Two policemen suspended in Argentine jail break

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) -- Two top officers in Argentina's federal police were suspended on Tuesday after the escape of two inmates held in last year's alleged contract killing of Paraguayan Vice President Luis Maria Argana.

Federal Police Operations Director Julio Diaz and Public Security chief Nestor Mola were suspended after the weekend jail break from one of Argentina's most heavily guarded buildings, Security Secretary Enrique Mathov said.

Alleged Paraguayan hit men Fidencio Vega Barrios and Luis Alberto Rojas started a riot in the federal police detention center in downtown Buenos Aires shortly before 1 a.m. (0400 GMT) Sunday and took one policeman and two prisoners hostage.

A third escaped prisoner, Agustin Cabrera, an Argentine who allegedly belongs to a notorious bank robbery ring, had previously told a judge he escaped from another prison in 1998 by promising guards $100,000 to let him out. He also remains at large.

Argana's son, Felix, told a radio station in Paraguay that he suspected the officers on duty were paid off to make the escape from the maximum security installation look like a jail break.

One newspaper report citing unnamed sources said those officers' bank accounts were being investigated to see if they had been bribed.

Former Paraguayan army chief Lino Oviedo is suspected of hiring the men to kill Argana in March 1999. He fled Argentina last year but is now under arrest in Brazil awaiting extradition.

"We haven't ruled out any hypothesis in our investigation of how this happened," Mathov said.

The three police officers on duty at the time of the jail break have been suspended and held for questioning.

"We want them recaptured. I've ordered a vast deployment of security forces across the nation and it will be difficult for them to get away. We've increased controls at the border," President Fernando de la Rua told reporters.

More than 15,000 Argentine police, coast guard patrols and soldiers continued to scour airports, border checks and navigable rivers for the men.

Coast guard patrols of the Pilcomayo, Paraguay and Paran rivers separating Argentina from Paraguay were stepped up and hundreds of police fanned out across Buenos Aires province, the size of France, to do spot checks on highways and roads.

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