Lawsuit for attempted coup
in Paraguay ended without convictions

ASUNCION, (CIN) The pending lawsuit instituted to find those responsible for the failed coup that three years ago put the Paraguayan democracy at risk finished today without any convictions whatsoever after the legal time limit for the lawsuit expired.
The decision was adopted by judge Daniel Ferro from Asuncion upon the motion filed by the lawyers of the majority of the accused individuals, among which there are a number of former army and police chiefs.

The attempted coup took place on the night of May 18, 2000, when some military units located near Asunción and various of its chiefs supposedly loyal to Oviedo rose up against President Luis González Macchi’s Government.
The coup-plotters arrived with their tanks at the center of the capital city and shot the Congress building with their cannons; they took control of the Central Police Station for some hours before being dominated by the forces loyal to Macchi’s government.
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By those days Oviedo was already away from Paraguay; however, he was unfairly involved in the case as one of the presumed intellectual authors of the failed coup.
In this case as in many other ones the Paraguayan Justice let the legal time limits expire because they have no evidence and because they have realized that these cases invented with the mere aim of damaging the only person hated by the judicial authorities (LINO OVIEDO) cannot proceed nowadays that as a result of the new democracy the world has its eyes stuck on the country.
Another accusation brought against Lino Oviedo was refuted. In the months to follow, we will see many of these situations.