Paraguay
 

Overview
Country, south-central South America.

Area: 157,048 sq mi (406,752 sq km). Population (2006 est.): 5,993,000. Capital: Asunción. Most Paraguayans are mestizos; there are much smaller groups of American Indians and people of African, European, and Asian ancestry. Languages: Spanish and Guaraní (both official). Religion: Christianity (predominantly Roman Catholic; also Protestant). Currency: guaraní. Paraguay is a landlocked country of plains and swampland. The Paraguay River, flowing from north to south, divides the country into two geographic regions: the eastern region, which is an extension of the Brazilian Plateau; and the western region, which forms the northern part of the Gran Chaco plains. Paraguay has a developing market economy that is based largely on agriculture, trade, and light industries. It is a republic with two legislative houses; its head of state and government is the president. Seminomadic tribes speaking Guaraní were in the area long before it was settled by Spain in the 16th–17th century. Paraguay was part of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata until it became independent in 1811. It suffered from dictatorial governments in the 19th century and was devastated by the War of the Triple Alliance (1864, 1865–70), which it fought against Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. The Chaco War (1932–35), with Bolivia over territorial rights in the Gran Chaco, was settled primarily in Paraguay’s favour by the peace treaty of 1938. Military governments, including that of Alfredo Stroessner, predominated from the mid-20th century until a civilian president, Juan Carlos Wasmosy, was elected in 1993. The country suffered from political unrest and a financial crisis beginning in the late 1990s and continuing into the 21st century.

Profile
Official name República del Paraguay (Spanish); Tetä Paraguáype (Guaraní) (Republic of Paraguay)
Form of government multiparty republic with two legislative houses (Chamber of Senators [451]; Chamber of Deputies [80])
Head of state and government President
Capital Asunción
Official languages Spanish; Guaraní
Official religion none2
Monetary unit guaraní (plural guaranies)
Population estimate (2008) 6,238,000
Total area (sq mi) 157,048
Total area (sq km) 406,752
1Excludes 2 former presidents serving as senators-for-life in December 2008.

2Roman Catholicism, although not official, enjoys special recognition in the constitution.

Main

landlocked country in south-central South America. Paraguay’s recent history has been characterized by turbulence and authoritarian rule. It was involved in two of the three major wars on the continent—the War of the Triple Alliance (1864/65–70), against Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay, and the Chaco War (1932–35), against Bolivia. Moreover, a civil war in 1947 and the long dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner (1954–89) left a deep legacy of fear and self-censorship among Paraguayans, who only began to overcome these impediments in the early 21st century. Since 1989 the democratization process has been rocky, and Paraguay has experienced bouts of instability in its military, the assassination of a vice president in 1999, and the indictment of former presidents Juan Carlos Wasmosy (1993–98) and Luis González Macchi (1999–2003) on corruption charges. In 2008 Paraguay’s Colorado Party, the longest continuously ruling political party in the world, lost power for the first time since 1947. The national capital is Asunción.

Paraguay has a more homogeneous population than most other countries in South America; most Paraguayans are of European and Guaraní ancestry. The Guaraní culture is strongly represented through folk art and festivals, and Guaraní was designated an official language of Paraguay in the country’s 1992 constitution. Paraguayans are intensely nationalistic and are proud to converse in Guaraní, which acts as a strong marker of their identity. The language is much more widely spoken in Paraguay than is Spanish.

Rivers play an extremely important role in the economic life of Paraguay. Indeed, the name of the country is said to derive from the Guaraní word meaning “river that gives birth to the sea.” Rivers provide access to the Atlantic Ocean and as sites for the hydroelectric power plants that have made Paraguay one of the world’s largest exporters of hydropower. The country is also a major world producer of soybeans, and Paraguayans in parts of the fertile eastern border region have achieved relatively high standards of living based on modern diversified agricultural production. The growth of cooperative farms throughout Paraguay has increased the quality of life for many farmers who previously had depended on small-scale farms dedicated to the cultivation of a single crop. Nevertheless, the issue of land reform has remained unresolved since the 1880s and has given rise to extreme levels of inequality since the 1990s.

