Partido Comunista Paraguayo

(PCP)

   / Paraguayan Communist Party

   One of the political parties that opposed the dictatorship of General Alfredo Stroessner, who ruled Paraguay from 1954 to 1989. Founded in 1928, the PCP is a Stalinist party active with trade unions. Except for brief periods (1946–1947, for example), it has been illegal for much of its existence. During the 1947 civil war, the PCP joined militants from the Partido Liberal (Liberal Party) and the Partido Revolucionario Febrerista (PRF, February Revolutionary Party) in an attempt to oust the dictator Higinio Morínigo. After the attempt failed, all three parties were exiled. Unlike the Liberals and the Febreristas, however, which were later granted amnesty by Stroessner and allowed to participate in politics as the loyal opposition, the PCP remained illegal until Stroessner’s fall in 1989. Although it was never a large party—it had about 3,000 members during the Stroessner years—its members were targets of Stroessner’s “dirty war.” One of its leaders, Miguel A. Soler, was arrested in 1977 in Asunción, Paraguay. Another, Antonio Maidana, was arrested in 1980 in Argentina. Both remain among the missing (desaparecidos).