Alfredo Stroessner

Alfredo Stroessner

Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda (also Strössner or Strößner ; * 3. November 1912 in Encarnación ; †  16th August 2006 in Brasilia , Brazil ) was a Paraguayan military and politicians. From 1954 to 1989 he was President of Paraguay. Previously he was General and Commander in Chief of the Paraguayan Armed Forces .

Life

Stroessner's father Hugo emigrated from the Franconian Hof an der Saale to Paraguay in 1898 , where he married the Paraguayan Heriberta Matiauda, ​​with whom he had three children. Alfredo Stroessner was accepted as a cadet in the Asunción Military Academy in March 1929 at the age of 16 and was made a lieutenant two years later . From 1932 he took part in the Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay and in 1948 reached the rank of Brigadier General . In 1953 he became commander in chief of the army and general.

Coup and terms of office

On May 6, 1954, he ousted incumbent President Federico Chaves by a military coup . Tomás Romero Pereira was installed as the interim president. On July 11, 1954, Stroessner was the only candidate to be elected President of the Republic by acclamation by the Paraguayan Congress . On August 15, 1954, Romero handed over his office to Stroessner, who held it for eight terms.

Thanks to Stroessner, Paraguay developed into a promising market. In large-scale advertising campaigns in Germany, Paraguayan "deserted" land was offered in West German newspapers. The investors were secured by investment protection and Hermes guarantees. The Foreign Office in Bonn regarded the anti-communist Stroessner as a loyal ally in the Cold War , especially since he held his protective hand over the 40,000 Germans who immigrated to Paraguay after the Second World War , including many National Socialists . Stroessner suppressed opponents such as the “Liga Agraria” (Peasant League), the Communist and Liberal Parties .

At 35, his reign was the second longest in Latin America after that of Fidel Castro . He ruled authoritarian and filled all important positions with his supporters from the Colorado Party . It was not until April 2008 that it was subject to a center-left alliance in the presidential elections . In terms of foreign policy, Stroessner positioned himself primarily as a strict anti-communist , which earned him financial support from the USA . In 1968 Stroessner paid a state visit to the USA. Stroessner is also said to have offered the US to send Paraguayan troops to Vietnam to aid the US in the Vietnam War and offered assistance in the invasion of the Dominican Republic . According to official information , around 400 people ( called Desaparecidos ) " disappeared " under Stroessner's rule , while independent estimates put more than 3000 fatalities. A great many members of the opposition were tortured or imprisoned, and around two million went into exile . In addition, Stroessner maintained good contacts with other South American dictatorships , supported military coups in other South American countries and cooperated with the military regimes in Brazil , Uruguay , Argentina and Chile in the exchange of information and the persecution of left-wing activists in the context of Operation Condor .

Postage stamp from Paraguay with portrait of Alfredo Stroessner

In 1972 Stroessner was accused by the German ethnologist Mark Münzel and others of being responsible for the genocide of the Aché . The Aché were forcibly driven into the Mbaracayú region , where they were systematically persecuted, raids were carried out and they were killed. Their children were sold and given to Paraguayan families. Due to a lack of medical care, around 38% of the Aché are said to have died of illnesses during the expulsion and resettlement.

One of the largest projects under Stroessner's rule was the construction of the Itaipú dam, currently the second largest hydroelectric power plant in the world after the Three Gorges Dam in China. Stroessner initiated many infrastructure projects, especially in road construction. He promised every soldier who undertook to cultivate the land, at the end of his service, a piece of land of twenty hectares for a small purchase price; over 10,000 soldiers accepted this offer.

Disempowerment and exile

General Andrés Rodríguez , Commander-in-Chief of the Army (and father-in-law of Stroessner's son Hugo Alfredo) overthrew Stroessner in a military coup on February 3, 1989. Stroessner fled to Brazil, where he remained until his death, thus evading charges of human rights violations . His son had also fled to Brazil; he was suspected of having unlawfully enriched himself in real estate and foreign exchange transactions by taking advantage of his family position. After free elections, General Andrés Rodríguez Stroessner succeeded as president.

