ASUNCION, Paraguay -- The Paraguayan army announced Sunday that it was backing Senate chief Luis Angel Gonzalez Macchi as the new president after impeached President Raul Cubas apparently resigned.
All three army corps called on the rest of the military to abide by the constitution to stop the bloodshed and save "the lives of our compatriots."Cubas' apparent resignation, reported by a member of parliament, followed a week of bloody conflict in the small South American nation.
Local radio reported late on Sunday that the man who had been the political power behind Cubas, former army chief Lino Oviedo, fled the country just before news emerged that Cubas had quit.
The unrest this week was triggered by bitter rivalry between two factions of Paraguay's ruling Colorado Party and the murder last Tuesday of the head of one of those factions -- Vice President Luis Maria Argana.
Cubas and Oviedo, a convicted coup leader, have been blamed for Argana's killing and riots and sniping on Friday in which six people died and nearly 200 were injured.
After Argana's death, Congress rushed through Cubas' impeachment for abuse of power when he refused to send Oviedo back to jail to serve a 10-year jail term for a 1996 coup attempt. The Senate had been expected to muster the numbers to convict and remove Cubas from office.
Deputy Juan Dario Monjes told reporters he had been informed of Cubas' resignation by Walter Bower, head of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house. The report could not be confirmed immediately from the presidential office but local media said there would be an official announcement soon.
Monjes, who belongs to a faction of the ruling party that opposes Cubas, told reporters, "I'd like to announce officially that I have just received a call from Bower informing me that Cubas resigned." For the good of the country, it's all over."
Thousands of Paraguayans who had camped outside Congress all week danced for joy at the news of the defeat of Cubas and Oviedo, a former army chief.