BY KEVIN G. HALL
 Herald World Staff

 ASUNCION, Paraguay -- Using the broad powers allowed under a declared ``state
 of exception,'' the government has closed some radio stations and on Tuesday
 continued arresting military men, police, civilians and journalists, alleging they
 were involved in last week's failed coup.

 Authorities estimated that 74 people have been arrested since Friday, when the
 government thwarted a takeover attempt by soldiers believed to be loyal to a
 fugitive general. At least four members of Congress, 47 soldiers, 24 police officials
 and several journalists were being held, and critics say many of those detained
 were not being allowed to meet with their lawyers or families.

 ARRESTS PERMITTED

 The arrests, as well as a ban on most gatherings without police approval, are
 permitted under the 30-day state of exception that President Luis Gonzalez
 Macchi declared after the coup attempt.

 ``It is a razor in the hands of a monkey,'' Julio Benegas, head of the Paraguayan
 Journalists Union, said of the emergency period. ``All freedoms end when there is
 not freedom of expression.''

 The government denied it was repressing freedom of expression or trampling on
 the rights of those arrested.

 ``The procedures are the same as in any state of emergency. There haven't been
 any arbitrary occurrences or any abuses, but rather liberties have been
 suppressed to allow investigations,'' Cabinet Chief Jaime Bestard told reporters
 Tuesday.

 Stephen McFarland, chief officer at the U.S. Embassy in Asuncion, said the
 government's special emergency period, renewable 30 days at a time with
 congressional approval, is allowed under Paraguay's Constitution.

 ``We are watching very carefully who they arrest and how they treat them,''
 McFarland said. ``We are just in the beginning stages of this.''

 COUP ATTEMPT

 The coup attempt, which started Thursday night, was the third since 1996. Many
 fear its aftermath threatens to derail democracy in the country. Paraguay's
 troubles are the latest in an array of foreign policy setbacks for U.S.
 policymakers, who are also seeing their decade-long effort at promoting South
 American free market democracies erode in Bolivia, Peru, Colombia and
 Venezuela.

 Many think Gonzalez Macchi, an unelected and ineffective president who
 assumed office last year by constitutional succession, may be at a crossroads.
 He can use this special period to institute what his critics call a ``self coup,''
 restraining freedoms and crushing his opponents. Or he can use it to restructure
 the military and weaken the influence of retired Gen. Lino Oviedo, a fugitive whose
 supporters are suspected of leading Friday's coup attempt. Oviedo is wanted in
 connection with the March 1999 murder of Vice President Luis Maria Argaña.

 Just before the coup attempt last week, Oviedo's followers allegedly damaged
 power lines and other government facilities during a state visit by Argentine
 President Fernando de la Rua.

 In a clandestine telephone interview with the Paraguayan daily ABC Color, Oviedo
 said in Tuesday's editions that a ``small group of military men'' without popular
 support was to blame for last week's failed coup and that he played no role.