ASUNCION (Reuters) – Paraguay’s Congress removed President Fernando Lugo from office after a lightning-quick impeachment trial yesterday that he said was tantamount to a coup but pledged to accept.
Lugo, a silver-haired former Roman Catholic bishop who quit the Church to run for president on a social reform programme, was found guilty of mishandling armed clashes over a land eviction in which 17 police and peasant farmers were killed last week.
In line with Paraguay’s constitution, Lugo was quickly replaced by Vice President Federico Franco, a fierce opponent of the president. Franco, a centrist Liberal Party politician, was sworn in last evening.
“Although the law’s been twisted like a fragile branch in the wind, I accept Congress’ decision,” Lugo said in a sober address on national television.
Lugo, who compared his sudden impeachment to a coup, also urged supporters to ensure any demonstrations against his ouster were peaceful.
Several thousand Lugo supporters gathered outside Congress in the sleepy capital, Asuncion, and tried to break through police lines as the verdict was given. Police fired teargas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.
The Senate voted 39-4 to remove Lugo the day after lawmakers in the lower house agreed in a sudden, near-unanimous vote to impeach him. Lugo, 61, a mild-mannered leftist who speaks the Guarani Indian language, vowed to champion the needs of poor Paraguayans when he was elected four years ago, ending six decades of rule by the Colorado party in one of South America’s poorest and most unstable countries.
The quickness of the impeachment trial raised concerns among other governments in the region and they dispatched their foreign ministers to Asuncion.
Lugo’s election raised expectations among his supporters that he would tackle rampant corruption and gaping income inequalities in the soy-exporting nation of 6 million people.
He has struggled, however, to carry out his reform agenda, including his promise to redistribute land to peasant farmers, due to the opposition’s tight grip on Congress.