Paraguay's Vice President Slain in Street Ambush in the Capital

The New York Times March 24, 1999 Paraguay's Vice President Slain in Street Ambush in the Capital

By REUTERS

          ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay -- Vice President Luis María Argaña was
          shot dead early Tuesday when his jeep was ambushed on a street
          in the capital. The country's borders were shut and a hunt is under way
          for the killers of Argaña, who had been in a bitter power struggle with
          President Raúl Cubas.

          The police said three or four men in military dress swerved a car in front
          of Argaña's jeep, threw a grenade and sprayed the vehicle with bullets.
          Argaña's driver was also killed, but a bodyguard survived.

The police said they had not identified the assailants.

          President Cubas, who had been threatened with impeachment by
          Argaña's rival faction in the governing Colorado Party, said he had "the
          airport covered and air force planes and helicopters are covering the
          whole country."

          But Argaña's followers laid the blame at the President's door, as did the
          political opposition. Argaña's supporters hold the top posts in the
          Colorado Party while President Cubas's faction is headed by a convicted
          coup leader and former army chief, Lino Oviedo.

          Argaña, 66, was so senior an official in the Colorado Party dictatorship
          of Gen. Alfredo Stroessner -- which ruled from 1954 until a coup in
          1989 -- that he was tipped as the general's successor.

          He went on to be minister for the military men who paved the way for
          democracy and last year he ran in Colorado Party primaries. He lost
          against Oviedo, the former army chief, who tried to oust former President
          Juan Carlos Wasmosy in 1996.

          Oviedo was then disqualified from the presidential contest by a 10-year
          jail sentence for the coup attempt. Cubas stepped in and won, and
          Argaña automatically became his deputy. And then, last August,
          President Cubas freed Oviedo.

Since then, the rivalry has been ferocious.

          Oviedo has repeatedly threatened violence against Colorado Party rivals
          and Supreme Court judges who had ordered him back to jail. President
          Cubas is furious at moves by Argaña's followers to have him impeached
          for allegedly violating the Constitution by refusing to send Oviedo back to
          jail.