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Paraguayan president to face impeachment proceedings

22 June 2012 03:58 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo said Thursday he would not resign but will face impeachment proceedings which will begin Friday in the Senate for his alleged mishandling of a recent land dispute that led to bloodshed, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

In a televised address to the nation, Lugo said he would answer impeachment proceedings even though they were an "attack from quarters that have always opposed change and people taking the lead in their democracy."

"This president announces that he will not resign and that he will ... face the impeachment trial and its full consequences," Lugo said, adding the Paraguayan people’s "2008 vote (when he was elected) ... is being attacked by political factions."

The opposition-controlled Chamber of Deputees Thursday overwhelmingly voted to impeach the president, accusing him of ineptitude in the handling of the June 15 clash between landless peasants squatting on private land and police troops sent to evict them.

The escalation of violence left 17 people dead and more than 90 injured. Afterwards, Lugo ordered the army to help reinforce the police operation.

The impeachment proposal now goes to the Senate, which is also controlled by the opposition.

In the Paraguayan capital of Asuncion, some people took to the streets to show their support for Lugo, whose term expires in August 2013.

Meanwhile, leaders of other South American nations Thursday held an emergency meeting on the matter in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where they were attending the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, and decided to send a delegation of foreign ministers to Paraguay.