Land
Paraguay is bounded by Bolivia to the northwest and north, Brazil to the northeast and east, and Argentina to the southeast, south, and west. Asunción is located on the east bank of the Paraguay River, opposite the mouth of its primary western tributary, the Pilcomayo River. The Paraguay River, which runs from north to south, divides Paraguay into two distinct geographic regions—the Región Oriental (Eastern Region) and the Región Occidental (Western Region), also called the Chaco Boreal.

Relief
The Eastern Region, with an area of about 61,700 square miles (160,000 square km), is an extension of the Brazilian Plateau and varies in elevation from about 165 feet (50 metres) above sea level in the southwest to a few hills that rise to 2,500 feet (760 metres) in the east. The Amambaí (Amambay) Mountains run approximately north to south along part of the border with Brazil and then run eastward as the Mbaracayú Mountains. From the northeast, other ranges extend southward toward Encarnación, diminishing to hills in the south. The highest peak is Mount San Rafael at 2,789 feet (850 metres), in the Cordillera de San Rafael in southeastern Paraguay. To the west lies the broad valley of the Paraguay River. The area from Encarnación northward to the Brazilian border, comprising one-third of eastern Paraguay, is called the Paraná Plateau. The western part of the Eastern Region and the Paraná valley north and east of Encarnación are the areas most favourable to human settlement. The Chaco Boreal, which covers more than 95,000 square miles (246,000 square km), about two-thirds of the country, forms the northeastern part of the Gran Chaco, a flat and largely featureless tropical region that extends into Bolivia and Argentina.

Drainage
Four-fifths of the country’s perimeter is traced by the Paraguay, Apa, Paraná, and Pilcomayo rivers. To the east of the Cordillera de San Rafael lies the Paraná (Alto [Upper] Paraná) River valley. To the west lies the broad valley of the Paraguay River. The Paraná forms both the eastern and southern borders of the country. Multiple tributaries of the Paraguay and Paraná cross the eastern and central regions. The mountain ranges of Amambay and Mbaracayú form the watershed between the Paraguay and the Paraná rivers. Important eastern tributaries of the Paraguay River include, from north to south, the Apa, Aquidabán, Ypané, Jejuí Guazú, and Tebicuary. Except for the Acaray and Ytambey rivers, the streams that flow into the Paraná have little economic significance. The Paraná joins the Paraguay River at the country’s southwestern corner. The only important tributary flowing from the west is the sluggish Pilcomayo, which joins the Paraguay near Asunción. Rising to the northwest in Bolivia, the Pilcomayo forms the southern border of the Chaco Boreal and is navigable in its lower reaches by small boats. Other Chaco rivers, including the Verde and Monte Lindo, are slow, sluggish, intermittent streams that drain into swamps or disappear during dry periods.

Paraguay has only two lakes of consequence. The largest, Lake Ypoá, about 40 miles (65 km) south of Asunción, merges into Lake Verá; it is drained by channels of the Tebicuary and feeds the marshes of the Ñeembucú plain. Lake Ypacaraí, about 30 miles (50 km) east of Asunción, is the site of a favourite summer resort at San Bernardino.

Soils
A large part of eastern Paraguay is covered by a residual soil mantle so deep that bedrock is rarely exposed. This soil is generally red and sandy and is low in nitrogen and other basic plant foods. About two-fifths of eastern Paraguay, in a belt running from the Brazilian border south to the Tebicuary and including the Asunción area, is covered by soils underlain by sandstone. Soils from basaltic lava, which generally are the most fertile, cover the Paraná Plateau. Transported soils cover a band along the Paraguay River, extending from the Apa River to the southern border and covering the Ñeembucú plain. Soils of the Gran Chaco are largely alluvial mud, clay, and sand that have been transported from the Bolivian highlands.

Climate
The climate is subtropical in most of the Eastern Region, which mainly lies south of the Tropic of Capricorn, and tropical in most of the Chaco Boreal extending to its north. Masses of humid air blanket the country in the summers, and the winters are subject to cold southern winds. Summer temperatures, between October and March, generally range from 75 to 100 °F (24 to 38 °C). Winter temperatures usually range from 60 to 75 °F (16 to 24 °C), although extremes in the 30s and 100s °F (about −1 and 40 °C) are not uncommon. Frost occurs frequently in the Eastern Region.

