Paraguay's Cubas in Brazil to begin exile

CNN March 30, 1999 Paraguay's Cubas in Brazil to begin exile

                  RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) -- Paraguay's disgraced former
                  president, Raul Cubas, arrived in Brazil on Tuesday to begin his exile
                  shortly after the general behind his political rise won asylum in Argentina,
                  a senior official said.

                  A Brazilian air force jet whisked Cubas, 55, his wife and two daughters
                  from Paraguay's capital, Asuncion, to Santa Catarina state, where Cubas
                  reportedly owns an apartment north of the capital, Florianopolis.

He took refuge in the Brazilian embassy residence late on Monday in
Paraguay and Brazil accepted his asylum request.

Brazil's foreign minister, Luiz Felipe Lampreia, said his nation continued its
history of sheltering certain people who felt threatened in their own country.

                  "It has been a long tradition in Latin America, since the 1920s, when there
                  were many dictators in the region, and I feel it very important to preserve it,"
                  Lampreia said in an interview with Globo Network TV. Brazil also hosts
                  former Paraguayan dictator Gen. Alfredo Stroessner, who ruled for 35 years
                  until a coup toppled his government in 1989.

Cubas was declared immune from arrest by Paraguay's new government.

                  Cubas's arrival in southern Brazil came just hours after the man viewed as his
                  political master, Paraguay's former army chief Lino Oviedo, won asylum in
                  Argentina. Oviedo fled Paraguay after Cubas resigned his office on Sunday
                  amid worsening political turmoil.

                  Paraguayan legislators and the state prosecutor wanted Cubas arrested for
                  failing to prevent riots last Friday during which six people were killed and
                  200 others hurt. The unrest was triggered by the slaying of Vice President
                  Luis Maria Argana, who was shot last Tuesday by unidentified gunmen
                  wearing military uniforms.

                  Cubas and Oviedo have been blamed for Argana's murder. The vice
                  president had sought Cubas's impeachment shortly after the president took
                  office last August for defying a Supreme Court order to send Oviedo back
                  to jail to serve a 10-year sentence for a 1996 coup attempt against President
                  Juan Carlos Wasmosy.

                  But Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso said in a letter on
                  Monday to new Paraguayan President Luis Gonzalez Macchi that he had
                  confidence in democracy in Paraguay.

                  Last week, Cardoso warned Paraguay it faced expulsion from South
                  America's Mercosur customs union and effective isolation from the rest
                  of the continent if it turned its back on a democratic rule that is barely
                  10 years old.

                  But in his letter, Cardoso said Paraguay could now count on help from
                  Mercosur as it sought to "continue down the path of peace and
                  development."

Cubas, who had been impeached, resigned the presidency as Paraguay's
Senate appeared likely to remove him from office.

                  Cubas, in his last speech to the nation, accused Congress of a "conspiracy"
                  and said he was leaving to avoid "the spilling of more innocent blood for
                  questions of politics."

Gonzalez Macchi, 51, has received the support of Paraguay's military,
calming the coup fears that swept the nation in Cubas's final days in office.