Luis María Argaña

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Luis María del Corazón de Jesús Dionisio Argaña Ferraro was a prominent politician in Paraguay and influential member of the Colorado Party until his assassination on March 23, 1999.

Luis Argaña served in a number of important national positions during previous administrations before running an ultimately unsuccessful bid for president in the country's 1998 election, losing in a bitterly contested primary election against Paraguayan General Lino Oviedo. In part due to the General's involvement in a failed coup attempt in 1996, as well as suspected involvement in other politically motivated murders, Oviedo was imprisoned before the 1998 general election. Oviedo's running mate, Raúl Cubas, became the de facto candidate for the Colorado Party, but lacked the widespread support that Oviedo commanded. In order to prevent a splintered Colorado Party from losing power, Luis Argaña was selected as Cubas' running mate, the pair subsequently being elected to office by a wide margin.

There was widespread belief that Cubas, a relatively weak political leader, was merely a puppet for the disgraced General Oviedo, and one of Cubas' first actions as president was to grant Oviedo a pardon from prison, defying the Paraguayan Supreme Court. Shortly thereafter, the legislative branch began an investigation that would ultimately lead to impeachment proceedings against President Cubas.

With Cubas' impeachement pending, Argaña was set to succeed him as president. However, unidentified assailants ambushed the vice president's vehicle just outside of his Asunción home on the morning of March 23, 1999, peppering the SUV with multiple rounds of gunfire before escaping. President Cubas ordered a lockdown of the country's borders but the assassins were not identified. In the wake of the killing, the subsequent riots that took place in the capital area, and his impending impeachment, Cubas resigned the presidency on March 28, fleeing the country and seeking and ultimately being granted political asylum in neighboring Brazil.

Although Argaña's killers were never identified, popular theory holds that the ousted General Oviedo (who had been granted asylum in Argentina shortly after his release from prison) masterminded the assassination. Although Cubas was generally viewed to be easily manipulated by Oviedo's influence, his impeachment would mean Argana would ascend to power, whereas Argana was one of Oviedo's staunchest political rivals. The belief that Argaña was assassinated to prevent an Oviedo opponent from running the country was strengthened when the Paraguayan Congress sought to extradite the general from Argentina, without success.