ASUNCION, Paraguay ? Police fired tear gas and water cannons to clear thousands of anti-government demonstrators from the capital’s main square Tuesday, injuring at least 40 protesters.

In a clash lasting only minutes, some 2,000 riot police and special forces ended an all-night demonstration by approximately 6,000 protesters demanding the resignation of President Luis Gonzalez Macchi.

A supporter of former Paraguayan Gen. Lino Cesar Oviedo covers himself as police use tear gas and water guns to disperse protesters in front of the Parliament building in Asuncion, Paraguay. Supporters of Oviedo demanded the resignation of Paraguayan President Luis Gonzalez Macchi.

The clashes highlighted resurgent popular discontent with the government because of chronic corruption and a protracted economic recession lashing this landlocked South American nation.

At least 11 police officers were hit by flying stones and debris during the melee, Police Chief Sixto Ramirez said. Police on horseback also helped break up the protest.

Ramirez said that 250 men were detained during the demonstration. “A group of women were picked up, but we let them go,” Ramirez told reporters.

The protest began building last Friday when opponents of the Gonzalez Macchi government began arriving from the countryside. “The people are hungry,” read protest signs carried by the demonstrators, many of whom camped out for days on the main Asuncion plaza fronting the ornate pink colonial legislature building.

Authorities warned Monday night that they would use force to break up the protest.

Many of the demonstrators expressed unabashed support for Lino Cesar Oviedo, an influential former armed forces chief who is now living in exile in Brazil and is widely believed to have played a part in at least two failed coup attempts since 1996.

Oviedo, who has thousands of rural supporters, is also accused by authorities of planning the March 1999 assassination of a vice president here that forced out the last president and brought Gonzalez Macchi to power.

Paraguay has sputtered along from one crisis to another since civilian rule was restored in 1989, ending a 35-year dictatorship led by military strongman Alfredo Stroessner.

The economy, based heavily on agriculture and contraband, has been in a freefall since 1995, leaving one out of three Paraguayans in this nation of 5 million living below the poverty line.

Meanwhile, democratic institutions remain fragile and are frequently buffeted by popular uprisings, military mutinies and anti-government demonstrations.

In July, Gonzalez Macchi briefly imposed a state of emergency after two days of violent anti-government protests that led to 297 arrests and one death as demonstrators blocked key roads and highways nationwide.

Gonzalez Macchi has insisted his government is the “voice” of constitutional order in Paraguay. But since assuming office in 1999, he has seen his popularity ratings plunge as rising unemployment and poverty have ravaged the economy.