Paraguay Political Developments Since 1986
The poster reads "Stroessner: Peace and Progress, 1988-1993"
Courtesy Richard S. Sacks
The splits in the Colorado Party in the 1980s and the conditions
that led to this--Stroessner's age, the character of the regime,
the economic downturn, and international isolation--provided an
opportunity for demonstrations and statements by the opposition
prior to the February 1988 general elections. In addition, the
official attitude to human rights benefited somewhat as Stroessner
attempted to improve his image abroad. In March 1986, for example,
Stroessner met with an Americas Watch delegation, the first time he
had ever received a human rights group. Two years earlier, another
Americas Watch delegation had been arrested and expelled from the
country upon arrival. The state of siege was also allowed to lapse
in Asunción in April 1987.
The PLRA leader Laíno served as the focal point of the
opposition in the second half of the 1980s. The government's effort
to isolate Laíno by exiling him in 1982 had backfired. In fact,
Laíno received considerable international attention during five
unsuccessful attempts to return to Paraguay. On his fifth attempt,
in June 1986, Laíno returned on a Uruguayan airliner with three
television crews from the United States, a former United States
ambassador to Paraguay, and a group of Uruguayan and Argentine
congressmen. Despite the international contingent, the police
violently barred Laíno's return. The police action dashed hopes
that Stroessner's meeting three months earlier with the Americas
Watch representatives presaged a substantial liberalization of
government policy.
In response to increased pressure from the United States,
however, the Stroessner regime relented in April 1987 and permitted
Laíno to arrive in Asunción. Laíno took the lead in organizing
demonstrations and diminishing somewhat the normal opposition party
infighting. The opposition was unable to reach agreement on a
common strategy regarding the elections, with some parties
advocating abstention and others calling for blank voting.
Nonetheless, the parties did cooperate in holding numerous
lightning demonstrations (mitines relampagos), especially in
rural areas. Such demonstrations were held and disbanded quickly
before the arrival of the police.
The elections of 1988 provided the opportunity for two
organizational innovations. The first was the establishment of the
MDP
(see Opposition Parties
, this ch.). In addition, the Accord
groups, which now expanded to include the Colorado ethicals and
some labor and student movements, organized a National Coordinating
Committee for Free Elections to monitor the political situation,
expose what they termed the "electoral sham," and encourage either
abstention or blank voting.
Obviously stung by the upsurge in opposition activities,
Stroessner condemned the Accord for advocating "sabotage of the
general elections and disrespect of the law" and used the national
police and civilian vigilantes of the Colorado Party to break up
demonstrations. A number of opposition leaders were imprisoned or
otherwise harassed. Hermes Rafael Saguier, another key leader of
the PRLA, was imprisoned for four months in 1987 on charges of
sedition. In early February 1988, police arrested 200 people
attending a National Coordinating Committee meeting in Coronel
Oviedo. Forty-eight hours before the elections, Laíno and several
other National Accord members were placed under house arrest.
During the six weeks of legal campaigning before the elections,
Stroessner addressed only three Colorado rallies. Despite limited
campaign activities, the government reported that 88.7 percent of
the vote went to Stroessner, 7.1 percent to PLR candidate Luis
María Vega, and 3.2 percent to PL candidate Carlos Ferreira Ibarra.
The remaining 1 percent of ballots were blank or annulled. The
government also reported that 92.6 percent of all eligible voters
cast their ballots. The National Coordinating Committee rejected
the government's figures, contending that abstention was as high as
50 percent in some areas. In addition, election monitors from
twelve countries, including the United States, France, Spain,
Brazil, and Argentina, reported extensive irregularities.
Shortly after the elections, researchers from the Catholic
University of Our Lady of Asunción and the West German Friedrich
Naumann Foundation released the findings of a public opinion poll
that they had conducted several weeks earlier. The poll, which
measured political attitudes of urban Paraguayans--defined as those
living in towns with at least 2,500 residents--suggested that the
Colorado Party had considerable support, although nowhere near the
level of official election statistics. Asked for whom they would
vote in an election involving the free participation of all parties
and political movements, 43 percent named the Colorado Party; the
PLRA, which finished second in the poll, was mentioned by only 13
percent of all respondents. (The two "official" opposition parties,
the PLR and the PL, trailed badly with only 2.9 percent and 2.7
percent, respectively.) Stroessner's name also topped the list of
those political leaders considered most capable of leading the
country; indeed, after Laíno, who finished second in the list,
Colorado traditionalists, militants, and ethicals captured the next
five positions.
Although contending that these results reflected the Colorados'
virtual monopoly of the mass media, opposition politicians also saw
several encouraging developments. Some 53 percent of those polled
indicated that there was an "uneasiness" in Paraguayan society.
Furthermore, 74 percent believed that the political situation
needed changes, including 45 percent who wanted a substantial or
total change. Finally, 31 percent stated that they planned to
abstain from voting in the February elections.
Relations between militants and traditionalists deteriorated
seriously in the months following the elections. Although Chaves
and his followers had not opposed Stroessner's reelection bid,
Montanaro denounced them as "legionnaires"--a reference to those
Paraguayan expatriates who fought against Francisco Solano López
and who were regarded as traitors by the original Colorados
(see
The Postwar Period
, ch. 1). Prominent traditionalists, among them
the head of the Central Electoral Board and the minster of foreign
relations, lost their government positions. Luis María Argaña left
his post as chief justice of the Supreme Court following the
completion of his five-year term and was replaced by a militant.
Argaña attempted to distance himself somewhat from his
traditionalist colleagues by claiming that he had not authorized
his name to appear on a traditionalist list prior to the August
1987 convention; nonetheless, most observers thought that he was
the most likely candidate to succeed Chaves as head of the
movement. By late 1988 the only major agencies still headed by
traditionalists were the IBR and the National Cement Industry
(Industria Nacional de Cemento). In September 1988, traditionalists
responded to these attacks by accusing the militants of pursuing "a
deceitful populism in order to distract attention from their
inability to resolve the serious problems that afflict the nation."
Traditionalists also called for an end to personalism and
corruption.
The Colorado Party was not the only political group confronted
by internal disputes in the late 1980s. The PLRA had two major
currents; Laíno headed the Liberation for Social Change (Liberación
para Cambio Social), whereas Miguel Abdón Saguier led the Popular
Movement for Change (Movimiento Popular para el Cambio). Despite
the efforts of PDC founder Luis Alfonso Resck, a bitter leadership
struggle erupted within that party in late 1988. Finally, the PRF
found itself in the middle of an acrimonious battle between the
Socialist International and the Latin American Socialist
Coordinating Body.
Data as of December 1988
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