Paraguay

Toward the 1980s

The National Pantheon of Heroes, Asunción
Courtesy United States Department of State

After a period of inactivity, the political opposition became increasingly visible in the late 1970s. In 1977 Domingo Laíno, a PLR congressman during the previous ten years, broke away to form the Authentic Radical Liberal Party (Partido Liberal Radical Auténtico--PLRA). Laíno's charges of government corruption, involvement in narcotics trafficking, human rights violations, and inadequate financial compensation from Brazil under the terms of the Treaty of Itaipú earned him Stroessner's wrath. In 1979 Laíno helped lead the PLRA, the PDC, Mopoco, and the legally recognized Febreristas--the latter angered by the constitutional amendment allowing Stroessner to seek yet another presidential term in 1978-- into the National Accord (Acuerdo Nacional). The National Accord served to coordinate the opposition's political strategy (see Opposition Parties , ch. 4).The victim of countless detentions, torture, and persecution, Laíno was forced into exile in 1982 following the publication of a critical book about ex-Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle, who was assassinated in Asunción in 1980.

Beginning in the late 1960s, the Roman Catholic Church persistently criticized Stroessner's successive extensions of his stay in office and his treatment of political prisoners. The regime responded by closing Roman Catholic publications and newspapers, expelling non-Paraguayan priests, and harassing the church's attempts to organize the rural poor (see Interest Groups , ch. 4).

The regime also increasingly came under international fire in the 1970s for human rights abuses, including allegations of torture and murder. In 1978 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights convinced an annual meeting of foreign ministers at the OAS to pass a resolution calling on Paraguay to improve its human rights situation. In 1980 the Ninth OAS General Assembly, meeting in La Paz, Bolivia, condemned human rights violations in Paraguay, describing torture and disappearances as "an affront to the hemisphere's conscience." International groups also charged that the military had killed 30 peasants and arrested 300 others after the peasants had protested against encroachments on their land by government officials.

Paraguay entered the 1980s less isolated, rural, and backward than it had traditionally been. Political and social structures remained inflexible, but Paraguayans had changed their world views and their perceptions of themselves.

By skillfully balancing the military and the Colorado Party, Stroessner remained very much in control. Still, he was increasingly being challenged in ways that showed that his control was not complete. For example, in November 1974, police units captured seven guerrillas in a farmhouse outside of Asunción. When the prisoners were interrogated, it became clear that the information possessed by the guerrillas, who had planned to assassinate Stroessner, could have come only from a high Colorado official. With the party hierarchy suddenly under suspicion, Stroessner ordered the arrest and interrogation of over 1,000 senior officials and party members.He also dispatched agents to Argentina and Brazil to kidnap suspects among the exiled Colorados. A massive purge of the party followed. Although the system survived, it was shaken.

Perhaps the clearest example of cracks in Stroessner's regime was the assassination of Somoza. From Stroessner's standpoint, there were ominous similarities between Somoza and himself. Like Stroessner, Somoza had run a regime based on the military and a political party that had been noted for its stability and its apparent imperviousness to change. Somoza also had brought economic progress to the country and had skillfully kept his internal opposition divided for years. Ultimately, however, the carefully controlled changes he had introduced began subtly to undermine the traditional, authoritarian order. As traditional society broke down in Paraguay, observers saw increasing challenges ahead for the Stroessner regime.

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There are many excellent works in English on Paraguayan history. Two enjoyable accounts are George Pendle's concise overview Paraguay: A Riverside Nation and Harris Gaylord Warren's more detailed Paraguay: An Informal History. Philip Caraman's The Lost Paradise and R.B. Cunninghame Graham's A Vanished Arcadia offer valuable information about the colonial period, especially the Jesuit reducciones. Another valuable book is Paul H. Lewis's Socialism, Liberalism, and Dictatorship in Paraguay. The standard work up to 1870 remains Charles A. Washburn's The History of Paraguay.

John Hoyt Williams's The Rise and Fall of the Paraguayan Republic, 1800-1870 provides a comprehensive look at independence and the Francia and López dictatorships. The War of the Triple Alliance is scrutinized in Pelham Horton Box's The Origins of the Paraguayan War. Readers interested in the postwar period may refer to Harris Gaylord Warren's Rebirth of the Paraguayan Republic, 1878-1904. David H. Zook, Jr.'s The Conduct of the Chaco War focuses on the 1932-35 war with Bolivia. Paul H. Lewis's The Politics of Exile: Paraguay's Febrerista Party examines the 1936-40 revolution and the Febreristas, and Michael Grow amply treats Morínigo and World War II in The Good Neighbor Policy and Authoritarianism in Paraguay. No full-length biography of Alfredo Stroessner exists; however, Richard Bourne's Political Leaders of Latin America contains an insightful chapter on him. (For further information and complete citations, see Bibliography.)

Data as of December 1988

Paraguay - TABLE OF CONTENTS