In the span of 48 hours, Fernando Lugo, Paraguay's ex-bishop turned president was impeached from office and replaced with his antagonistic vice-president. The political crisis reached a tipping point when a police operation to evict landless squatters off a big ranch went bad, leaving 17 people dead. The sitting president was given just 2 hours (his request for 18 days was rejected) to present his defense in the Senate before that body voted 39-4 to remove him failing to sufficiently fulfill his presidential duties. The region's governments, both ALBA/Chavez aligned and more conservative (Chile and Colombia) have recalled their ambassadors and committed other diplomatic snubs to show their displeasure. Notably, Venezuela has said that it will halt oil exports which add up to about 25% of its total supply. This regional pressure can be chalked up the fact that Lugo has been aligned with South America's leftist leaders. But I think that fact doesn't fully explain the growing strength of Mercosur/Unasur as a check on anti-democratic practices.
I watched a few minutes of Telefuturo to learn how the story was playing out locally. What I saw was a political round-table of like-minded anti-Lugo commentators who seemed to be acutely sensitive to the regional condemnation of this express-impeachment, especially criticism from Brazil which exerts a good deal of influence on the country. They went so far to show live traffic camera of Ascuncion in order to refute a Brazilian column that claimed the streets of the capital were empty. Talk about thin skin.
