Soldiers stand guard outside the Presidential Palace, in Asuncion, Paraguay, Friday, June 22, 2012. Paraguayan lawmakers voted Thursday to impeach President Fernando Lugo for his role in a deadly clash involving landless farmers and police. Lugo's impeachment trial was to begin Friday in Paraguay's Senate. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
Soldiers stand guard outside the Presidential Palace, in Asuncion, Paraguay, Friday, June 22, 2012. Paraguayan lawmakers voted Thursday to impeach President Fernando Lugo for his role in a deadly clash involving landless farmers and police. Lugo's impeachment trial was to begin Friday in Paraguay's Senate. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
A supporter of Paraguay's President Fernando Lugo, whose face is painted with the colors of Paraguay's national flag, stands outside Parliament, in Plaza de Armas, where a large group gathered to protest against Lugo's impeachment trial, Asuncion, Paraguay, Friday, June 22, 2012. Paraguayan lawmakers voted Thursday to impeach Lugo for his role in a deadly clash involving landless farmers and police. Lugo's trial was to begin Friday in Paraguay's Senate. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
Supporters of Paraguay's President Fernando Lugo protest against Lugo's impeachment trial, outside Parliament, in Plaza de Armas, Asuncion, Paraguay, Friday, June 22, 2012. Paraguayan lawmakers voted Thursday to impeach Lugo for his role in for his role in a deadly clash involving landless farmers and police. Lugo's trial was to begin Friday in Paraguay's Senate. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
A supporter of Paraguay's President Fernando Lugo, whose face is painted with the colors of Paraguay's national flag, protests against Lugo's impeachment trial, outside Parliament, in Plaza de Armas, Asuncion, Paraguay, Friday, June 22, 2012. Paraguayan lawmakers voted Thursday to impeach Lugo for his role in for his role in a deadly clash involving landless farmers and police. Lugo's trial was to begin Friday in Paraguay's Senate. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
Supporters of Paraguay's President Fernando Lugo stand outside Parliament, in Plaza de Armas, where a large group gathered to protest against Lugo's impeachment trial, Asuncion, Paraguay, Friday, June 22, 2012. Paraguayan lawmakers voted Thursday to impeach Lugo for his role in a deadly clash involving landless farmers and police. Lugo's trial was to begin Friday in Paraguay's Senate. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) ? Paraguay's Senate put President Fernando Lugo on trial Friday in an impeachment process that could end with the former Catholic bishop's ouster and test the limits of South American country's fragile democracy.
The growing crisis highlighted the inability of a leader elected on promises of helping the poor to find a balance with one-time allies who have increasingly disapproved of his leftist policies and strident, uncompromising style.
Paraguay's lower house of Congress voted to impeach Lugo on Thursday. The Senate was trying him on five charges of malfeasance in office, including an alleged role in a deadly confrontation between police and landless farmers that left 17 dead.
Thousands of demonstrators massed in Asuncion's main square in front of Congress to show their support for Lugo and condemn the trial that could force him from office. They waved flags and chanted slogans including: "The people, united, will never be defeated!" Police separated groups of pro- and anti-Lugo protesters.
"Lugo has been a politically weak president from the outset of his term. He has been struggling to hold together his shaky coalition," said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington.
"Lugo's support has steadily eroded and opponents of his government have become stronger over time. It is hard to see the offenses leveled against him as anything but a pretext for removing an unpopular president."
Lugo decided not to attend the trial, instead watching on television from the presidential palace while his lawyers spoke on his behalf.
The Senate rejected a request by his lawyers for a period of 18 days to prepare their arguments. The Senate's president, Jorge Oviedo, said there were no grounds for such a request
Adolfo Ferreiro, one of the president's lawyers, loudly warned that any verdict against the president would be appealed in international forums. After lawmakers voted to accept the charges and proceed, Lugo's six lawyers got up and left the room.
Before the trial, Lugo said in a television interview with the channel Telesur that it was an attempt to carry out an "express coup d'etat."
Fernando Estenssoro, a political analyst at University of Santiago in Chile, said the political conflict seems capable of triggering violence, even though technically Lugo's opponents appeared to be operating within the constitution.
