Alfredo Stroessner

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Alfredo Stroessner bigraphy, stories - President of Paraguay

Alfredo Stroessner : biography

November 3, 1912 – August 16, 2006

Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda (also Strössner or Strößner; November 3, 1912 – August 16, 2006), was a Paraguayan military officer who served as President of Paraguay from 1954 to 1989. He ascended to the position after leading an army coup in 1954. His 35-year long rule, marked by an uninterrupted period of repression in his country, was the longest unbroken rule by one individual in the history of South America. His rule is ranked 14th-longest among other non-royal national leaders since 1870, and made him one of the world’s longest-serving non-Communist heads of state.

General Stroessner was born in Encarnación, Paraguay. He entered the national military school at the age of 16 and received his commission in 1932. By 1940, he had risen to the rank of major and joined the general staff in 1946. When civil war broke out in 1947, he initially remained loyal to President Higinio Moríñigo, then backed Felipe Molas Lopez in a successful coup against Morínago. He then backed Federico Chávez against Lopez and by 1951 he was army chief of staff. In 1954, he ousted Chávez, becoming president after winning an election in which he was the sole candidate. An arch anti-communist, Stroessner had the backing of the United States. His supporters packed the legislature and ran the courts, and he ruthlessly suppressed all political opposition. He kept his country in what he called a constant "state of siege" that overruled his democratic constitution, enforced a cult of personality, and used torture against political opposition. Membership in his Colorado Party was a prerequisite for job promotion, free medical care and other services. The constitution had to be modified in 1967 and 1977 to legitimize his six consecutive elections to the presidency. In 1988, he won an unprecedented eighth term on a majority, according to official figures, of between 90 and 98 percent of the registered vote.

During Stroessner’s rule, Paraguay became a sanctuary for smugglers in arms, drugs and everyday goods such as whiskey and car parts. Stroessner provided refuge for French-born international heroin dealer Auguste Ricord; strongmen such as Argentina’s Juan Perón and Nicaragua’s Anastasio Somoza Debayle (later assassinated in Paraguay); and war criminals, including the notorious Dr. Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor known as the "Angel of Death" who performed genetic experiments on children. Stroessner was forced from power in 1989 in a military coup led by strongman General Andres Rodriguez. Stroessner was forced into exile in Brazil, where he spent the last 17 years of his life. Following a bout of pneumonia, he tried to return to his homeland to die, but was rejected by the government. He died in Brasilia on 16 August 2006 of complications from a hernia operation.

Downfall

In April 1987, Stroessner lifted the state of siege as part of the run-up to elections the following spring. However, several draconian security laws remained in effect, meaning that the substance (if not the form) of the state of siege was still in place. As had been the case for over three decades, opposition leaders continued to be arbitrarily arrested and opposition meetings and demonstrations were broken up (often brutally). Stroessner was nominated by the Colorados once again, and was the only candidate who was allowed to campaign completely unmolested. Under these circumstances, the February 1988 election was no different from past elections, with Stroessner officially registering 89 percent of the vote—a margin that his rivals contended could only have been obtained through massive fraud.. Library of Congress Federal Research Division (October 2005).

On February 3, 1989, only six months after being sworn in for his eighth full term, Stroessner was ousted in a bloody coup d’état led by General Andrés Rodríguez. One reason for the coup was that the generals feared one of Stroessner’s offspring would succeed him. Of the two, Freddie was a cocaine addict and Gustavo, a pilot, was loathed for being homosexual. A more outlandish rumour was that Lino Oviedo threatened Rodríguez with a grenade if he did not launch the coup. The two generals, Rodríguez and Oviedo, fought a brief artillery duel over Asuncion.At the tomb of the inflatable pig, page 29