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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Paraguayan police on Friday detained Paraguayo Cubas, a far-right populist who got here in third in Sunday’s presidential election and inspired his supporters to protest over his unsubstantiated claims that the vote was marred by fraud.
Cubas was being held in preventive detention beneath an order by the Lawyer Normal’s Workplace that’s accusing him of breach of the peace, Police Commissioner Gilberto Fleitas stated in a radio interview.
Cubas, the candidate of the Nationwide Campaign Celebration who obtained 23% of the votes Sunday, was broadcasting dwell on Fb when officers detained him exterior his resort in San Lorenzo, round 15 kilometers (9 miles) from Asunción.
Fleitas stated Cubas obtained right into a police automobile “with none issue,” however he continued streaming dwell.
In his broadcast from contained in the police automobile, Cubas chatted with officers and targeted the digicam on his handcuffs. “You may see now I’m being imprisoned,” he stated. “All of the criminals on this nation must be handcuffed like Paraguayo Cubas.”
Cubas had been telling supporters since Monday that he was heading to the capital to guide a collection of protests that had led to remoted clashes with police, largely exterior the electoral courtroom in Asunción.
A minimum of 208 folks have been detained “for disturbance of public peace and different punishable offenses inside the framework of the demonstrations happening within the nationwide territory,” police stated Thursday.
Efraín Alegre, who because the candidate of a broad-based opposition coalition got here in second place throughout Sunday’s election, demanded Cubas be launched together with everybody who has been detained in protests this week.
“We demand the discharge of Paraguayo Cubas and all residents imprisoned for demanding transparency,” Alegre wrote on social media.
Alegre, who obtained 27% of the vote Sunday, conceded the race shortly after polls closed, however then on Monday known as for a guide depend of votes and a world audit of the nation’s digital voting system after Cubas aired his fraud allegations.
The Group of American States, which deployed an statement mission for the election, stated Tuesday there was “no motive to doubt the outcomes” of the vote depend.
Santiago Peña of the long-ruling Colorado Celebration simply gained Sunday’s presidential election with 43% of the vote.
Over the previous few days, Cubas has printed photographs of supporters welcoming him in numerous elements of the nation as he made his method towards the capital from Ciudad del Este, a metropolis on the border with Brazil and Argentina.
Some 1,500 to 1,800 regulation enforcement officers have been deployed exterior the electoral courtroom Friday ready for a deliberate demonstration of Cubas supporters, Fleitas stated.
However his supporters have been anticipated to shift their demonstration to exterior the police station the place Cubas was taken.