Alfredo stroesner

Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda (Encarnación, November 3, 1912 - Brasilia, August 16, 2006) was a Paraguayan soldier, politician, and dictator who led his country as President of the Republic from 15 August 1954 until February 3, 1989, when he was overthrown by a coup. His authoritarian rule of almost thirty-five years was known as Stronismo or Stronato.

With an outstanding military career, having participated in the Chaco war against Bolivia (1932-1935) and the Paraguayan civil war (1947), and being a member of the Colorado Party (since 1951), he led a coup that deposed to President Federico Chaves and after a brief provisional presidency of Tomás Romero Pereira, Stroessner was elected without opposition in the general elections of July 11, 1954 to complete Chaves' term.

He would be re-elected seven times as president, first unopposed in a one-party regime and then through rigged elections. During his long dictatorship, massive human rights violations were committed, such as arbitrary arrests, torture and forced disappearance.

His government collaborated with the other de facto dictatorial governments of South America in the Condor Plan in the 1970s, instigated by the United States in the context of the Cold War, as documented in the Archives of Terror, discovered in 1992.

He was overthrown by a coup carried out between the night of February 2 and the morning of February 3, 1989, led by Division General Andrés Rodríguez Pedotti, his in-law, most trusted man and until then right-hand man. He was sent into exile on February 5, 1989 to the city of Brasilia in Brazil, where he would spend the last 17 years of his life until he finally died at the Santa Lucía de Brasilia Hospital at 11:20 in the morning (Brazilian time). on August 16, 2006 of septic shock due to complications with pneumonia, he was veiled in a strict private ceremony and buried in the Campo da Esperança Cemetery in the Brazilian capital.

Biography

Early years and military career

His father, Hugo Strössner, was a German immigrant from Hof (Bavaria), who arrived in Paraguay around 1895 and who worked in a brewery. Her mother, Heriberta Matiauda, grew up in an upper-class Paraguayan family of Creole Spanish descent. At the age of 17, his uncle Vicente Matiauda helped him enter the Army, where he rose to lieutenant two years later. He participated in the Chaco War (1932-1935) against Bolivia. In 1948, at 36 years of age, he reached the rank of brigadier general, making him the youngest general in South America. In 1951, he decided to join the Colorado Party and was named Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

He married Eligia Mora, known as Ligia Stroessner, who had been a teacher in his youth. The exact wedding date of the Stroessner Mora is not known. With her Stroessner had three children: Gustavo, Graciela and Hugo Alfredo "Freddy". Stroessner also had extramarital affairs before and during his presidency. According to various sources, some of his relationships were with teenagers as young as 13, and he may have fathered more than 30 illegitimate children. His relationships were disclosed after his dictatorship, further tarnishing his image.

Rise to power

Stroessner served in the Paraguayan army. In 1947, he participated in the Pynandí ('barefoot') Revolution, a civil war in which the working class of Asunción was massacred, ending the liberal government and placing the Colorado Party in power. In 1954 he was promoted to major general, and in May of the same year, he led a coup, by which he overthrew President Federico Chaves, from his own party. The Governing Board of the Colorado Party elected him a candidate for president.

On July 11, 1954, he was elected president without opposition, and on August 15, he assumed the presidency of Paraguay. He was re-elected in eight legislatures, in which candidates from the Liberal Party, the Liberal Radical Party and the Febrerista Revolutionary Party also participated.

President (1954-1989)

Consolidation of his mandate

Stroessner with his Brazilian counterpart Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco on March 27, 1965.

Already in power, with the purpose of putting an end to 50 years of damaging anarchy where the controversial succession of presidents was constant, some even lasting days in power. Stroessner immediately abolished constitutional guarantees, kept the activities of political parties under control, and exerted harsh repression. He governed with the support of the Army and the Colorado Party. In the latter he carried out a series of purges that facilitated his control, with the aim of staying in power. The government party also became a framework dedicated to the distribution of favors. Corruption spread in this way in what is remembered as "the trilogy": Government-party-armed forces.

Stroessner visits Brasilia with Juscelino Kubitschek (1958).

His regime was anti-communist and favored American interests; however, the Argentine forces of the People's Revolutionary Army infiltrated the country and Stroessner through harsh interventions eliminated all attempts at subversion. However, the assassination of the former Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle, to whom Stroessner gave refuge, shook the fragile security in which Paraguay lived, by demonstrating that the strong man of Latin America was not really such.

