Paraguay's President Fernando Lugo gives a news conference at the government palace in Asuncion, Paraguay, Thursday, June 21, 2012. The lower house of Paraguay's congress has voted to begin impeachment proceedings against Lugo for his role in a violent eviction, after he was heavily criticized over a land eviction last week that killed 17 people in gunbattles between police and landless farmers in a forest reserve. (AP Photo/Cesar Olmedo)
Paraguay's President Fernando Lugo gives a news conference at the government palace in Asuncion, Paraguay, Thursday, June 21, 2012. The lower house of Paraguay's congress has voted to begin impeachment proceedings against Lugo for his role in a violent eviction, after he was heavily criticized over a land eviction last week that killed 17 people in gunbattles between police and landless farmers in a forest reserve. (AP Photo/Cesar Olmedo)
Paraguay's President Fernando Lugo gives a news conference in Asuncion, Paraguay, Thursday, June 21, 2012. The lower house of Paraguay's congress has voted to begin impeachment proceedings against Lugo for his role in a violent eviction, after he was heavily criticized over a land eviction last week that killed 17 people in gunbattles between police and landless farmers in a forest reserve. (AP Photo/Cesar Olmedo)
Farmers protest holding pictures of people who died on June 15 in clashes with police as they were evicted from a reserve, on the outskirts of Curuguaty, Paraguay, Thursday, June 21, 2012. The lower house of Paraguay's congress has voted to begin impeachment proceedings against Paraguay's President Fernando Lugo for his role in the violent eviction. Lugo has been heavily criticized over the land eviction last week that killed 17 people in gunbattles between police and landless farmers in a forest reserve. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
Farmers protest holding pictures of people who died on June 15 during clashes with police as they were evicted from a reserve, on the outskirts of Curuguaty, Paraguay, Thursday, June 21, 2012. The lower house of Paraguay's congress has voted to begin impeachment proceedings against Paraguay's President Fernando Lugo for his role in the violent eviction, after Lugo was heavily criticized over the land eviction last week that killed 17 people in gunbattles between police and landless farmers in a forest reserve. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
Soldier patrol near Curuguaty, Paraguay, Saturday, June 16, 2012. Paraguay deployed its army Friday to resolve a violent land dispute in a remote northern forest reserve after 17 people were killed in gun battles between police and landless farmers. The violence broke out as police tried to evict about 150 farmers from the reserve. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) ? Paraguayan lawmakers voted to impeach President Fernando Lugo for his role in a deadly clash involving landless farmers and announced that former Roman Catholic bishop's impeachment trial would begin on Friday in the Senate.
Lugo, who was elected four years ago on promises that he would help the South American country's poor, went on national television to dismiss rumors that he would resign and vowed to face the trial "with all its consequences."
The lower house approved the impeachment trial by a vote of 76-1 on Thursday and hours later the Senate announced that it will begin his impeachment trial on Friday.
The vote added to the political turmoil in the poor, landlocked country with a history of political instability and prompted frightened residents of the capital, Asuncion, to shutter businesses and pull children from school.
Paraguayans were unnerved by the looming showdown in the opposition-controlled Senate and the possibility that it could spark street protests such as those that followed the March 1999 assassination of Vice President Luis Maria Argana.
"I'm working in the street and truth is I'm really scared! Upset," a Twitter user named Pamela Veron wrote on her account.
"And the new Interior Minister, what does he say about our security?" a Paraguayan man named Juan Fleytas tweeted. "He guarantees that nothing will happen to us if we protest?"
Hospitals in Asuncion were put on alert, freeing up beds, suspending scheduled surgeries and ensuring plenty of medical staff were on standby as a preventive measure in the face of possible violence, said Enrique Bellassai, director of the Medical Emergencies Hospital in Asuncion.
"We are not going to escape turbulence, it's coming," said Paraguayan political analyst Horacio Galeano Perrone, who specializes in national defense issues. "If you were to ask me, I'd tell you to go to the supermarket and buy batteries, buy everything."
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 ousted, Lugo would be replaced by Vice President Federico Franco.
Critics blame Lugo for the violence that erupted last week when police tried to evict about 150 farmers from the 4,900-acre (2,000)-hectare 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 it to use for land reform.
Seventeen people died in the clash.
Lugo, 63, has expressed sorrow at the confrontation and accepted the resignations of his interior minister and his chief of police.
Paraguay is the world's No. 4 supplier of soybeans and land disputes have risen in recent years as farmers seek more land to grow the crop, which is the country's top export earner.
Lugo, who resigned as a bishop to run for the presidency, had promised farmland for 87,000 landless families. But as he nears the end of his term next year, he has failed to deliver, partly because his programs have been blocked in the legislature.
The president was once known as the "bishop of the poor," and his election was part of South America's leftward swing.
Lugo is still backed by some farmworker groups, including several whose leaders said they wanted to travel to the capital to demonstrate their support.
On the streets of the Paraguayan capital, opinions about the impeachment effort were mixed.
"Lugo should finish his mandate and afterward we will elect someone who belongs to us," said Benito Canete, a 68-year-old concierge in an apartment building. "I think that if they get rid of him now it will be bad for the country."
Ana Campuzano, a 42-year-old odontologist, backed the ouster effort. "Lugo should resign, it was bad for him to remain" after the deadly clash, she said. "It's his fault because he doesn't know how to manage things."
On Thursday, Lugo urged lawmakers to do all they can to avoid an impeachment trial, warning that it could be resisted by many citizens who back him and that it could put them on the wrong side of history.
Paraguay's land ownership problems stretch back nearly 140 years to a war Paraguay lost to Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Saddled with crushing war debt, Paraguay began selling off government holdings that amounted to 95 percent of the country, with the most fertile parcels going to political cronies.
Privatizations accelerated under the 1954-1989 dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner and into the early 1990s, when about 17 million acres (7 million hectares) ended up in the hands of just 1,877 people, according to a 2004 government study.
In 1999, the assassination of Argana deepened a political clash and led to demonstrations calling for President Raul Cubas Grau of the Colorado Party to be tried for Argana's killing. Seven demonstrators were killed in a confrontation with government forces, leading to Cubas' resignation.
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