Extradition orders for two suspects Paraguayan assassins

An Argentine judge has ordered that two Paraguayans suspected in the assassination of their country's vice president be extradited home.

The two men, Fidencio Vega Barrios and Luis Alberto Rojas, were detained in Buenos Aires in February after being sought by Paraguayan officials for questioning in the March 23, 1999, shooting of Luis Maria Argana.

Judge Daniel Criscuolo, who approved the extraditions late Tuesday, said it was unclear when Barrios and Rojas would be released to Paraguay. Their lawyers have appealed his decision to Argentina's Supreme Court.

Argana was shot as he was being driven to his office in downtown Asuncion, the Paraguayan capital. The killing sparked days of political turmoil that led to the downfall of Paraguay's president at the time, Raul Cubas.

Lino Oviedo, a former army chief-of-staff who led a failed mutiny in 1996, has been widely blamed as the instigator of Argana's murder. He fled to Argentina days after the killing, received political asylum, but subsequently vanished.

His whereabouts is unknown, but in calls to journalists he has denied the accusations.