To justify the action of the mediocre security teams, a Chilean journalist was falsely accused of having murdered the former Nicaraguan dictator; This Chilean journalist spent several years in prison unjustly and was only released under pressure from Chilean President Augusto Pinochet, who collaborated after this incident in the professionalization of intelligence and security tasks. His friendship with the United States continued for many years, until the Ronald Reagan government began to boycott the regime and the country, due to the end of the Cold War, a time when US policy supported anti-communist military dictatorships in Latin America; however, Paraguay continued to receive money from that country, which increased the already large foreign debt.

Human rights and repression

Although Stroessner was a very energetic and authoritarian leader, as the years went by, he became more tolerant of opposition parties, such as the Authentic Radical Liberal Party. However, during his regime, between 350 and 450 people, terrorists, criminals and their collaborators, were assassinated due to his heavy-handed tactics against dissent, especially the communists; To do this, he used torture, kidnapping, political assassinations, and the growth of corruption.

Religiously, and despite being a conservative, Stroessner did not have good relations with the Catholic Church and is responsible for various actions against it. The conflicts of 1967, 1969 and 1988 stand out. On August 25, 1967, Stroessner designed a new Constitution, which allowed a single re-election for the president, applicable only from that same year; but, in 1977, he modified it to be reelected indefinitely.

There is also evidence and testimony from sexual victims from the Stroessner era; In a video testimony published by the Última Hora Digital Newspaper, registered in the Meves Virtual Museum (Memory and Truth about Stronism), Julia assures that Colonel Miers, then commander of the Presidential Escort Regiment, maintained a harem with several girls between 10 and 15 years old and that "the finest were brought to Stroessner to be raped" (although the rumors about Stroessner were never confirmed). The testimonies suggest that there were several houses where kidnapped girls from rural areas were brought and kept in harems, at the disposal of the dictator and various leaders of the Stronism. “The military hunted girls and took them from their homes in exchange for positions in public institutions for their relatives. Nobody could say anything. We were mercilessly raped. They didn't want anyone over 15 years old because they said they already had hard bones." “It is a subject that remains shrouded in nebula and needs to be investigated further. The Truth and Justice Commission collected some testimonies, but the victims are still ashamed and afraid," says Rogelio Goiburú.

Foreign Policy

In the foreign sphere, in 1960 Stroessner broke relations with the Fidel Castro regime, which had consummated the Cuban Revolution the previous year. Throughout his term, due to his anti-communist stance, since he did not maintain diplomatic relations with any socialist nation except for Romania and Yugoslavia, governed respectively by Nicolae Ceauşescu and by Marshal Tito, who had their respective embassies in Paraguay.. He met with heads of state from other countries such as Argentine presidents Juan Domingo Perón, Arturo Frondizi, Agustín Lanusse and the dictator Jorge Rafael Videla, Prince Felipe of Edinburgh, Prince Bernardo of the Netherlands, French President Charles de Gaulle, US Vice President Richard Nixon, Chilean President Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, Venezuelan dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez, Spanish princes Juan Carlos de Borbón y Sofía, US Presidents: Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson and Jimmy Carter, Mexican Presidents Adolfo Ruiz Cortines and Luis Echeverría, Pope John Paul II, the crown princes of Japan Akihito and Michiko, as well as the Brazilian presidents Juscelino Kubitschek, Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco, Emílio Garrastazu Médici and Ernesto Geisel.

He made several state visits, including to Emperor Hirohito of Japan; he met with the dictator Francisco Franco in Spain, the French president Georges Pompidou, the Italian president Giovanni Leone; He also visited other countries such as Taiwan, South Africa (with whom Paraguay had close bilateral ties), as well as several visits to the Federal Republic of Germany, since he was known as pro-German because his father was born in Germany, although relations with that country deteriorated. with the years. Similarly, he became the first foreign president to visit Chile after the military coup led by Augusto Pinochet in 1973; In this way, he legitimized his dictatorship and became his personal friend.

Meeting between General Alfredo Stroessner, president of the Republic of Paraguay with the president of Italy Giovanni Leone.

