The authoritarian Stroessner, with aid from the United States and later Brazil, managed to stabilize one of the world’s least-stable currencies, attract foreign investment, and embark on large public works projects. Paraguayan isolation was broken down. However, harsh rule was not relaxed after 1960. Though elections on all levels were permitted, the Colorado Party never lost, and Stroessner was duly reelected every five years with a huge plurality. The church alone continued to object to the repressive aspects of the regime, such as the inhumane treatment of the Indian minority and censorship. Relations with the United States deteriorated throughout the 1970s, and U.S. aid was much reduced. Partly because of that, the Stroessner government aligned itself closely with the authoritarian regime in Brazil, which offered aid and political support. The two countries cooperated in the building of the immense Itaipú hydroelectric plant on their shared border. As a result of that project, the national economy briefly improved, but it took a downturn in the early 1980s, causing some protests against the Stroessner regime.

The government showed little tolerance for opposition to its policies, and most of the main opposition leaders were kept forcibly in exile. Such repression focused international attention on Paraguay for human rights violations, further hampering the country’s foreign relations and intensifying economic stagnation. The aging Stroessner, who had been elected in 1983 for a seventh term, also had to deal with dissension within his own Colorado Party that pitted the traditionalist, or “moderate,” wing of the party against the “militant” wing. The former sought to open the political and economic system somewhat, whereas the latter favoured continuation of the policies of the Stroessner regime and wanted Gustavo Stroessner to succeed his father when he stepped down from office. Factional discord rocked the Colorado Party, resulting in a partial purge of the traditionalists in 1988, and it appeared briefly that the militants were firmly in control. The traditionalists, however, were simply lining up their forces for the inevitable conflict. On February 3, 1989, Stroessner was overthrown in a coup led by his erstwhile top military commander, Gen. Andrés Rodríguez Pedotti, who announced that democracy had come to Paraguay.

Democratic freedoms

Elections were held on May 1, 1989, and Rodríguez was elected president (by a 74 percent plurality). The opposition parties had not had much time to organize for the electoral contest, and control of Congress remained with the Colorado Party. The party also remained in control of the judiciary, and Rodríguez’s cabinet included a number of military officers. Moreover, there was some concern over the fact that Rodríguez had never changed his active-duty military status. Nonetheless, a new constitution went into effect on June 20, 1992, and the president adopted certain democratic measures. He declared freedom of the press, legalized all political parties, repealed a number of repressive laws, ratified the human rights treaties of the United Nations and Organization of American States, and freed the country’s remaining political prisoners.

Despite the establishment of democratic liberties, the armed forces remained a key power in Paraguay. Army Chief Gen. Lino Oviedo soon emerged as a major figure. He engineered the selection of Juan Carlos Wasmosy as the candidate of the Colorado Party in the 1993 presidential elections; Wasmosy won the election and became Paraguay’s first civilian president since 1954. But Oviedo and Wasmosy had a subsequent falling out, leading to a rebellion in April 1996, when only strong diplomatic pressure was able to avert a military coup. Oviedo retired from active service and reemerged as a Colorado Party front-runner in the 1998 presidential race, but Wasmosy retaliated by arresting Oviedo on charges arising from his 1996 coup attempt. Oviedo’s vice presidential running mate, Raúl Cubas Grau, replaced Oviedo as the party candidate and won the presidency for the Colorado Party with a convincing majority.

Three days after assuming office, in August 1998, President Cubas released Oviedo from jail and refused to return Oviedo to confinement even after the Supreme Court ruled Cubas’s actions unconstitutional. A political impasse was broken following the assassination of Vice Pres. Luís María Argaña, on March 23, 1999. Fearing military intervention, thousands of student demonstrators protested outside the National Congress building in Asunción, calling for the arrest of Oviedo, who was widely suspected of being involved in the assassination. Later that week, Oviedo supporters fired on the demonstrators, killing eight and wounding many. But that provocation failed to disperse the crowds. President Cubas resigned and was granted asylum in Brazil; meanwhile, Oviedo fled to Argentina.

At the end of March, Luis González Macchi, former head of the Senate, was sworn in as president to head a new “government of national unity,” comprising members of all three major political parties. Under strong external pressure from the United States and the International Monetary Fund, the new government announced its commitment to reform civil service, to privatize industry, and to mandate greater civilian control over Paraguay’s armed forces. But Colorado Party supporters of the assassinated vice president and former members of the Stroessner regime occupied key positions in the new government. They remained wedded to a corporativist style of politics that was opposed to fundamental reform.