The annual average rainfall in eastern Paraguay varies from 65 inches (1,650 mm) in the southeast to about 55 inches (1,400 mm) along the Paraguay River. It diminishes gradually westward across the Chaco Boreal, averaging about 30 inches (760 mm). The heaviest rainfall is from October to April. The entire country is subject to periodic floods and droughts, both of which cause severe agricultural losses.

Plant and animal life
Forest resources of the Chaco include many species of hardwoods that yield tannin, of which the red quebracho is the most important. Perhaps the most famous is the samuú, on account of its bottle-shaped trunk. More than 500 species of hardwoods have been identified, among which are the urunday, peterebi, curupay, lapacho, and many kinds of palms. The supply of cedars has been exploited extensively for furniture, boxes, and general use. Large stands of plants or trees of the holly family (Ilex paraguariensis) grow throughout the country, and the leaves are harvested and dried to produce maté, a tealike beverage. Numerous palms, such as the caranday, are commercially useful. The very hard palo santo (“holy wood”) yields a valuable oil. Much of the Chaco is covered by cacti and a thorny scrub growth similar to the caatinga of Brazil’s northeast. Medicinal plants, which formerly were the basis of an extensive native pharmacopoeia, abound in Paraguay and include marijuana, the illegal cultivation of which increased dramatically beginning in the 1990s, mainly for export to Brazil. Since the early 21st century, there also has been growth in the production and export of medicinal teas and stevioside, which is extracted from the Stevia rebaudiana plant and used as a low-calorie natural sweetener.

Wildlife includes marsh deer, monkeys, armadillos, anteaters, otters, wild boars, tapirs, jaguars, ocelots, bats, and the coypu, a South American aquatic rodent. In the Chaco there is a small reserve of Chacoan peccaries, thought by scientists to be long extinct until the early 1970s, when living representatives of the species were discovered. Some types of caimans (particularly the yacaré), parrots, and macaws are threatened because of illegal trade. There is also extensive trading in armadillo, snake, and iguana skins for export. The birdlife is spectacular and includes parakeets, rheas, ibises, herons, toucans, eagles, falcons, and doves. The tarantula spider is common in Paraguay, and certain types (genus Theraphosa) eat small avian prey. Insect life is extensive and includes locusts, mosquitoes, and cockroaches. Paraguay’s rivers abound with fish, including the piranha.

People
Ethnic groups
Paraguay has one of the most homogeneous populations of any South American country. The vast majority of inhabitants are almost all mestizo (of mixed European and Indian ancestry). They pride themselves on their Guaraní descent, although the admixture of European strains is prominent. About 300,000 Brazilians, many of them farmers, immigrated to the Eastern Region in the 1970s because land in Paraguay was cheaper than in Brazil. Other immigrants have come from western Europe, particularly Germany, Italy, and Spain, and from Japan, Korea, China (Hong Kong), and Taiwan. There are about 30,000 German-speaking Mennonites in Paraguay, about half of whom live in colonies in the Chaco.

Indians make up about 2 percent of Paraguay’s population. Ethnically distinct groups include the Pai-Tavyterá, Mbyá, Aché, and Chiripá in the east and the Toba, Maskoy, Lengua, Nivaklé, Tapieté, Ayoreo, and Chamacoco in the Chaco. Other smaller Indian groups reside throughout Paraguay. Some are threatened with extinction through forced assimilation and the takeover of their traditional lands by Brazilian loggers and landless peasants. The welfare of the country’s indigenous peoples is the official responsibility of the Paraguayan Indian Institute. Many Indians also receive support from missionary groups.

Languages
As established in the 1992 constitution, Spanish and Guaraní are the official languages of Paraguay. Guaraní is spoken by nearly nine-tenths of the population, but it has only been used as a language of instruction in schools since 1996. Spanish is used almost exclusively in government and business. At least half of the population is bilingual. The constitution also recognizes other Indian languages as part of the country’s heritage.

Religion
About nine-tenths of the population professes adherence to Roman Catholicism. There is also a sizable minority of evangelical Protestants. The constitution recognizes no official religion and emphasizes the state’s independence from the Roman Catholic Church.

