Stroessner Regime

The Stroessner Regime was a military dictatorship, sponsored by the US that ruled Paraguay from 1954 until its downfall in 1989. It was led by the dictator Alfredo Stroessner.

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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.^[3] 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.^[39]

On February 3, 1989, only six months after being sworn in for what would have been his eighth full term, Stroessner was ousted in a coup d'état led by General Andrés Rodríguez, his closest confidant for over three decades. One reason for the coup was that the generals feared one of Stroessner's offspring would succeed him. Of the two, Alfredo (aka '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 Asunción.^[40]

Notable Crimes

Sheltering Nazis

Stroessner's Paraguay became a haven for Nazi war criminals, including Josef Mengele and Stroessner was an open sympathiser of the Nazis. Foreign press often referred to his government as the "poor man's Nazi regime".