ASUNCION, Paraguay (Reuters) -- Paraguay's President Raul Cubas on
                  Tuesday ordered the arrest of a former air force chief for alleged misuse of
                  public funds, in a move a leading congressman blamed on controversial Cubas
                  ally and former general, Lino Oviedo.

                  The president, who faces possible impeachment proceedings for failing to send
                  Oviedo back to jail for his role in a coup attempt in 1996, ordered the arrest of
                  retired Gen. Cesar Cramer for alleged corruption during his time as head of
                  the country's air force from 1995 to 1998.

                  Cramer, who was considered a leading democrat in Paraguay's armed forces,
                  said he had "committed no crime."

                  "I did nothing more than preserve institutional order when democracy was at
                  risk with the resources the state put in my charge," Cramer told Reuters on
                  Tuesday shortly before he was arrested by a military tribunal.

                  Walter Bower, the head of Paraguay's lower chamber of Congress, said
                  Cramer's arrest was "another act of madness by Oviedo," adding that the
                  former general instructed Cubas to make the arrest.

                  "Step by step, he (Oviedo) is trying to show that gradually he can overthrow
                  the symbols of institutionality, starting with Cramer," Bower said.

                  Oviedo campaigned for president in 1998 as a Colorado Party candidate, with
                  Cubas as his vice presidential running mate.

                  But Oviedo's bid was stopped short when he was thrown in jail for the April
                  1996 coup attempt against then-President Juan Carlos Wasmosy. Cramer,
                  who retired from the air force last year, opposed the rebellion.

                  Oviedo was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the military tribunal for the
                  attempted coup, but was freed by decree by his close friend Cubas after he
                  became president in August 1998. In December, the Supreme Court ruled
                  Cubas' decree was unconstitutional.

                  Oviedo, whose forceful oratory in the native Indian Guarani language has won
                  him support among the rural poor, now says he wants to prepare for another
                  presidential bid.

                  Last week, Congress voted in a joint session for impeachment hearings against
                  Cubas for ignoring demands by the Supreme Court to send Oviedo back to jail.
                  Two-thirds of the lower house would have to vote to impeach him and the
                  Senate would then vote on whether to expel him from office.

                  No date has been set for the lower house vote.

                     Copyright 1999 Reuters.