Paraguay presidential candidate died

Paraguayan presidential candidate Lino Oviedo, who helped lead the 1989 coup that overthrew dictator Alfredo Stroessner, died in a helicopter crash over the weekend, Al Jazeera reported.

A retired general known as a dynamic public speaker, the 69-year-old Oviedo was running in the April presidential election in the landlocked, grains-exporting South American country.

Police rescuers found his body on Sunday in the wreckage of a helicopter crash in northern Paraguay where he was traveling for a campaign event. The day, February 3rd, marked exactly 24 years since the coup that ended Stroessner's 35-year dictatorship.

Interior Minister Carmelo Caballero said the government would investigate the crash, which occurred on Saturday night as Oviedo was flying back to capital Asuncion in adverse weather.

"We cannot rule out any hypothesis," Caballero said.

Paraguay's previous president, Fernando Lugo, was removed from power by Congress in June when lawmakers voted to remove him for failing to keep the peace after 17 police and peasant farmers died in clashes over a land eviction.