Paraguayo Cubas Colomés was broadcasting on Facebook Live when he was detained for alleged ‘peace violation’.
Paraguay’s national police have arrested a far-right candidate who finished third in Sunday’s presidential election after days of protests that questioned the legitimacy of the results.
Police on Friday confirmed the arrest of Paraguayo lawyer and politician Cubas Colomés in a social media post, explaining that Cubas was being held in “protective custody” in accordance with an order issued by the attorney general’s office.
The arrest took place at 4:30 pm local time (8:30 pm GMT) at a hotel in the town of San Lorenzo, just outside the capital Asunción. Police commissioner Gilberto Fleitas said in a radio interview afterwards that Cubas was charged with, among other things, disturbing the peace.
Cubas, a former senator and leader of the populist National Crusade Party, made a strong impression in the recent presidential election, receiving 23 percent of the vote. That gave him the third highest number, behind Efraín Alegre, who finished in second place, with 27.5 percent and President-elect Santiago Peña, who won with a whopping 43 percent.
Cubas took to social media to challenge the results, calling the leaders of Peña’s ruling conservative Colorado party “thieves” and accusing the election of being marred by fraud.
However, the Organization of American States (OAS), as well as Paraguay’s own electoral authorities, maintained the correctness of the vote.
“There is no possibility of fraud,” Carlos Ljubetic, spokesman for the electoral college, said in a press statement earlier this week. “The results of the elections are the expression of the citizenry, whether we like it or not.”
Still, protesters rallied in Asunción and other parts of the country, defaced Peña campaign billboards and set fire to tires to create roadblocks. Outside the headquarters of the electoral authority, protesters threw stones at police on Monday, who responded with barricades and rubber bullets.
Second-placed Alegre, a centre-left candidate, quickly joined social media calls for a manual recount of the vote and an independent international audit.
“We demand an inspection and opening of all documents,” Alegre tweeted Thursday. “Because without inspection, the public won’t accept as legitimate a result they don’t believe in. Why is there so much fear that citizens will find out what really happened?”
In the aftermath of Cubas’ arrest, he expressed his support for the release of the far-right candidate: “We demand the freedom of Paraguayo Cubas and all detained citizens because they demand transparency.”
Cubas was broadcasting Friday on Facebook Live at the time of his arrest. He later showed off his handcuffs in a live video recording from the back of a law enforcement vehicle as sirens blared.
“I am being arrested and handcuffed like a criminal,” he wrote in capital letters on Facebook, “and the real criminals are free and continue to dominate the country.”
The far-right politician previously indicated that he would travel to Asunción to lead protests against the election results. Fleitas, the police commissioner, said between 1,500 and 1,800 officers had been sent to the electoral court on Friday in anticipation of demonstrations.
But on Friday afternoon, many Cubas supporters began to gather outside the police station in Asunción where the former candidate was being held.