Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda (Spanish: [alˈfɾeðo esˈtɾosneɾ]; 3 November 1912 – 16 August 2006) was a Paraguayan politician, army general, and military dictator who ruled as the 42nd president of Paraguay from 15 August 1954 until his overthrow in 1989. Known as El Stronato or El Stronismo, his dictatorship was marked by political violence. Before his accession to the presidency, he was the country's de facto leader from May to August 1954.
Stroessner rose to power after leading the 1954 coup d'état on 4 May, with backing from the Colorado Party, and the Paraguayan Army. Following a brief provisional government under Tomás Romero Pereira, he was elected unopposed in the 1954 presidential election, as all opposition parties had been banned since 1947.
He quickly suspended constitutional and civil rights upon taking office on 15 August 1954. With the army and military police, who acted as a secret police, he instituted a period of authoritarian rule and violent political repression (especially of opponents, whose parties were nominally legalized in 1962). From the 1958 through the 1988 elections, Stroessner maintained power by electoral fraud. The Constitution of 1967, introduced on 25 August, permitted his re-election, and changes in 1977 effectively enabled his indefinite rule.
His trusted confidant Lieutenant General Andrés Rodríguez Pedotti seized power in the 1989 coup d'état of 2 and 3 February. Stroessner was exiled to Brazil on 5 February, where he died on 16 August 2006 and was buried. His legacy continues in Paraguay, where his Colorado Party has retained power and continues to rule through clientelistic practices.
Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda was born in Encarnación on 3 November 1912. His father, Hugo Stroessner, a German Paraguayan, was an accountant from Hof, Bavaria, Germany who immigrated to Paraguay in the last five years of the 1890s. His mother, Heriberta Matiauda, was of Guaraní and Spanish criollo descent.
He joined the Paraguayan army at the age of 16. After attending military school in Asunción, Stroessner fought in the Chaco War between Paraguay and Bolivia, and had been promoted to the rank of first lieutenant by the war's end. During the 1947 Paraguayan Civil War, Stroessner supported the Colorado Party, and played an important role in their victory. In 1951, he became commander-in-chief of the army.
Stroessner objected to President Federico Chaves's plans to arm the national police and threw him out of office in a coup on 4 May 1954. The National Assembly appointed Tomás Romero Pereira president, who called for special elections to complete Chávez's term. Stroessner became the nominee for the Colorado Party in that year's election on 11 July. He won, as he was the only candidate.
He was reelected seven times—in 1958, 1963, 1968, 1973, 1978, 1983, and 1988. He appeared alone on the ballot in 1958. In his other elections, he won by implausibly high margins; only once (1968) did he drop below 80 percent of the vote. That campaign was also the only time an opposition candidate got more than 20 percent of the vote. He served for 35 years, with only Fidel Castro having a longer tenure among 20th-century Latin American leaders; though Castro's tenure as president was shorter at 32 years (1976–2008).
Soon after taking office, Stroessner placed the entire country under a state of siege and suspended civil liberties. The state-of-siege provisions allowed the government to arrest and detain anyone indefinitely without trial, as well as forbid public meetings and demonstrations. It was renewed every 90 days until 1987, except for a brief period in 1959. Although it technically only applied to Asunción after 1970, the courts ruled that anyone charged with security offenses could be brought to the capital and charged under the state-of-siege provisions—even if the offense took place outside the capital. Apart from one 24-hour period on election days, Stroessner ruled under what amounted to martial law for nearly all of his tenure. A devoted anti-communist who brought Paraguay into the World Anti-Communist League, he justified his repression as a necessary measure to protect the country. The use of political repression, threats and death squads was a key factor in Stroessner's longevity as dictator of Paraguay. He maintained virtually unlimited power by giving a free hand to the military and to Minister of Interior Edgar Ynsfrán, who began to harass, terrorize, and occasionally murder family members of the regime's opponents. Stroessner heavily relied on various Colorado Party militias, subordinated to his control, to crush any dissent within the country.
The Stroessner regime's strong anti-communist stance earned it the support of the United States, with which it enjoyed close military and economic ties and supported the U.S. invasion of the Dominican Republic. The Stroessner regime even offered to send troops to Vietnam alongside the Americans. The United States played a "critical supporting role" in the domestic affairs of Stoessner's Paraguay. Between 1962 and 1975 the US provided $146 million to Paraguay's military government and Paraguayan officers were trained at the U.S. Army School of the Americas. Although the military and security forces under Stroessner received less material support from the United States than other South American countries, strong inter-military connections existed through military advisors and military training. Between 1962 and 1966, nearly 400 Paraguayan military personnel were trained by the United States in the Panama Canal Zone and on US soil. Strong Paraguayan-U.S. relations continued until the Carter Administration emphasized a foreign policy that recognized human rights abuses, although both military and economic aid were allotted to the Paraguayan government in Carter's budgets. The Reagan Administration restored more cordial relations due to Stroessner's staunch anti-communism, but by the mid-1980s relations cooled, largely because of the international outcry over the regime's excesses, along with its involvement in narcotics trafficking and money-laundering. In 1986, the Reagan administration added his regime to its list of Latin American dictatorships. In addition, in September 1974, his Paraguay also established the diplomatic relations with South Vietnam, which was fighting against a communist invasion from the North.
As leader of the Colorado Party, Stroessner exercised nearly complete control over the nation's political scene. Although opposition parties were nominally permitted after 1962 (the Colorado Party had been the only legal party in the country since 1947), Paraguay remained for all intents and purposes a one-party state. Elections were so heavily rigged in favor of the Colorados that the opposition had no realistic chance of winning, and opposition figures were subjected to varying degrees of harassment. Furthermore, Stroessner's Paraguay became a haven for Nazi war criminals, including Josef Mengele, and non-communist peaceful opposition was crushed. Given Stroessner's affinity for Nazism and harboring of Nazi war criminals, foreign press often referred to his government as the "poor man's Nazi regime".
Stroessner's rule brought more stability than most of the country's living residents had previously known. From 1927 to 1954, the country had had 22 presidents, including six from 1948 to 1954 alone. However, that stability came at a high cost. Corruption was rampant (Stroessner himself did not dispute charges of corruption at some levels in his government) and Paraguay's human rights record was considered one of the poorest in South America. During Stroessner's regime, an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 people were murdered, 400 to 500 more "disappeared", and thousands more imprisoned and tortured. Scapegoating, detainment, and torture of LGBTQ+ Paraguayans occurred frequently throughout this period.
Press freedom was also limited, constitutional guarantees notwithstanding. Any outcry about government mistreatment or attacks toward the Colorado Party would result in destruction of the media outlets. Many media executives were sent to prison or tortured. Because of this, political opponents were few and far between. Near the end of this presidency, he declared that he would remove the state of siege, but quickly recanted after students began protesting trolley fares.