Alfredo Stroessner - Presidency

Presidency

Stroessner objected to President Federico Chávez's plans to arm the national police and threw him out of office in a coup d'état on May 4, 1954. After a brief interim presidency by Tomás Romero, Stroessner was the only candidate in a special election on July 11 to complete Chávez' term. He was reelected seven times—in 1958, 1963, 1968, 1973, 1978, 1983, and 1988. He appeared alone on the ballot in 1958. In his other elections, he won by implausibly high margins; the opposition was lucky to get over 20 percent of the vote. He served for 35 years, with only Fidel Castro having a longer tenure among 20th century Latin American leaders.

Soon after taking office, Stroessner declared a state of siege, which allowed him to suspend civil liberties and rule by decree. It was renewed every 90 days until 1987. Although the state of siege was technically restricted to the capital after 1970, the courts ruled that anyone charged with security offenses could be brought to the capital and indicted under the state-of-siege provisions. Thus, for all intents and purposes, Stroessner ruled under what amounted to martial law for virtually his entire tenure. A devoted anti-communist, he justified this action as a necessary tool to protect the country.

The Stroessner regime enjoyed close military and economic ties with the United States and supported the US invasion of Dominican Republic and even offered to send troops to support the U.S. in Vietnam. Strong Paraguayan-U.S. relations continued until the Carter Administration emphasized a foreign policy that recognized human rights abuses. Between 1962 and 1975 the United States provided $146 million to Paraguay's military government and Paraguayan officers were trained at the US Army School of the Americas. The Reagan Administration boycotted the country as well. Although the military and security forces under Stroessner received less material support from the United States than other South American countries, strong inter-military connections existed through military advisors and military training. Between 1962 and 1966, nearly 400 Paraguayan military personnel were trained by the United States in the Panama Canal Zone and on US soil.

As leader of the Colorado Party, Stroessner exercised nearly complete control over the nation's political scene. Although opposition parties were nominally permitted after 1962 (the Colorado Party had been the only legal party in the country since 1947), Paraguay remained for all intents and purposes a one-party state. Elections were so heavily rigged in favor of the Colorados that the opposition had no realistic chance of winning, and opposition figures were subjected to varying degrees of harassment.

While Stroessner's rule saw more stability than any living Paraguayan had ever known, it came at a high cost; corruption was rampant (Stroessner himself did not dispute charges of corruption at some levels in his government) and the Stroessner government's human rights record was considered one of the poorest in South America. During Stroessner's regime, an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 people were murdered, and 400 to 500 more were "disappeared."