Andrés Rodríguez (President)

Andrés Rodríguez (1989)

Andrés Rodríguez Pedotti (born June 19, 1923 in Borja, Guairá Department , † April 21, 1997 in New York City ) was General of the Armed Forces of Paraguay and President of the country from February 3, 1989 to August 15, 1993.

Life

He supported Alfredo Stroessner when he overthrew Federico Chaves in a coup . In gratitude for this he was of Stroessner from captain to colonel promoted and appointed commander of the 3rd Cavalry - regiment appointed. In 1961 he became the commander of the 1st Cavalry Division , the most important army unit in Paraguay. In 1967 he was promoted to brigadier general and in 1970 to division general .

He was one of Stroessner's most important confidants; his daughter Martha married his son Hugo Alfredo Stroessner Mora.

In 1970 he was suspected of being involved in drug smuggling . The US therefore imposed an entry ban on him. In 1986, his personal pilot, Juan Viveros, was arrested in the United States while trying to smuggle 43 kilograms of heroin into his plane.

In the course of the restructuring of the armed forces, he became the commander of the 1st Army Corps in 1980 .

In 1989 Rodríguez was the leader of a coup to overthrow Stroessner. After seizing power, he arranged for the arrest of high-ranking members of the military dictatorship under Stroessner and instituted free democratic elections in Paraguay.

Weakened by cancer, he was replaced by Juan Carlos Wasmosy in 1993 . Rodríguez died in New York City in 1997.

literature

• R. Andrew Nickson: Historical Dictionary of Paraguay. The Scarecrow Press, Metuchen / London 1993.
• Andrés Rodríguez Pedotti , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 31/1997 from July 21, 1997, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)

predecessor	Office	successor
Alfredo Stroessner	President of Paraguay 1989-1993	Juan Carlos Wasmosy