Stroessner showed great sympathy for Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, several of whom he granted political asylum in Paraguay after they had been defeated in World War II: among the most prominent were Dr. Josef Mengele and Eduard Roschmann. Adolf Eichmann had been kidnapped in Buenos Aires in 1960, brought to justice and sentenced to death in Jerusalem; the Israeli government always tried to break into Paraguay to capture Mengele, who was granted Paraguayan citizenship. Due to this policy, he was harshly criticized by the international media.

Paraguay enjoyed close military and economic ties to the United States and supported the US invasion of the Dominican Republic. The Stroessner regime even offered to send troops to Vietnam along with the Americans. The United States played a "key supporting role" in the internal affairs of Stroessner's Paraguay. Between 1962 and 1975, the United States provided $146 million to the military government of Paraguay, with which Paraguayan officers were trained at the US Army School of the Americas. Although the military and security forces under Stroessner received less material support from the United States than other South American countries, strong intermilitary connections existed through military advisers and military training. Between 1962 and 1966, nearly 400 Paraguayan soldiers were trained by the United States in the Panama Canal Zone and on US soil. Richard Nixon went so far as to declare that the Stroessner regime was a "viable model of democracy for Latin America." They continued until the Jimmy Carter Administration when a foreign policy that recognized human rights abuses was emphasized, although both military and economic aid were allocated to the Paraguayan government in Carter's budgets.

In addition, it allowed the entry of overthrown dictators from other countries, such as the aforementioned Anastasio Somoza Debayle. The deadly attack against Somoza, which occurred in Paraguay, led Stroessner to commit all kinds of outrages in search of possible culprits, such as the Chilean journalist Rafael Mella Latorre. His regime is also pointed out as responsible for genocidal policies against the indigenous Achés. Likewise, he allowed the settlement of American evangelical groups, such as Las Nuevas Tribus.

Economic policy

When Stroessner came to power, he was met with a major social and economic crisis. The challenge for him as the new president was to clean up the economy, but without implementing liberalization measures. Growth began to take effect at the end of the 1950s. During the 1960s, the economy showed positive growth and grew an average of 4.2% of GDP. Moderate growth continued until the mid-1970s: from 1976-81, there was a boom in the economy due to the construction of the Itaipu Dam, which allowed a growth of 11% of the GDP, while increasing the corruption and smuggling.

Stroessner signed a treaty with Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay to allow Paraguay to export its products; this treaty was renamed the Río de la Plata Treaty. Starting in 1982, the economy began to deteriorate as the country was increasingly left out of the international community due to human rights abuses. Growth leveled off from 1986 and the economy grew between 3 and 4% of GDP.

Strossner receives in official visit the president of Argentina, Lieutenant General Juan Domingo Perón, 07/06/1974.

He was respected for his financial discipline in renegotiating loans guaranteed by the World Bank, which allowed him to maintain a stable currency.

In accordance with the economic policy of General Stroessner's character, the services of the CIA were declared of great importance to guarantee the developmental investment of the World Bank. On May 23, 1969, a group of CIA agents was admitted to Paraguay under the license of the same development agency. Some of its members were assigned to political actions to diversify the party's social base and, consequently, several nationals were disappeared after being arrested on charges of inciting revolution with the support of a symbolic "communist party."

In the 1960s and 1970s in South America, Alfredo Stroessner, together with investors, carried out various infrastructure works, such as the construction of the Itaipu Dam, the latter, calming the waters due to the Salto del Guaira conflict with the Brazil gave rise to Itaipu, although with almost entirely Brazilian capital (it was then the largest in the world), with which it was able to alleviate the Paraguayan economy. Likewise, infrastructure works were built, which improved the highway system, such as the Transchaco. Stroessner supported a plan to give 20 hectares of arable land at a normal price to each soldier who completed his military service, to be used for agricultural benefits, with a total of about 10,000 favored soldiers. Other public works also stand out, such as roads, schools, universities, buildings, bridges, hospitals, villages, towns and cities, such as Puerto Flor de Lis (in 1957), later called Puerto Presidente Stroessner, and renamed Ciudad del Este in 1989. When He carried out the electoral campaigns to be re-elected, he used the slogan "Peace, Work and Well-being with Stroessner" and each work he carried out bore his name.