"Nothing's illegal up to now. But the constitution needs to be reformed. An impeachment trial where a president has only two hours to defend himself? It's absurd. Where else have you heard of something like that?" Estenssoro said. "His supporters are not going stand by with their arms crossed while he's removed from power."
Many schools shut down in Asuncion, and downtown shops closed their doors as a precaution.
The impoverished, landlocked nation has a long history of political instability. Lugo was elected four years ago on promises of helping the South American country's poor, but his more moderate government allies have increasingly turned against him in recent years.
A verdict was expected within hours after the start of the trial on Friday. For Lugo to be dismissed, his opponents would need 30 of the 45 senators to vote in favor.
If ousted, Lugo would be replaced by Vice President Federico Franco of the Authentic Radical Liberal Party. Franco "is ready to assume command and pacify the country," said Liberal lawmaker Enrique Sallim Buzarquis.
Lugo's impeachment trial was triggered in part by an attempt by police to evict about 150 farmers from a remote, 4,900-acre (2,000-hectare) forest reserve, which is part of a huge estate owned by a Colorado Party politician. Advocates for the farmers say the landowner used political influence to get the land from the state decades ago, and say it should have been put to use for land reform.
Six police officers, including the brother of Lugo's chief of security, and 11 farmers died in the clash last week. Lugo's political opponents blamed the president.
Lugo has expressed sorrow at the confrontation and accepted the resignations of his interior minister and his chief of police.
The president also faces four other accusations. They include that he improperly allowed for leftist parties to hold a political meeting in an army base in 2009; that he allowed about 3,000 squatters to illegally invade a large Brazilian-owned soybean farm; that his government failed to capture members of a guerrilla group, the Paraguayan People's Army, which carries out extortion kidnappings and occasional attacks on police; and that he signed an international protocol without properly submitting it to Congress for approval.
If Lugo is ousted, it would be a dramatic demise for the once-popular leader who stepped down as the Catholic "bishop of the poor" to run for the presidency amid a leftward swing in South America. Once in office, he was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer, and his popularity has also fallen in part due to a failure to enact agrarian reform in a country where tens of thousands of poor people are demanding land. Lugo has also been embroiled in paternity scandals involving two children he has admitted he fathered when he was still a priest.
His relationship with Franco and the moderate Authentic Radical Liberal Party quickly deteriorated after he was elected in 2008 with their support. His partners were upset after he gave a majority of Cabinet ministry posts to leftist allies, and handed a minority to the moderates.
Conflicts also developed as leftist groups of landless farmers began to invade large soybean and cattle farms, trying to force the government to expropriate them. Lugo's government didn't have enough funds to pay compensation to farm owners, and the land seizures upset politicians who previously supported the president.
The political split had become sharply clear as Lugo publicly acknowledged recently that he would support leftist candidates in future elections.
Lugo's election in 2008 ended 61 years of rule by the Colorado Party, and he has constantly clashed with Congress, where he has few firm allies.
"If presidents were ousted because of the reasons cited in this case, there would be few Latin American presidents left in office," Shifter said. "The opposition simply didn't agree with Lugo's policies and didn't approve of the way he governed. As a result, the opposition manipulated the system, adhering to the letter of the law but departing from the principle of democracy."
Roberto Bacman, an Argentine political analyst, said Lugo has represented a new political current in the country after decades of rule by the Colorado Party, which "built a structure that is still strong to this day."
"He couldn't build an alternative to the Colorado Party, which stayed under the shadows building power and winning more support," Bacman said.
A delegation of foreign ministers from the Union of South American Nations, or Unasur, arrived in Paraguay ahead of the trial to attempt to intervene.
Lugo's allies including the leaders of Bolivia and Ecuador expressed concern and support for the president. Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, said on Thursday night that Unasur might not "recognize the new government" if Lugo were to be ousted.
Venezuelan Vice President Elias Jaua also backed Lugo at rally in Venezuela on Friday, calling it a struggle for "democracy to be respected."
___
Associated Press writers Luis Andres Henao in Santiago, Chile, Ian James in Caracas, Venezuela, and Gonzalo Solano in Quito, Ecuador, contributed to this report.
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