Are you F'ing Kidding Me?

I guess it's Trick time in Paraguay. I cannot believe this:

Paraguay's Supreme Court has quashed a 10-year prison sentence imposed on the country's ex-army chief, Lino Oviedo, for attempting a coup in 1996. The judges ruled after several military commanders testified last week that there had never been a coup plot.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7070604.stm

HAH! I was there. There most definitely was something afoot, it's called a COUP ATTEMPT, and Oviedo was Involved. With a capital "I". The embassy was on high alert, Peace Corps was on super-dooper high alert. It was insane and very very scary.

I was in the capital city the night it got really freaky. When it really looked like the tanks were going to roll out into the streets. I was at the Hotel Stella D'Italia with several other PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) and this really unfortunate American couple that were passing through on their way to the Falls at Iguacu on the border with Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. We stayed at the Stella because it was cheap, you could share rooms, and they had CNN International in the lounge. And it was centrally located to downtown Asuncion. Near the palace, government offices and stores. That's where we were, in the lounge at the Stella, switiching from local news coverage to CNN International. The local channels all of a sudden went off the air. All of them. At the same time. We looked at one another and then switched over to CNN. After about 10 minutes the lights in the hotel went out. We looked at each other again and then, all at the same time, yelled out "Coup" and ran for the windows.

PCVs are a strange lot.