Ministers

Agriculture and Livestock: Fabio Da Silva, Martín Cuevas, Ezequiel González Alsina, Hernando Bertoni

National Defense: Herminio Morínigo, Marcial Samaniego, Leodegar Cabello, Gaspar Germán Martínez

Education and Worship: Raúl Peña, Jorge Bernardino Gorostiaga, Fabio Da Silva, Saúl González, Carlos Antonio Ortiz Ramírez

Hacienda: Carlos Velilla, César Barrientos, Carlos Ortiz Ramírez, Elvio Alonso Martino

Industry and Commerce: César Barrientos, Fabio Da Silva, Domingo Montanaro, Ezequiel González Alsina, José Antonio Moreno González, Delfín Ugarte Centurión

Inside: Tomás Romero Pereira, Edgar Linneo Insfrán, Juan Ramón Chaves, Sabino Augusto Montanaro

Justice and Labor: Luis Martínez Miltos, Ezequiel González Alsin, César Garay, Juan Ramón Chaves, Sabino Augusto Montanaro, Saúl González, José Eugenio Jacquet

Public Works and Communications: Marcial Samaniego, Mario Coscia Tavarozzi, Tomás Romero Pereira, Marcial Samaniego, Juan Antonio Cáceres

Foreign Relations: Hipólito Sánchez Quell, Raúl Sapena Pastor, Carlos Alberto Nogués, Carlos A. Saldívar, Rodney Elpidio Acevedo

Public Health and Social Welfare: Enrique Zacarías Arza, Raúl Peña, Dionisio González Torres, Adán Godoy Giménez

Without portfolio: Tomás Romero Pereira, Juan Ramón Chaves, Sabino Augusto Montanaro

Overthrow (coup)

During the 1980s, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay returned to democracy and the Paraguayan people took advantage of that political climate to take to the streets to demonstrate. These demonstrations were led by the National Agreement (PLRA, Febrerista) and the unions, but they were violently repressed, despite being peaceful. As a result, Stroessner was abandoned by his former allies, such as the United States, and the economy worsened. In 1987, the Convention of the Colorado Party and the Stronista faction was held. His party planned to choose his eldest son, Gustavo Stroessner, as its candidate, due to rumors that the already elderly dictator suffered from an illness, but they chose him. In the fraudulent elections of 1988 he obtained 88.8% of the votes. That same year he received Pope John Paul II in Paraguay.

Due to the brutality of his dictatorship, the most traditionalist faction of his party, the military and especially the Catholic Church, began to show their discontent with the regime: in the early hours of Friday, February 3, 1989, his in-law and until then right-hand man, General Andrés Rodríguez Pedotti, with the backing of the United States, led a coup. Stroessner was detained for a few days until he was sent into exile in Brasilia, along with his daughter Graciela, his son Gustavo and the latter's wife María Eugenia Heikel.

Exile

In 1992, Martín Almada —an opponent of the dictatorship— and the newspaper Noticias ―through journalists Christian Torres, Zulia Giménez, Alberto Ledesma and José Gregor, among others―, discovered the so-called "Archivos del Terror", some documents that showed that Stroessner had participated in Operation Condor, an anti-communist military agreement for the persecution of exiles, with the support of the military dictatorships of Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Uruguay, which led to the torture, kidnapping and murder of thousands of Paraguayans and citizens of the aforementioned countries. In turn, rumors circulated that Stroessner suffered from skin cancer. In 2004, his grandson was nominated for the presidency of the Colorado Party for the Alto Paraná department, because the former dictator enjoyed high popularity in that department, but was defeated at the polls.

Death

On July 16, 2006, Stroessner was admitted to be operated on for two inguinal hernias at the Santa Lucía Hospital in Brasilia, with satisfactory results in the first few days, but then he suffered a pulmonary complication that led to pneumonia and kept him in hospital. critical condition until August 16, 2006, when he passed away.

He was buried on August 17, 2006 in the Campamento de la Paz cemetery in Brasilia, in a private ceremony attended only by his family and close friends. It was planned to transfer his remains to Paraguay in a few months, but the Paraguayan government, chaired by Nicanor Duarte Frutos from Colorado, made it known that it would not receive Stroessner's body with honors.

In popular culture

Without a doubt, the Stroessner regime marked several generations, some of which still idolize him and even still celebrate the date of his birth, November 3rd. Some consider him a true president who bequeathed works for the common good to Paraguay, while others consider him to be the culprit of the weakness in state institutions due to the corruption experienced in those years.