Costa Rica Sees Overtones of A Coup In Dismissal of Lugo, Offers Asylum

The government of Costa Rica on Friday publicly deplored the removal of the president of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, "a procedure that displays overtones of a coup", while the deposed president was offered asylum or to members of his cabinet, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.

Foreign Minister Enrique Castillo, who is accompanying Presidenta Laura Chinchilla at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Brazil, made the official statement that was distributed in San Jose.

The Costa Rican foreign minister said that "President Lugo was not given the chance and enough time for due process defense".

Castillo also said that Costa Rica has historically been a land of refuge and asylum and has let it be know to Lugo and members of his cabinet that the country wil receive their petition if they make one.

In Paraguay, scuffles broke out and riot police turned water canon and tear gas on protesters after Paraguay’s Congress on Friday fired Fernando Lugo as president in an impeachment vote called over his handling of a fatal land eviction.

The vote in the Senate, followed with jeers by thousands of supporters of the priest-turned-president outside the Congress building in Asunción, was passed by 39 votes to 4, bringing to a dramatic finale to the lightning two-day impeachment process.

“It is not Fernando Lugo who today receives a blow. It is not Fernando Lugo who is ousted today. It is Paraguay’s history and its democracy which has been profoundly wounded,” said Mr Lugo, looking smiling and relaxed, in a farewell speech.

According to the constitution, Lugo’s deputy, Federico Franco, a 49-year-old surgeon, was sworn in until presidential elections in April 2013, and promised full respect for the constitution and international treaties. Lugo, whose election in April 2008 ended 61 years of one-party rule, was not in Congress to hear the verdict.

Lugo, 61, has branded the impeachment “an express coup d’état” and urged people to demonstrate peacefully.

The Union of South American Nations grouping (Unasur), which sent a delegation of foreign ministers to the world’s fourth biggest soya exporter after an emergency meeting of presidents in Brazil on Thursday, said the impeachment process could be “a threat to the democratic order”.

However, it was not immediately clear whether regional governments would recognize a government led by Franco, or whether they would impose sanctions.

The bearded Lugo, who is battling cancer, was impeached for “poor fulfillment of duties”, triggered by a violent land eviction on June 15 in the eastern province of Canindeyú in which six police and 11 peasant farmers died.

The president’s fate appeared sealed on Thursday when legislators voted 76-1 to impeach him. His coalition partner, the Liberal party, withdrew its support and its five ministers resigned, and even bishops urged him to quit.

Dionisio Borda, finance minister, and the central bank sought to calm investors amid the prospect of political instability, saying: “The macroeconomic and financial order achieved in the past few years is solid, so the current situation should not interrupt the normal development of economic activity in the country.”

Lugo took power after defeating the Colorado party, which had made Paraguay a byword for corruption with a reputation for money laundering and smuggling.

Despite stellar growth in one of the poorest countries in South America in 2010, when the economy expanded 15.3 per cent, growth slowed to 3.8 per cent last year and a contraction of 1.5 per cent is expected this year before a predicted rebound in 2013 to what the International Monetary Fund forecasts will be 8.5 per cent growth.

Though he has made social improvements, Lugo struggled to live up to the expectations of dramatic change that had people partying in the streets after his election victory.

On Friday, supporters rallied again with Paraguay’s red, white and blue flag, and a tense calm reigned after brief scuffles immediately after the vote.

Lugo failed to get the introduction of income tax past Congress – ironically, a vote had been due on Thursday – and admitted fathering two children while still a priest, proving “he wasn’t the saintly bishop that people had believed”, according to Pablo Guerrero, deputy political editor of ABC Color, the country’s top-selling daily.

Why political parties should seek to oust Lugo only nine months before elections remained unclear.

He has said: “The people’s will is being subjected to a merciless attack by sectors which were always opposed to the democratic process.” He pointed the finger at the Colorado party.

But the party is the frontrunner in advance of the 2013 vote and had no apparent need to get Lugo off the scene now, noted Andrew Nickson, an expert on Paraguay at the University of Birmingham. He noted that the Liberal party’s Franco would have “a lot of financial resources at his disposal at a critical pre-election time, and the question is, how will he use it?”.