobilized police and military at
the border. In an attempt to subdue UNACE members, Macchi has initiated
road
closures, arbitrary police checks and heightened border control, raising
alarms that the president will step up repression of government opposition
at a time when his popular support has vanished. In a sense, his vigilance
appeared prophetic, given the recent outbreak of violent protest and
repression.

President Faces Corruption Charges
The Macchi administration is plagued with its own scandal, as the
president is accused of misusing "reserved" executive funds, a portion of
the budget set aside for the president's discretionary spending, within
legislative limits.  As of 1999, this sum amounted to more than 21 billion
guaraníes, or nearly US $3.9 million. It was recently discovered that the
funds financed unauthorized spending, including a private organization, The
Foundation of the First Lady, and the purchase of European airfare for
Paraguayan athletes.
Deputy Efraín Alegre of the opposition Authentic Radical Liberal
Party (PLRA) has accused the president of using reserved funds to overpay
government officials. Efraín insists that Julio Cesar Fanego and two other
ex-ministers of the interior each received US $140,000 over the course of a
year. Moreover, Paraguay's prosecutor of financial crimes charged the
president with using US $16 million of public funds for his personal
investments and has been seeking Macchi's impeachment since April. Recent
reports by the daily ABC Color suggest that part of these funds were used
by
the president to finance a cruise aboard a Miami yacht. The comptroller
general has also begun an investigation of three individuals tied to
Macchi's administration, including his wife, to clarify the origin of
millions of dollars held in a Cayman Islands bank. Responding to demands
for
an investigation of Macchi's spending, the president charged PLRA Deputy
Efraín, along with other deputies who had accused him, of harboring
political motivations to remove the Colorado government from office.

Liberals Against the Colorados
Indeed, members of the Liberal party and opposing factions of the
Colorados have moved to impeach Macchi and allow the Vice President
"Yoyito"
Julio Cesar Franco of the rival PLRA to assume the post. In June, the PLRA
reported to ABC Color that 57 votes in the Chamber of Deputies would favor
the president's impeachment, and the party has begun to negotiate for
political support within the Senate. According to advisor José María Ibáñez
at the Paraguayan Embassy in Washington D.C., the movement for impeachment
came amidst widespread protest of an anti-terrorism law, as well as
legislation calling for the privatization of the state-run
telecommunication, water and highway enterprises. Last month, thousands
from
peasant and labor organizations protested, blocking highways throughout the
country until the president agreed to revoke the two contentious pieces of
legislation that he had introduced. Ibáñez stated that current developments
have been pervaded by the mistrust of government that dominates Paraguayan
society.
Exhibiting such distrust, Deputy Luis Castiglioni argued that the
true threat to democracy in Paraguay is "the weakness of the government,
the
lack of leadership and the lack of moral authority." He argues that
Macchi's
reaction to Oviedo supporters has created an environment of fear,
reminiscent of the Stroessner dictatorship, and proposed that the
government's "absolute incapacity and impotence . . . to solve the
distressing economic and social problems" will lead to violence, just as it
did.

Crisis Hits
The country is currently confronting perhaps the worst economic
crisis of its history. Brought on by a lack of the availability of credit,
the Argentine crisis and a string of bank closures, the current stagnation
has perfected the near-eternal social and political instability that
plagues
the country. Many see the president as directly responsible for the crisis,
as he has been implicated in the embezzlement that bankrupted two
Paraguayan
banks and robbed normal citizens of millions of dollars in savings.
Similarly, Macchi's failure to successfully privatize the state-run
telecommunications firm meant that the IMF would not approve a badly needed
loan package. Short on assets, the government recently announced its
inability to make salary payments to public employees, and analysts are
predicting another disastrous round of bank closures. Macchi himself
recognized his incapacity to govern, admitting to the press, "undoubtedly
we
were not able in three years to improve" the country's situation.
Adding support to Oviedo's call for a popular democratic revolution
in 2003, a group of 300 retired police and military staged a demonstration
on July 4. The group condemned the last three presidents as "the most
corrupt in the world, who have left the country in misery." Characterizing
Macchi as the most miserable and corrupt president in Paraguay's history,
they declared the people's right to rebellion against an "illegitimate,
thieving and criminal government." Confronted with opposition from peasant,
labor and political groups and facing corruption charges, the president has
few resources to establish his legitimacy and impose order on the troubled
country.









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