Latinnews Daily - 24 July 2007

Significance: The likely release of Oviedo will split the opposition which had been coalescing behind a former bishop, Fernando Lugo. A split opposition will enhance the electoral prospects of the candidate from the ruling Partido Colorado in next April's presidential elections.

The court granted Oviedo habeas corpus on the accusation of his alleged masterminding of the killing of former vice-president Luis Marí­a Argaña's in March 1999. Oviedo has "already served three years of preventive imprisonment on the charge, when the law states that an suspect cannot serve more than two years in that situation", his lawyer José López Chávez said. The three-person court, consisting of judges Sindulfo Blanco, Miguel Bajac and Alicia Pucheta, deemed Oviedo has served the maximum preventive prison sentence permitted without standing trial. "The charge has been wiped out", López Chávez said, "because for three years the judges have not passed sentence".

Oviedo, however, remains in the Viñas Cué military prison outside Asunción where he is detained. He is simultaneously serving a 10-year prison sentence for an attempted coup against ex-President Juan Carlos Wasmosy in April 1996. Oviedo and his lawyers have already petitioned the military tribunal, under whose jurisdiction this charge falls, for his conditional freedom. This request will likely fall on sympathetic ears. According to his lawyers, Oviedo has already served five years and four months, or over half his sentence, and has the right to serve the remainder outside gaol. In addition, Oviedo is serving a preventive prison order for his part in deaths of seven youths deaths during demonstrations that followed Argaña's murder. López Chávez stated that Oviedo seeks a similar habeas corpus from the supreme court on this point as well.

Oviedo will be encouraged by the court's decision. He hopes to be released in time to compete for the opposition bloc's (Concertación Nacional) presidential candidacy for the forthcoming April 2008 elections. The current candidate, approved by a majority faction of the Concertación, is ex-bishop Fernando Lugo, who receives more than 60% approval in vote intention polls. Pedro Fadul's Partido Patria Querida (PPQ) and Oviedo's own Unión Nacional de Ciudadanos Éticos (Unace), the third and fourth electoral forces respectively, claim Lugo's nomination is "illegitimate" and "hasty" and push for a nation-wide poll to determine the candidate as there has not been an acceptable "political agreement" within the Concertación.

While Oviedo hopes to stand himself, in a surprising interview on 20 July, he stated that if he is still behind bars and cannot run, he will support Lugo to the hilt in the opposition's attempt to end a 60-year-period of the Partido Colorado's (PC) hegemony in power. "If I do not get out I will give every last drop of blood and I will spend what I do not even have_to ensure Fernando Lugo wins this time", he said. If Oviedo is released in time, as appears increasingly likely, he estimates he will need "two months minimum" preparation time before he can "compete with Lugo".

Meanwhile, the Paraguayan press has suggested Oviedo's release is in the PC's interest because it would potentially divide and weaken the opposition. There are rumours President Nicanor Duarte has negotiated Oviedo's early release. However, both men deny any dialogue. "What for?...What can I offer the ruling party?", Oviedo said.

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