Threat of Coup Against Lugo Fades (For Now)

Last week, I mentioned that Fernando Lugo may have been facing talks of a coup. Fortunately, Congress quickly moved to resolve the situation:

The Paraguayan Senate managed on Thursday to defuse an institutional stand off
which threatened the stability of the recently inaugurated government of
President Fernando Lugo. With a simple majority the ruling collation disbarred
former president Nicanor Duarte who insisted in occupying a seat for which he
had been elected.

This doesn't completely resolve the situation. While it does address the Duarte situation, it doesn't address the fact that there are still tensions among higher levels of the military over Lugo's firing of top military officials after he was inaugurated. Still, Duarte was at the center of Lugo's allegations of coup discussions, so, at least for now, the situation seems a little better off.


...UPDATE: Boz has more, including an interesting story (in Spanish) that mentions the possibility of Lugo calling for a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution. I don't know if it will get to that point, but if it does, I wouldn't be surprised to see some efforts to re-define at least somewhat the role of the military so that another Stroessner or other military leader can't come into power.