Paraguay, 30 years after the end of the Stroessner dictatorship

Radio France International News from America

February 4, 2019

Paraguay celebrated this weekend its 30 years of overthrowing the regime of dictator Alfredo Stroessner. An authoritarian regime that has left deep traces in society.

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Exactly 30 years ago, the number two dictator of the dictatorial regime in Paraguay, General Andrés Rodríguez, proclaimed a coup d'etat of the armed forces to overthrow Alfredo Stroessner.

After seven terms, the Paraguayan dictator was forced into exile in Brazil. His exile ended a brutal regime that left 423 missing and tortured thousands of civilians.

However, the Colorado party, to which Stroessner belonged, continued to dominate Paraguayan politics without interruption, except between 2008 and 2013.

The current president, Mario Abdo Benítez, is the son of the personal secretary of Alfredo Stroessner. Stronismo left traces still visible in the Paraguayan society.

Marcello Lachi, Ph.D. in Political Science and Director of the Germinal Studies Center, explains that "there is a nostalgia for stronismo that is not perceived as a dictatorship: it is perceived as an authoritarian government who makes decisions, traditional and in the logic of the strong man ".

"The greatest continuity that we have of stronismo is cultural", he adds: "For example, the educational system is based on the stronist culture of acceptance of the authority as a point of reference, that is to say that he does not educate critical thinking, he educates submission to the decision of the authority ".

"Within the Colorado Party, there is still a post-Stroessner culture, and although most of them are against Stroessner, they do not usually celebrate the end of the dictatorship – without social movements or the press, they would not go unnoticed on February 2 and 3 because the Colorado party would never try to keep this date in mind, "said Marcello Lachi.

On the economic front, Paraguay has maintained a high rate of growth in its gross domestic product over the last 15 years, mainly due to the agricultural export sector.

However, these good economic results did not reduce poverty, which affected 28% of the population in 2017.

Respondent: Marcello Lachi, Doctor of Political Science and Director of the Germinal Center for Education and Popular Studies in Paraguay.

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