The city of Puerto Flor de Lis in eastern Paraguay, which was renamed Puerto Presidente Stroessner in honor of Stroessner, was renamed Ciudad del Este in 1989. Asunción's airport , named after him during his dictatorship, was later renamed Aeropuerto Internacional Silvio Pettirossi .

Stroessner died on August 16, 2006 at the age of 93 years of pneumonia as a result of an inguinal hernia operation. He was buried in August 2006 in a cemetery in the south of the Brazilian capital Brasília .

Awards

Stroessner was awarded the Bavarian Order of Merit in 1973 by the Bavarian Prime Minister Alfons Goppel ( CSU ) .

Historical classification

Stroessner's time as President of Paraguay is marked on the one hand by an economic upswing and on the other by a dictatorship that borders on totalitarianism. His term of office was characterized, among other things, by an extreme personality cult , massive restrictions on freedom of the media, the suppression of all political opposition, systematic torture, extrajudicial executions , concentration camps , the sexual exploitation of members of indigenous ethnic groups and many other crimes. He also offered shelter in Paraguay to the Auschwitz camp doctor Josef Mengele from 1959 to 1960 and to the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle from 1979 to 1980 , along with other dubious people . As the economic situation worsened, this led to increasing dissatisfaction with Stroessner's style of government.

19 years after the end of the dictatorship, the "Commission for Truth and Justice" in Paraguay presented its final report on the crimes of the Stroessner regime. It states that the Aché were victims of genocide. Based on the evidence, an international group of lawyers filed a genocide lawsuit with the Argentine judiciary in 2013 because Paraguayan authorities had not acted. In the context of universal jurisdiction, according to which crimes against humanity can not only be prosecuted on the spot, the judge accepted the case.

family

Stroessner was married to Eligia Mora (December 26, 1910 - February 3, 2006). The couple had children Gustavo, Alfredo and Graciela. Alfredo Domínguez Stroessner, son of daughter Graciela, is a senator.

literature

• Anibal Miranda: Stroessner . Miranda & Asociados, Asuncion, Paraguay 2004, ISBN 99925-3-307-2 .

Web links

Commons : Alfredo Stroessner  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• "Stroessner, Paraguay's Enduring Dictator, Dies" , New York Times , August 16, 2006
• Gaby Weber: The "alleged" Indian persecution in Paraguay, from the archive of the Foreign Office , radio feature on Deutschlandfunk, April 26, 2016. Link active until November 1, 2016. Pdf transcript .

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c d} Gaby Weber : The "alleged" Indian persecution in Paraguay, from the archives of the Foreign Office , Deutschlandfunk, April 26, 2016
2. ↑ Alfredo Stroessner; Paraguayan Dictator. In: The Washington Post. August 17, 2006.
3. ↑ Article in the Washington Post
4. ↑ Rabid Rats , Spiegel, December 25, 1972
5. ^ [Melia, Ba, L. Miraglia, M. Münzel, and C. Münzel. (1973) La Agonia de 10s Aché Guayaki: Hisoria y Cantos. Centro de Estudios Antropologicos, Universidad Catolica: Asunción. Scientific treatise on the Aché (Spanish)]
6. ↑ English article about Stroessner's funeral ( Memento from February 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
7. ^ Article on the WDR website
8. ↑ AP: Ex-Paraguayan dictator Stroessner dies at 93. Anti-communist general ruled nation for 35 years after 1954 coup , NBC News, August 16, 2006. - O.A .: Obituary: Alfredo Stroessner , BBC News, August 16 2006. - Peter B. Schumann : Slow coming to terms with the past in Paraguay , Deutschlandfunk, November 3, 2007.
9. ↑ http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/156570/paraguay-genocide-charges-filed

predecessor	Office	successor
Tomás Romero Pereira	President of Paraguay 1954–1989	Andrés Rodríguez