Proteste in Paraguay

Die Ermordung des Vizepräsidenten Luis Maria Argaña am 23.März 1999 und die blutigen Ereignisse drei Tage später, als sieben Demonstranten von Anhängern des meuternden Generals Oviedo erschossen wurden und Hunderte verletzt, sind im Lande als "Paraguayanischer März" bekannt.

Als die Morde damals geschahen, demonstrierten 5.000 Menschen in Asunción. Nur zwei Tage später, am 28.März 1999 waren es rund 100.000 - die größte Demonstration der Geschichte Paraguays - die damals für den Rücktritt des Präsidenten Raul Cubas und eine Regierung der nationalen Einheit unter dem Parlamentspräsidenten Gonzalez Macchi demonstrierten.

Ein Sprecher der "Jugend für Demokratie" - einer inzwischen aufgelösten Organisation, die 1999 die wichtigste Rolle spielte, meinte während der Gedenkkundgebung, die geringe Beteiligung an den Gedenkprotesten läge an der verlorenen Hoffnung auf die Regierung Macchi, die die Geschichte des Putschversuchs nie wirklich bearbeiten wollte.

Oviedo lebt immer noch im brasilianischen Exil - die Regierung in Brasilia hatte einen Auslieferungsantrag Paraguays abgelehnt.

Bericht der gemeinsamen Publikation Mercosur der Gewerkschaften der vier südlichen Lateinamerikanischen Staaten Nr 4/2002:

Paraguayan March

Paraguayans on Tuesday commemorated the third anniversary of the fatal shooting of seven demonstrators in front of the legislature by calling for justice and criticizing President Luis Gonzalez Macchi's administration.

"The authorities who assumed power after those fateful days did not rise to the occasion nor did they fully understand what had occurred," Enrique Sanchez, who led the now-defunct Youth for Democracy organization, told EFE.

Sanchez was one of a handful of people who attended a commemorative ceremony sponsored by lawmakers in the square outside Congress to honor the seven fallen members of the group.

The assassination of Vice President Luis Maria Argaña on March 23, 1999, and the bloody events of the evening of March 26, when seven men were shot to death and hundreds more wounded by followers of mutinous retired Gen. Lino Oviedo are known within the country as the "Paraguayan March."

The families of the men slain during the protests, which led to the resignation of President Raul Cubas and his replacement by Gonzalez Macchi on March 28, blame the events on Oviedo, who continues to live in exile in Brazil after that country's rejection of a Paraguayan request for his extradition.

More than 5,000 people marched that March 26 evening, and two days later, nearly 100,000 protesters swarmed the squares outside Congress and the presidential palace to express support for a national-unity government headed by Gonzalez Macchi, who was then leader of the legislature.

Sanchez, who has been organizing an independent movement for the past year, was one of the few participants in the event sponsored by leading lawmakers in the square in front of Congress, where previously Gonzalez Macchi had laid a wreath to honor the fallen protesters.

(...) Seven young men were shot to death on March 26, and another died a month later in Brazil, where he had been taken for medical treatment from complications arising from wounds received that night.

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