Alfredo Stroessner was born on November 3, 1912, at the southeastern Paraguayan border city of Encarnación. His father, Hugo Stroessner, was a German immigrant who became a mechanic and ironworker. His mother, Heriberta Matiauda, was the daughter of a prominent Encarnación family whose roots stemmed from Paraguay's independence era.
He joined the Paraguayan army in 1929, entering the national military school at the age of 16.
A dedicated professional soldier with an unswerving sense of patriotism, Stroessner began his military career at the outbreak of the Chaco War with Bolivia. First serving at the siege of Paraguay's Boquerón outpost in September 1932 as a military college cadet commanding an infantry platoon, he was subsequently commissioned in the field as a second lieutenant and transferred to the artillery, his favored service branch. As a mortar platoon commander, he served with distinction throughout the remainder of the war and received numerous citations.
Promoted to captain in 1936, Stroessner rose swiftly in rank and became general of division in 1951. Post-Chaco service was highlighted by his participation as a loyal army officer in the major 1947 revolution, in which he was commended for his success in blocking Paraguay's southern borders against rebelling army and navy units.
In 1954, he led the coup d'etat which toppled the government of President Federico Cháves. Formally inaugurated as president in August 1954, he was successively reelected, although he sometimes had little or no opposition. Stroessner's administration was founded on an alliance between the military and the dominant Colorado Party. Certain political parties were allowed to exist, while others were banned.
Part of Stroessner's success not only came from his strong rule over his country, but also because of a relatively solid and stable economy he brought to Paraguay. The country's economy grew at a rate uncommon for Latin American nations at the time.
A confirmed anti-Communist, Stroessner nullified all subversive attempts in Paraguay, supported U. S. inter-American objectives, including participation by a Paraguayan contingent in the Dominican Republic episode, and received both U. S. economic assistance and Peace Corps projects in the 1960s. In 1968, following his third reelection, he formally visited Washington—the second Paraguayan president to have been officially invited to the United States.
Under Stroessner's rule, there was no free press. Newspaper presses and radio transmitters were routinely destroyed by police aligned with the Colorado Party. The Progressive magazine noted three examples: Aldo Zuccolillo, publisher of ABC Color, Paraguay's largest newspaper, was jailed, and his paper shut down for five years. Radio Nanduti was off the air for two years after its transmitter was demolished. Reporter Alejandro Mella Latorre was jailed and tortured for 8 1/2 years.
According to Newsweek, "Party membership [in the Colorado Party] was a prerequisite for getting most jobs in government service, the military, or even in nursing or teaching. Stroessner's tools were violence and fear. Critics of the government disappeared, only to show up again floating face down in the muddy Paraguay River. "
After 35 years of rule, Stroessner's empire began to crumble. The U. S. started to pressure his government to reform in the late 1970s and 1980s, after human rights violations came to light. Then the economy, which had been quite strong, began to slow, and inflation soared to 30 percent. Street protests, unthinkable a few years earlier, began appearing in 1986. In 1988, Pope John Paul II toured South America, and called for major reforms in Paraguay. Stroessner became ill, and while recovering from prostate surgery, his former right-hand man, Andres Rodriguez, led a military coup and overthrew Stroessner in February, 1989.
Stroessner was originally placed under house arrest, and later allowed to go into exile in Brazil. In 1996, he was reportedly living in a closely guarded mansion in Brazil, occasionally fishing, and keeping a low profile.
Stroessner died on August 16, 2006, in Brasília, at the age of 93. The immediate cause of death was a stroke. He had been suffering from pneumonia after undergoing a hernia operation. The Paraguayan government preemptively dismissed any suggestions for honoring the late president within Paraguay. He tried to return to Paraguay before his death, to die in his homeland, but he was rebuked and threatened with arrest by the government.
Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda ascended to the position after leading an army coup in 1954. His 35-year-long rule, marked by an uninterrupted period of repression in his country, is the longest in modern South American history. Stroessner's rule is ranked 20th-longest among other non-royal national leaders since 1870, and made him one of the world's longest-serving non-royal heads of state.
The eastern city Puerto Flor de Lis, which had been renamed Puerto Presidente Stroessner in his honor, in 1989 was again renamed Ciudad del Este. Asunción's airport had been named after him during his regime, but was later renamed Silvio Pettirossi International Airport.
(Text of a speech given to commorate the 100th anniversary...)
Stroessner was married to Eligia Mora (26 December 1910 – 3 February 2006). They had three children: Gustavo, Alfredo and Graciela. Alfredo Domínguez Stroessner, son of Graciela, is a senator.
He emigrated from Hof, Bavaria, Germany, and worked as an accountant for a brewery.
She grew up in a wealthy Paraguayan family of Criollo Spanish descent.
(26 December 1910 – 3 February 2006)
He is a senator.