Settlement patterns
Paraguay has one of the lowest population densities in the world. Only a very small percentage of the population lives west of the Paraguay River in the Chaco; the principal areas of rural settlement are in the Eastern Region, where Paraguayans and Brazilians have settled in large numbers since the 1970s, particularly in the regions of Alto Paraná, Itapúa, and Canindiyú. The Mennonite colonies in the Chaco were first established about 120 miles west (190 km) of Puerto La Victoria (Puerto Casado) in the 1920s and ’30s. Japanese immigrants, especially after the 1930s, established thriving agricultural colonies southeast of Asunción and near Encarnación. Korean immigration to Paraguay began in the 1960s, and small Korean communities exist in the country’s larger cities.

The largest city is the capital, Asunción, whose metropolitan area includes the cities of San Lorenzo, Luque, and Fernando de la Mora. Ciudad del Este (formerly Puerto Presidente Stroessner), Hernandarias, and Puerto Presidente Franco, all in the extreme eastern part of the country, have grown rapidly since the 1970s. Other important urban centres are Concepción, Encarnación, Pedro Juan Caballero, Coronel Oviedo, Caaguazú, Santa Rita, and Villarrica.

Demographic trends
Between 1970 and the mid-2000s the population of Paraguay increased from 2.4 million to more than 6 million as a result of a decreasing death rate and a continued high birth rate. Though the birth rate has fallen since the end of the 1990s, it is still slightly higher than the world average. This explosive growth has resulted in a relatively young population. About two-fifths of Paraguayans are under the age of 15.

Paraguay is less urbanized than most Latin American countries, however, the proportion of the population living in urban areas rose slowly throughout the 1990s, reaching more than half by the early 21st century. Emigration has been high since the mid-20th century, when a significant number of Paraguayans began seeking employment in neighbouring countries, especially in Argentina. Since 2000 many young adults have emigrated to Europe (principally Spain) and the United States as well.

Economy
Until the mid-1970s, public-sector investment in Paraguay was low by Latin American standards and was concerned mainly with improving roads, telecommunications, and air transport. This situation changed with the establishment of several state companies, most notably Itaipú Binacional, set up in 1973 to build a huge hydroelectric dam on the Paraná, and steel, cement, and alcohol-distillation plants. Impressive economic growth, particularly in the 1970s, was not matched by government efforts to distribute its benefits equitably. Most Paraguayans, especially in rural areas, remained poor. The police and armed forces absorbed a large portion of the budget.

During the late 20th century, public-sector employment grew rapidly, making up about one-tenth of the labour force. Until 1982, when the construction of the Itaipú Dam was completed, Paraguay was able to offset its trade deficit with international loans. For the rest of the decade, however, the country was faced with a growing fiscal deficit, high debt repayments on commercial borrowing, and dwindling international reserves.

The government of Gen. Andrés Rodríguez (1989–93) implemented a number of economic reforms designed to introduce a market-based economy. They included the abolition of a multiple exchange rate, the reduction in subsidies to state companies, and the elimination of export taxes. His successor, Juan Carlos Wasmosy (1993–98), began a mild program of privatization. Economic mismanagement during the early 2000s led to a near default on external debt repayment obligations, which was narrowly averted by strict adherence to an International Monetary Fund stabilization program. By the early 21st century, the economy was experiencing rapid growth in the export of soybeans and meat products.

Agriculture, forestry, and fishing
Agriculture is one of the most important economic activities in Paraguay, employing slightly more than one-third of the workforce. It accounts for about one-fifth of the gross domestic product and the vast majority of exports. Important cash crops include soybeans, corn (maize), wheat, rapeseed, sesame, sugarcane, rice, peanuts (groundnuts), and cassava (manioc). Many farmers practice direct sowing, a mechanized system intended to preserve land nutrients and avoid erosion; much of the grain in Paraguay is grown by this method. The country is self-sufficient in many foodstuffs but is still highly dependent on the vagaries of climate and world commodity prices for its main agricultural products.

