BRASILIA (Reuters) -- Brazil has formally granted political asylum to
                  Paraguay's disgraced former president Raul Cubas and his family, according
                  to the government gazette published on Monday.

                  Cubas, who has been declared immune from arrest by Paraguay's new
                  government, arrived March 30 in the southern state of Santa Catarina where
                  he owns a beach apartment. His asylum in Brazil is for an initial period of
                  four years.

                  Accompanied by his wife and two daughters, Cubas currently resides in the
                  resort town of Camboriu, 81 km (50 miles) north of Santa Catarina's state
                  capital Florianopolis.

                  He was whisked to Brazil after taking refuge in the Brazilian embassy
                  residence in Paraguay -- just hours after the man seen as his political master,
                  Paraguay's former army chief Lino Oviedo, won asylum in Argentina.

                  Oviedo fled Paraguay after Cubas resigned his office amid bloody riots in
                  the capital Asuncion during which six people were killed and 200 others
                  hurt.

                  Earlier this month, Paraguay issued an arrest warrant for Oviedo, now living
                  on a ranch owned by a rich businessman in Buenos Aires province, but the
                  request was rejected by an Argentine federal judge.

                  Both Oviedo and Cubas have been blamed for the murder of Vice President
                  Luis Argana, who was shot by unidentified gunmen wearing military uniforms
                  in March.

                  Argana had sought Cubas's impeachment shortly after the president took
                  office last August for defying a Supreme Court order to send Oviedo back
                  to jail to serve a 10-year sentence for a 1996 coup attempt.

                  Brazil also hosts former Paraguayan dictator Gen. Alfredo Stroessner, who
                  ruled the landlocked South American nation for 35 years until a coup
                  toppled his government in 1989.

                     Copyright 1999 Reuters.