|Area:||406,752 sq km (157,048 sq mi)|
|Population||(1999 est.): 5,359,000|
|Head of state and government:||Presidents Raúl Cubas Grau and, from March 29, Luis Ángel González Macchi|
As Paraguay prepared to celebrate its 10th anniversary of democratic rule in February 1999, the country was in the midst of a constitutional crisis that pitted Pres. Raúl Cubas Grau and his political mentor, retired general Lino Oviedo, against the Supreme Court, Vice Pres. Luis María Argaña, and a significant majority of both chambers of Congress. On February 5 the Supreme Court issued an ultimatum that President Cubas return Oviedo to prison to serve out a 10-year jail term for an attempted coup in 1996. The president defied the court’s ruling. As a result, the Congress voted in favour of pursuing impeachment proceedings against Cubas.
The ruling National Republican Association was badly split between the Cubas-Oviedo faction and a group led by Vice President Argaña, who sought to undermine the president so that he could assume office. On March 23 Argaña was assassinated by a group allegedly linked to Oviedo. The streets of Asunción were taken by striking workers, students, and peasants who demanded Cubas’s resignation and the detention of Oviedo. Congress immediately began impeachment proceedings. Oviedo followers subsequently opened fire on the street demonstrators, claiming at least four lives and injuring dozens. By March 29 Cubas had resigned, and both he and Oviedo fled the country. In the absence of Cubas and Argaña, the president of the legislature, Luis Ángel González Macchi, was inaugurated president of Paraguay.
Political crisis and paralysis and currency devaluation in Brazil had a deleterious effect on the Paraguayan economy. Gross domestic product declined by nearly 4%, and unemployment was estimated to have reached 16%, its highest level in more than 10 years. Moreover, public-sector reforms, such as privatization, remained frozen owing to the political situation and the regional economic crisis.
Paraguay’s domestic political crises also hurt the country’s relations with Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. Asunción demanded that regional governments extradite leaders of the Cubas government who were to be tried in Paraguay for the Argaña assassination and corruption, and it later disparaged those governments for not doing so. In December Oviedo voluntarily returned home from Argentina, where the new president, Fernando de la Rúa, had indicated he would reverse his predecessor’s decision and comply with Paraguay’s extradition request.