Stroessner, Alfredo

(1912–2006)

   Nicknamed “Lecaya,” (“Old Man” in Guaraní, the language of Paraguay’s indigenous people). An army general and the president of Paraguay from 1954 to 1989, Stroessner was one of the most durable dictators in Latin America. He always chafed, however, at being labeled a dictator, and first appearances suggest that his rule (the Stronato) was benevolent. He built roads, schools, bridges, highways, and hospitals, and in the 1970s he presided over an economic boom during which the annual growth rate reached 8 percent. Also in the 1970s he built the Itaipú Dam, developing the country’s hydroelectric power. Yet his critics pointed out that the boom failed to benefit the vast majority of the population, that corruption was rampant, and that his regime imposed an almost continual state of siege. Invoking the threat of communist subversion, Stroessner waged a “dirty war” against enemies real or perceived, using fear, torture, disappearances, and exile. Among his victims were rural guerrillas during the 1950s and 1960s, as well as priests and members of the Paraguayan Catholic Church, which by the late 1960s had become a voice for social justice. In the 1970s he repressed Christian Agrarian Leagues, whose members were rounded up and held in concentration camps. He sheltered Nazis such as Josef Mengele, the “Angel of Death.” And in 1975 he joined the newly created Operation Condor, a secret security organization that included the military dictatorships of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay. Condor hunted down, tortured, and disappeared one another’s political enemies.

   Alfredo Stroessner was born on 3 November 1912 in the city of Encarnación, Paraguay, where his father, a German immigrant, had founded a successful brewery. In 1929, at age 17, he entered the Military College in Asunción, and when the second Chaco War (1932–1935) broke out with Bolivia, he, like his fellow cadets, was sent into battle. He emerged from the war with two medals for bravery and a promotion to first lieutenant. Although Paraguay was victorious, both countries had lost thousands of lives and now faced ruined economies and political upheaval. In Paraguay, one coup followed another. At first, Stroessner stayed clear of politics and pursued his studies. In 1936 he was promoted to captain, and in 1940 he was promoted to major and was sent to Brazil for special artillery training. In 1943, back in Paraguay and working as an artillery instructor, he was forced to take sides in an attempted coup against General Higinio Morínigo. He sided with Morínigo, and after the coup failed, he was rewarded with a nomination to the Superior War College. After graduating, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and put in charge of an artillery regiment.

   In March 1947 another coup against Morínigo ignited a civil war. Although a majority of the military officers backed the rebels, Stroessner remained loyal, and his artillery regiment fought alongside the Partido Colorado (Red Party) and its peasant troops, the py nandí (Guaraní for “barefoot ones”). His forces played a decisive role in the final battle, and after the rebels were defeated on 20 August, he was hailed as a hero and decorated. Now politically ambitious, he began to plot, developing a knack of choosing the right side. In June 1948 he joined a group of officers to oust Morínigo, and then, in October 1948, joined a second coup, this one aimed at ousting the new president, Juan Natalicio González. But the second coup failed—the one time Stroessner picked a losing cause. He escaped to the Brazilian embassy hidden in the trunk of a car and went into exile. Stroessner returned in February 1949 to help stage a coup that installed Felipe Molas López as president. Molas López rewarded him with a promotion to brigadier general. In September 1949 Stroessner betrayed Molas López in favor of Federico Chávez, who rewarded Stroessner with rapid promotions—to commander of the country’s artillery (1950), commander of the First Military Region (1951), and commander in chief of the army (1951). On 5 May 1954 Stroessner overthrew Chávez in a bloody coup and an interim president was put in place. But Stroessner, the new political force, engineered his own election to the presidency. He ran unopposed on the Colorado ticket on 11 July 1954 and was inaugurated on 15 August.

   Stroessner ruled singlehanded, supported by the Partido Colorado-purged of all rivals—and the military, their loyalty rewarded with patronage and a share in Paraguay’s second most important industry after agriculture: smuggling. The country was at the center of Latin America’s trade in contraband goods such as cigarettes, cocaine, coffee, and whisky. Despite this pattern of rule, the country maintained the trappings of democracy, and Stroessner was reelected—by large margins—every five years beginning in 1958. But the elections served merely to anoint him—he ran unopposed or against token opposition.

   By the mid-1980s opposition groups began to mobilize. Even the Partido Colorado and the military were looking ahead to the post-Stroessner period. Stroessner was over 70 years old, and the average age of his cabinet, whose composition seldom changed, was 68. Nevertheless, he sought reelection in February 1988 and claimed 89 percent of the vote, though opposition members denounced the election as a fraud. On 3 February 1989 he was ousted in a coup led by General Andrés Rodríguez, his second in command, whose daughter Martha was married to Stroessner’s son Freddy. Stroessner and his family were granted asylum in Brazil, which he never left for fear of being arrested. Shunned by his friends and separated from his wife, the former Eligia Mora, he lived in virtual isolation. His son Freddy, a cocaine addict, committed suicide. In 1994 his eldest son, Gustavo, was divorced on the grounds of physical abuse. His daughter, Graciela Concepción de Dominguez, became a widow, but then remarried, and both of his daughters-in-law fought over his property in court.

   On 15 August 2006 Alfredo Stroessner died of pneumonia after a hernia operation in a Brasília hospital.