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Paraguay Morínigo and World War II
The era of the New Liberals, as Estigarribia's supporters were
called, came to a sudden end in September 1940, when the president
died in an airplane crash. Hoping to control the government through
a more malleable military man, the "Old Liberal" cabinet named War
Minister Higinio Morínigo president. Morínigo had gained fame in
Paraguay by heading the 1936 expedition to Cerro Corá to retrieve
López's remains. The apparently genial Morínigo soon proved himself
a shrewd politician with a mind of his own, and the Liberals
resigned within a few weeks when they realized that they would not
be able to impose their will on him. Having inherited
Estigarribia's dictatorial powers, Morínigo quickly banned both
Febreristas and Liberals and clamped down drastically on free
speech and individual liberties. A nonparty dictator without a
large body of supporters, Morínigo survived politically--despite
the numerous plots against him--because of his astute handling of
an influential group of young military officers who held key
positions of power.
The outbreak of World War II eased Morínigo's task of ruling
Paraguay and keeping the army happy because it stimulated demand
for Paraguayan export products--such as meat, hides, and cotton--
and boosted the country's export earnings. More important, United
States policy toward Latin America at this time made Paraguay
eligible for major economic assistance. A surge of German influence
in the region and Argentina's pro-Axis leanings alarmed the United
States, which sought to wean Paraguay away from German and
Argentine solicitation. At the same time, the United States sought
to enhance its presence in the region and pursued close cooperation
with Brazil, Argentina's traditional rival. To this end, the United
States provided to Paraguay sizable amounts of funds and supplies
under the Lend-Lease Agreement, provided loans for public works,
and gave technical assistance in agriculture and health care. The
United States Department of State approved of closer ties between
Brazil and Paraguay and especially supported Brazil's offer to
finance a road project designed to reduce Paraguay's dependence on
Argentina.
Much to the displeasure of the United States and Britain,
Morínigo refused to act against German economic and diplomatic
interests until the end of the war. German agents had successfully
converted many Paraguayans to the Axis cause. South America's first
Nazi Party branch had been founded in Paraguay in 1931. German
immigrant schools, churches, hospitals, farmers' cooperatives,
youth groups, and charitable societies became active Axis backers.
All of those organizations prominently displayed swastikas and
portraits of Adolf Hitler.
It is no exaggeration to say that Morínigo headed a pro-Axis
regime. Large numbers of Paraguayan military officers and
government officials were openly sympathetic to the Axis. Among
these officials was the national police chief, who named his son
Adolfo Hirohito after the leading Axis personalities. By 1941 the
official newspaper, El País, had adopted an overtly proGerman stance. At the same time, the government strictly controlled
pro-Allied labor unions. Police cadets wore swastikas and Italian
insignia on their uniforms. The December 1941 Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor and Germany's declaration of war against the United
States gave the United States the leverage it needed, however, to
force Morínigo to commit himself publicly to the Allied cause.
Morínigo officially severed diplomatic relations with the Axis
countries in 1942, although he did not declare war against Germany
until February 1945. Nonetheless, Morínigo continued to maintain
close relations with the heavily German-influenced Argentine
military throughout the war and provided a haven for Axis spies and
agents.
United States protests over German and Argentine activities in
Paraguay fell on deaf ears. While the United States defined its
interests in terms of resisting the fascist threat, Paraguayan
officials believed their interests lay in economic expediency and
were reluctant to antagonize Germany until the outcome of the war
was no longer in doubt. Many Paraguayans believed Germany was no
more of a threat to Paraguay's sovereignty than the United States.
The Allied victory convinced Morínigo to liberalize his regime.
Paraguay experienced a brief democratic opening as Morínigo relaxed
restrictions on free speech, allowed political exiles to return,
and formed a coalition government. Morínigo's intentions about
stepping down were murky, however, and his de facto alliance with
Colorado Party hardliners and their thuggish Guión Rojo (red
script) paramilitary group antagonized the opposition. The result
was a failed coup d'état in December 1946 and full-scale civil war
in March 1947.
Led by Colonel Rafael Franco, the revolutionaries were an
unlikely coalition of Febreristas, Liberals, and communists, united
only in their desire to overthrow Morínigo. The Colorados helped
Morínigo crush the insurgency, but the man who saved Morínigo's
government during crucial battles was the commander of the General
Brúgez Artillery Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Alfredo Stroessner
Mattiauda. When a revolt at the Asunción Navy Yard put a strategic
working-class neighborhood in rebel hands, Stroessner's regiment
quickly reduced the area to rubble. When rebel gunboats threatened
to dash upriver from Argentina to bombard the capital into
submission, Stroessner's forces battled furiously and knocked them
out of commission.
By the end of the rebellion in August, a single party--one that
had been out of power since 1904--had almost total control in
Paraguay. The fighting had simplified politics by eliminating all
parties except the Colorados and by reducing the size of the army.
Because nearly four-fifths of the officer corps had joined the
rebels, fewer individuals were now in a position to compete for
power. As had often happened in the past, however, the Colorados
split into rival factions. The hardline guionistas, headed
by the fiery left-leaning nationalist writer and publisher
Natalício González, opposed democratic practices. The moderate
democráticos, led by Federico Chaves, favored free elections
and a power-sharing arrangement with the other parties. With
Morínigo's backing, González used the Guión Rojo to cow the
moderates and gain his party's presidential nomination. In the
Paraguayan tradition, he ran unopposed in the long-promised 1948
elections. Suspecting that Morínigo would not relinquish power to
González, a group of Colorado military officers, including
Stroessner, removed Morínigo from office. González joined Morínigo
in exile early in 1949, and Chaves became president in 1950 as the
military finally allowed power to pass to the democráticos.
Paraguayan politics had come full-circle in a certain sense. The
Chaco War had sparked the February revolution, which, in turn,
sounded the death knell of the Liberal state and ushered in a
revival of Paraguayan nationalism along with a reverence for the
dictatorial past. The result was the constitution of 1940, which
returned to the executive the power that the Liberals had stripped
away. When a brief flirtation with democracy became a civil war
after World War II, the Colorados, the party of the Lopiztas, were
again running Paraguay. In the interim, the influence of the armed
forces had increased dramatically. Since the end of the Chaco War,
no Paraguayan government has held power without the consent of the
army. Morínigo maintained order by severely restricting individual
liberties but created a political vacuum. When he tried to fill it
with the Colorado Party, he split the party in two, and neither
faction could establish itself in power without help from the
military. The institution of one-party rule, the establishment of
order at the expense of political liberty, and the acceptance of
the army's role of final political arbiter created the conditions
that encouraged the emergence of the Stroessner regime.
Data as of December 1988
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