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The military dictatorship of Paraguay refers to a period of 35 years in Paraguay’s modern history when the South American country was ruled by Alfredo Stroessner between 1954 and 1989. Stroessner’s dictatorial rule was preceded by two decades of instability in the country, which included the military rule of Higinio Morínigo between 1940 and 1948, which was itself punctuated by the Paraguayan Civil War of 1947. An attempt at restoring a functioning democracy in the late 1940s and early 1950s culminated in a military coup in 1954 that brought Stroessner to power. Some liberal reforms were attempted in the 1960s, but ultimately the Stroessner regime committed many atrocities, engaging in quasi-genocidal policies towards several native minority groups and participating in Operation Condor alongside several other South American military dictatorships in Chile, Argentina and Brazil. Ultimately, because of its landlocked nature, the dictatorship did not lead to a wave of mass migration from Paraguay, but there were tens of thousands of people who left the country for places like the United States during Stroessner’s time in power.[1]
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Military dictatorship in Paraguay chronology of eventsMilitary dictatorship in Paraguay chronology of events
Paraguay emerged as an independent state from 1811 onwards as independence movements against Spanish colonial rule broke out all across Central and South America in the context of the Napoleonic Wars back in Europe. Over the next century it went through several periods of military dictatorship and Stroessner would not be the first military dictator of the country, though he was the most significant and longest reigning. The first such dictator was José Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia. He broadly orchestrated the manner in which the Paraguayan state was formed out of breakaway provinces that had formed part of both the Empire of Brazil and the Spanish Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata in Argentina. He ruled down to 1840, largely closing his country off from the rest of the world in a highly isolationist manner.[2] Another dictator Francisco Solano López controlled the country between 1862 and 1870. In between and afterwards there were periods of attempted reform, wars and even foreign occupation between 1870 and 1876. Thus, the landlocked South American country was established in the nineteenth century as a highly unstable nation with a history of being rule by military dictators.[3]
In the first half of the twentieth century Paraguay drifted more towards establishing a democracy and the first three decades of the century are known as an era of liberal governance. However, the Chaco War against Bolivia between 1932 and 1935 destabilized the country again and fresh civil wars and period of military dictatorship followed from 1936 onwards.[4] These would eventually culminate in 1954 in a military coup which brought Alfredo Stroessner to power. A leading army commander in his early forties, Stroessner was put forward shortly after the coup as the presidential candidate of the conservative Colorado Party and won election. He would serve as the 42nd President of Paraguay for the next 35 years.[5]
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Stroessner’s military dictatorship deteriorated over time. He hinted at some liberal reforms in the late 1950s and there was the surface appearance of him winning legitimate elections in 1958 and 1963, although he was the sole candidate in 1958. However, a new constitution was introduced in 1967 which effectively allowed Stroessner to re-elect himself, which he duly did in 1968, 1973, 1978, 1983 and 1988. He suspended a wide range of civil liberties in the country, while in the 1970s and 1980s he participated in Operation Condor, whereby the military juntas of Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay aided each other in cementing their power and crushing resistance to their rule in South America. Martial law was also nearly constantly in operation in Paraguay during his 35-year reign. Most ominously, his time as dictator saw an intense campaign of terror inflicted on indigenous groups such as the Aché and Guarani whose lands were being developed for the timber industry and agricultural development. Some commentators have classed the Stroessner regime’s murder of thousands of indigenous people as genocidal.[6]
Stroessner was finally overthrown in early February 1989 when a fresh coup d’état occurred. This came at the end of a period in which the military juntas that had characterized South American politics for decades were winding down, with those in Argentina and Brazil having been overthrown in 1983 and 1985, while Augusto Pinochet would be removed from power in Chile in 1990. Two days after the coup in February 1989, Stroessner was ordered to leave Paraguay. He went into exile in Brazil, where he lived down to his death at 93 years of age in 2006. Paraguay transitioned to democracy thereafter and has entered the most stable period in its history since the 1990s.[7]
Extent of migration during the Stroessner dictatorshipExtent of migration during the Stroessner dictatorship
Paraguay is a landlocked country which was surrounded for much of Stroessner’s dictatorship by closely allied military dictatorships in Argentina and Brazil. It was consequently difficult for people to flee from the repressive regime during the 35-year long El Stronato period, as it is often referred to as. Therefore the regime did not lead to the kind of mass exodus from the country which is characteristic of a great many dictatorships of this kind. That being said, several thousand people did migrate over the borders, while the 1970s and 1980s also saw tens of thousands of Paraguayans take advantage of the ability to fly abroad to move to the United States and other countries.[8]
Demographic impact of the Stroessner dictatorshipDemographic impact of the Stroessner dictatorship
The Stroessner dictatorship contributed quite considerably to the Paraguayan diaspora, which is nevertheless one of the smallest Latin American diasporas in the world. There are some 25,000 Paraguayan Americans, many of whom either arrived in the late 1970s or early 1980s or are the descendants of people who arrived during this time. Thousands of people in countries like Argentina, Brazil and Spain will also be the descendants of people who left Paraguay during the long military dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner.[9]
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See alsoSee also
Explore more about the military dictatorship in ParaguayExplore more about the military dictatorship in Paraguay
- Paraguay, Baptisms, 1800-1930 records collection on MyHeritage
- Paraguay, Marriages, 1800-1900 records collection on MyHeritage
- Research Latin America Genealogical Resources on the Internet at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
- Spanish and Latin American Record on MyHeritage at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
References
- ↑ R. Andrew Nickson, ‘Tyranny and Longevity: Stroessner’s Paraguay’, in Third World Quarterly, Vol. 10, No. 1, Succession in the South (January, 1988), pp. 237–259.
- ↑ https://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article/52/1/102/152109/Paraguayan-Isolation-under-Dr-Francia-A-Re
- ↑ https://www.thecollector.com/francisco-solano-lopez-paraguayan-war/
- ↑ https://the-past.com/feature/into-the-green-hell-the-chaco-war-1932-1935/
- ↑ Nickson, ‘Tyranny and Longevity’.
- ↑ https://www.iwgia.org/images/publications//Ache_Doc1.pdf
- ↑ Andrew Nickson, ‘The Overthrow of the Stroessner Regime: Re-Establishing the Status Quo’, in Bulletin of Latin American Research, Vol. 8, No. 2 (1989), pp. 185–209.
- ↑ Andrew Nickson, ‘Armed opposition to the Stroessner regime in Paraguay: a review article’, in Small Wars & Insurgencies, Vol. 34 (2024), pp. 919–939.
- ↑ Luis Roniger, 'Conclusions', in Luis Roniger, et al. (ed.), Exile, Diaspora, and Return: Changing Cultural Landscapes in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay (New York, 2018).