March 29, 1999
Web posted at: 1:31 a.m. EST (0631 GMT)

ASUNCION, Paraguay (CNN) -- As Luis Gonzalez Macchi took over the presidency of Paraguay to the cheers of jubilant crowds, the country's former army chief Lino Oviedo was reportedly being detained by police after he fled to Argentina.

According to the DyN news agency, Oviedo was being held Monday after landing a small plane at an airport outside Buenos Aires on Sunday with false identity documents.

Oviedo fled Paraguay after his ally Raul Cubas resigned from the presidency on Sunday following violent clashes between rival factions of the ruling Colorado Party.

Gonzalez Macchi's ascent to the presidency put an end to rumors of a military coup in the landlocked nation of five million people in the heart of South America.

"The democratic process has passed the hardest test of all. The people of Paraguay have triumphed!" Gonzalez Macchi said in a speech after being sworn in. He paid tribute to slain Vice President Luis Maria Argana, and the six people killed and 200 injured by snipers and rioting Friday night.

One of the shooting victims injured in Friday's riots was carried into the parliament on a rustic stretcher and brought to the new president.

Gonzalez Macchi promised "an end to impunity" in Paraguay. "The Paraguayan people have triumphed," he proclaimed, after donning the red, white and blue presidential sash. "The violence has ended and so has the fear and persecution."

Earlier, there had been a fresh burst of sniper fire on a nearby cathedral Sunday and senators had evacuated the parliament in bulletproof vests. Fears of a coup mounted until news Cubas had quit.

After Cubas' resignation was announced, more than 50,000 people crowded in front of the pink parliament building, waving Paraguayan flags and sending fireworks bursting into the sky.

Cars jammed the streets, honking horns, while people wept, cheered and hugged each other. Firefighters poured streams of water over the sweaty, joyous crowds.

"What do you know? Democracy has won!" shouted a youngster honking his car horn near the square where two nights before snipers fired on pro-democracy students and peasant groups holding a vigil to demand Cubas' departure.

"The Paraguayan army has not let us down!" shouted some of the celebrants, as they danced and waved red, white and blue flags to celebrate the defeat of Cubas and his political master, former army chief Oviedo.

The celebration was in marked contrast to the scene late Friday, when police used water cannons and tear gas to break up a violent confrontation between pro- and anti-Cubas demonstrators. At least four people died, and more than 100 were injured in the melee.

Cubas' resignation and the installation of Gonzalez Macchi brought a feeling of relief and an apparent resolution of the crisis.

"This is a great victory for democracy," said Sen. Armando Espinola. "The blood of our youth has not been spilled in vain."

"I will not be responsible for the spilling of any more blood for questions of politics," said Cubas, as he handed over power to Gonzalez Macchi. He blamed his fate on a "conspiracy" by Congress which impeached him.

It was not immediately clear whether Gonzalez Macchi would serve out the rest of Cubas' term, due to end in 2003, or act as interim president then hold fresh elections.

Hundreds of people joined demonstrators for a Palm Sunday Mass in memory of victims of the rioting.

As the names of the victims were read during the service, people applauded and a priest declared "The blood spilled here cries out for justice!"

Many people said they were angry.

"We are indignant," said Francisco Schmeda, cloaked in the red, white and blue Paraguayan flag, before the resignation of Cubas.

Paraguay emerged from the brutal 35-year dictatorship of Gen. Alfredo Stroessner 10 years ago and held its second free elections in half a century last year.

Paraguay has been subject to a power struggle in the Colorado Party, which has ruled it for 52 years.

On one side was Oviedo, a populist fluent in the Guarani Indian tongue of the poor who won party primaries last year. On the other was Argana, once Stroessner's favorite, who lost the primaries to Oviedo in 1997 and was his bitter enemy.

Oviedo was ruled out of the presidential contest last year when he got a 10-year jail sentence for attempting a coup against President Juan Carlos Wasmosy in 1996. His running-mate, Cubas, stepped in to win and quickly freed the former general.

Argana was furious and got the Supreme Court to order him back to jail, then led a campaign to impeach Cubas when the president refused to put Oviedo back behind bars.

Paraguay, long an embarrassment to its reforming Latin American neighbors for its endemic corruption and smuggling, had risked expulsion from the Mercosur trade bloc, which demands its members be functioning democracies.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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