Alfredo Stroessner

Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda (3 November 1912 – 16 August 2006) was a Paraguayan army officer, politician and statesman who served as President of Paraguay from 15 August 1954 to 3 February 1989.

Stroessner was born in Encarnación on 3 November 1912.

He enrolled in the Francisco López Military Academy in 1929, and received his commission as a lieutenant in the Paraguayan Army in 1931.

In 1932, he fought against Bolivian forces in the Battle of Boquerón during the Chaco War.

After the war he rose steadily in rank; by 1940, he had risen to the rank of major and joined the general staff in 1946.

When the Paraguayan Civil War broke out in 1947, he commanded the artillery division at Paraguarí that ensured that President Higinio Morínigo won the war by destroying a working-class rebel area of Asunción.

Morínigo found Stroessner's military skills very useful and promoted him rapidly.

As one of the few officers who had remained loyal to Morínigo, Stroessner became a formidable political and social player once he entered the higher echelons of the Paraguayan armed forces.

He became a brigadier, and the youngest general officer in South America, in 1948.

His accurate political sense failed him only once, when, in 1948, he was on the wrong side of a failed coup attempt and had to be driven to the Brazilian embassy in the trunk of a car, earning him the nickname of "Colonel Trunk".

Stroessner backed Felipe Molas López in a successful coup against Juan Natalicio González.

He then backed Federico Chávez against Molas López and by 1951 he was Commander-in-chief of the Armed forces of Paraguay.

Stroessner led a coup d'état on 4 May 1954 with the support of the army and the Colorado Party, with which he was affiliated.

After a brief provisional government headed by Tomás Romero Pereira, he was the Colorado Party's presidential candidate for the 1954 general election, and was elected unopposed since all other parties were banned from 1947 to 1962.

Stroessner officially assumed the presidency on 15 August 1954, quickly suspended constitutional and civil rights, and began a period of harsh repression with the support of the army and the military police (which also served as a secret or political police) against anyone who opposed his authoritarian rule.

Stroessner objected to President Federico Chávez's plans to arm the national police and threw him out of office in a coup on 4 May 1954.

After a brief interim presidency by Tomás Romero, Stroessner was the only candidate in a special election on 11 July to complete Chávez's term.

He was reelected seven times—in 1958, 1963, 1968, 1973, 1978, 1983 and 1988.

He appeared alone on the ballot in 1958.

Even when opposition parties were legalized in 1962, they were barely tolerated, and the repression continued.

On 25 August 1967, he introduced a new constitution enabling him to re-elect himself; in 1977 he modified that constitution to permit himself to be re-elected indefinitely.

In his other elections, he won by implausibly high margins; only once (1968) did he drop below 80 percent of the vote.

That campaign was also the only time an opposition candidate got more than 20 percent of the vote.

Although it technically only applied to Asunción after 1970, the courts ruled that anyone charged with security offenses could be brought to the capital and charged under the state-of-siege provisions—even if the offense took place outside the capital.

Apart from one 24-hour period on election days, Stroessner ruled under what amounted to martial law for nearly all of his tenure.

A devoted anti-communist who brought Paraguay into the World Anti-Communist League, he justified his repression as a necessary measure to protect the country.

The use of political repression, threats and death squads was a key factor in Stroessner's longevity as dictator of Paraguay.

He maintained virtually unlimited power by giving a free hand to the military and to Minister of Interior Edgar Ynsfrán, who began to harass, terrorize, and occasionally murder family members of the regime's opponents.

Stroessner heavily relied on various Colorado Party militias, subordinated to his control, to crush any dissent within the country.

The Stroessner regime's strong anti-communist stance earned it the support of the United States, with which it enjoyed close military and economic ties and supported the U.S. invasion of the Dominican Republic.

The Stroessner regime even offered to send troops to Vietnam alongside the Americans.

He served for 35 years, with only Fidel Castro having a longer tenure among 20th-century Latin American leaders; though Castro's tenure as president was shorter at 32 years (1976–2008).

Soon after taking office, Stroessner placed the entire country under a state of siege and suspended civil liberties.

The state-of-siege provisions allowed the government to arrest and detain anyone indefinitely without trial, as well as forbid public meetings and demonstrations.

It was renewed every 90 days until 1987, except for a brief period in 1959.

He was fraudulently re-elected seven times from 1958 until 1988; approximately six months after the 1988 general election, he was overthrown in the coup d'état of 2 and 3 February 1989, led by his most trusted confidant, Lieutenant general Andrés Rodríguez Pedotti, with the support of the army.

On 5 February 1989, just two days after the coup, Stroessner was exiled to Brazil, where he spent the last 17 years of his life.

He died at 11:20 AM on 16 August 2006 at the Santa Luzia Hospital in Brasilia from septic shock due to complications from pneumonia.

He was buried in the Campo da Esperança Cemetery.

Stroessner's parents were Hugo Strößner, who emigrated from Hof, Bavaria, Germany, and worked as an accountant for a brewery, and Heriberta Matiauda, who grew up in a wealthy Paraguayan family of Criollo Spanish descent.