Paraguay Hopes For A New Day

Waving flags and singing the national anthem, Paraguayans threw a huge street party to celebrate the president's surprise resignation and, they hoped, the end of a violent political crisis.

Some 60,000 people shot fireworks and honked horns late Sunday in an outpouring of joy in the same plaza that last week saw bloody riots between supporters and opponents of outgoing President Raul Cubas.

"The violence has come to an end and so has the fear," the jubilant new president, Luis Gonzalez Macchi, said after receiving the gold scepter and sash Sunday night during his inauguration at the pink-stuccoed parliament.

Only an hour earlier, Cubas, flanked by his wife and close aides, announced his resignation on television, apologizing for the violent street protests.

"I will not be responsible for the spilling of more innocent blood," he said. "I'm not leaving a thief or corrupt. I'm leaving in hopes it will help the national reconciliation at this sensitive moment," Cubas said.

The surprise move was the latest chapter in the worst political turmoil Paraguay has seen since a foiled 1996 coup attempt. Violent protests had flared last week over an impeachment trial of Cubas on abuse of power charges.

The violence began Tuesday when camouflaged gunmen shot and killed Vice President Luis Maria Argana. There are no suspects in the assassination.

Blaming Cubas's government for indirectly causing the killing, Paraguay's lower house impeached the former president on Wednesday. A day later, the senate opened the trial amid growing public demands for his ouster.

The 55-year-old Cubas won the cleanest election in Paraguayan history last May, capturing more than 50 percent of the vote.

He was the first civilian to succeed another in the democracy created after the 1989 ouster of dictator Alfredo Stroessner, who had ruled since a bloody 1954 coup.

But Cubas sparked an uproar of criticism with his first act upon assuming office Aug. 15: the release of his mentor, Lino Oviedo, the once powerful army general jailed for a 1996 attempt to oust then-President Juan Carlos Wasmosy.

Oviedo was in Argentina Monday after leaving Paraguay Sunday night.

Monday, the 53-year-old Gonzalez Macchi, formerly president of the Senate, faced the task of creating a new government. He also said at his first news conference that he would investigate the role of riot police in last week's violence.

Paraguay, a landlocked nation in South America, borders on Argentina, Brazil,and Bolivia. It's slightly smaller than California.

The 5.6 million people of Paraguay are of Spanish or Indian descent. The official language is Spanish, although an Indian language called Guarani is widely spoken.

Cattle and cotton are the backbone of the economy. Paraguay is facing a protracted economic crisis that has yielded high employment and keeps 300,000 peasants landless in countryside. Local banks hav been closing at alarming rate. Rampant corruption is estimated to have cost Paraguay $2 billion in the latter part of the decade.

Written by Bill Cormier