ASUNCION, Paraguay (Reuters) -- Paraguay's Congress voted in a joint
                  session of the two chambers on Thursday for impeachment hearings against
                  President Raul Cubas for refusing to send a failed coup leader, ex-general
                  Lino Oviedo, to jail.

                  If two-thirds of the Lower House agree the president should be impeached,
                  the Senate would then vote on whether to expel him from office.

                  But so far the anti-Cubas camp in the Lower House would be insufficient to
                  push the motion through. No date was set for the debate.

                  Congress voted 74-38 in favour of the hearings, saying in a resolution that
                  the president's conduct "clearly typifies bad performance in the exercise of
                  his functions."

                  Speaking in Brazil a few hours before the vote, Cubas said he would abide
                  by what Congress decided.

                  "If Congress decides to bring down the president of the republic you can be
                  absolutely certain that the very next day I will be back at home," he told
                  reporters in Brasilia, where he met Brazil's President Fernando Henrique
                  Cardoso.

                  In order for Cubas to be impeached the Lower House needs 54 of its 80
                  members to approve the charges and the Senate 30 of its 45 members.
                  According to legislators, the opposition to Cubas accounts for only 51 votes
                  in the Lower House.

                  Cubas has ignored the Supreme Court's demand that his ally Oviedo serve a
                  10-year prison sentence for a 1996 coup attempt against former President
                  Juan Wasmosy.

                  Cubas was threatened with congressional censure over the issue last
                  December, but the move was shelved for fear that Oviedo's fervent
                  supporters would threaten the lives of lawmakers.

                  The controversy has sparked the worst crisis in this landlocked nation of five
                  million people since democracy was restored in 1989 following the
                  dictatorship of Gen. Alfredo Stroessner. Protests have been held by
                  Oviedo's backers and pot-shots have been taken at the Supreme Court.

                  Oviedo, whose fluency in the local Guarani Indian language appeals to
                  Paraguay's numerous poor, campaigned for president in 1998 with Cubas as
                  his vice presidential running mate.

                  The former cavalry general's bid was halted when he was thrown in jail for
                  the 1996 coup attempt. Cubas then ran for the top office on the Colorado
                  Party ticket.

                  Once elected, Cubas decreed Oviedo's freedom. The Supreme Court
                  declared the decree unconstitutional in December and has since pressed its
                  case to put the general back behind bars.

                  Oviedo remains determined to return to the political arena as a presidential
                  candidate for the ruling Colorado Party.

                     Copyright 1999 Reuters