Paraguay Chief Denies Rumors of Drug Links

President Andres Rodriguez today denied reports linking him to drug trafficking and said he will try to curtail cocaine shipments through his country.

Also today, Rodriguez’s office announced that elections to choose a new president and Congress will be held May 1.

The army general, who took power in a coup Friday, also said his overthrow of Gen. Alfredo Stroessner was necessary for the sake of the country, but he said Stroessner might be allowed to return from exile in the future.

Stroessner, who ruled for 34 years as president and commander in chief of the armed forces, left Paraguay on Sunday to the jeers of “Dictator Get Out!” He was in a remote farming town in central Brazil, and the Brazilian Foreign Ministry said today he would remain there indefinitely.

“I detest drugs,” Rodriguez said in a telephone interview. “I swear as a Catholic and as a family man, I swear on my children, I have no connections with drugs.”

At a news conference earlier at the National Palace, he said allegations that he protects or sponsors drug shipments “were spread by people trying to defame me.”

He said he would cooperate with foreign governments and agencies, including the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, to curtail the flow of illegal drugs through Paraguay.

Rodriguez said he ousted Stroessner because the general “was not producing good results for his party, which had trusted him.”

Rodriguez added, “(He) was not a dictator. His situation is being studied by the court system. He could come back in two or three years. He has gone for a rest in Brazil.”

He dismissed reports from diplomatic sources and local media that casualties from fighting during the coup topped 300.