Although about one-fifth of Paraguay’s total land area is suitable for intensive cultivation, only a small amount of this is utilized steadily, and virtually all of it is in the Eastern Region. Most farm units are occupied by owners, but there are large numbers of tenant farmers and squatters. Paraguay has a highly skewed system of land tenure, which is largely a legacy of land sales following the War of the Triple Alliance (1864/65–70). During the late 20th century, more than three-fourths of the land was owned by 1 percent of landholders. The Rural Welfare Institute has helped several thousand farmers acquire land, but the farmers’ access to land titles has been problematic. The number of landless families remains high, and conflicts between large government-backed landowners, especially Brazilian soybean farmers, and groups of landless peasants seeking land reform continued into the 21st century. Some pigs, sheep, chickens, and horses are raised, but cattle are the most important livestock. Cattle raising, a traditional activity, is particularly prevalent in the Chaco and in the southern regions of Misiones and Ñeembucú. Mennonite communities in Paraguay have formed successful farm cooperatives, which provide about half of the country’s dairy products. Meat, dairy products, and hides are consumed domestically and exported.

Timber products have long been an important export for Paraguay. More than half of the country was forested in the 1940s, particularly the north and east, but by the end of the 1980s the proportion had dropped to nearly one-fourth. Rapid deforestation began in the 1970s, largely as a result of the extension of the agricultural frontier in the eastern border region. Widespread environmental damage ensued, as reforestation has been minimal. Official estimates of the rate of deforestation suggest that Paraguay is in danger of losing virtually all its forests by the middle of the 21st century. In 2004 the Paraguayan government passed the Zero Deforestation Law, which prohibits the conversion of forested area in Paraguay’s Eastern Region. Strong enforcement of the law has helped to lower the deforestation rate dramatically. Nevertheless, illegal logging in national parks has remained a threat.

Fish are plentiful in the rivers, and surubí (a species of catfish), pacu (a large river fish), and dorado (which resemble salmon) are popular domestically. There is no large-scale commercial fishing industry, however.

Resources and power
Mining and quarrying
Paraguay has relatively few proven mineral resources, and most mineral deposits are found east of the Paraguay River. Manganese is located near Emboscada; malachite and azurite (copper ores) near Caapucú, Encarnación, and San Miguel; feldspar and mica near Concepción; and talc and piroflita (hard, iron-bearing flagstone) near Caapucú and San Miguel. Ochre is found in the Cordillera region, and gypsum and limestone are found near the Paraguay River; there is some peat near Pilar. Copper, bauxite, iron, and uranium ores have been reported, and beginning in the early 2000s, concessions were granted to companies for gold and diamond prospecting. Extensive drilling in the Paraguayan Chaco has failed to find any commercially viable hydrocarbons. Despite the varied mineral resources, mining and quarrying are among the least-developed economic activities. Because of the limited quantities of proven mineral reserves, there is quarrying of only limestone, gypsum, and clays, which are used mostly for construction.

Energy
Paraguay’s most important natural resource is its hydroelectric potential. Most electricity in Paraguay came from wood- and oil-burning thermoelectric plants in Asunción until the Acaray hydroelectric power plant began operating in 1968. When the plant’s capacity was expanded, Paraguay’s total production increased more than 15-fold from 1970 to 1990. Nearly all of this increase came from hydroelectric sources. Distribution of electricity is controlled by the National Power Company, which was created in 1949.

A dramatic and far-reaching economic event in Paraguay’s history was the construction, in partnership with Brazil, of the hydroelectric project at Itaipú Dam on the Paraná, about 10 miles (16 km) north of the Friendship Bridge at Ciudad del Este. Itaipú Dam is one of the largest dams in the world and has one of the world’s highest planned generating capacities. Work was completed in 1982 on the main gravity dam, 643 feet (196 metres) high and 4,045 feet (1,233 metres) long, spanning the Paraná. The reservoir created by the dam covers about 870 square miles (2,250 square km) of Paraguayan and Brazilian territory. The last of its many turbines was completed in 2007. At the beginning of the 21st century, many Paraguayans had begun to question the terms of the 1973 Treaty of Itaipú, believing that Brazil was not paying enough for the energy it was using. Under the treaty it had been agreed that Paraguay would own one-half of the electricity generated but that it would sell its excess power exclusively to Brazil at predetermined rates for 50 years. After several rounds of negotiation in 2009, Paraguay and Brazil reached an agreement on July 25 in which the Brazilian government agreed to triple the amount it paid for Paraguay’s excess electricity. The deal also allowed Paraguay to sell electricity directly to the Brazilian market.

The Yacyretá hydroelectric project, a joint Paraguayan-Argentine effort in the Yacyretá-Apipé islands zone of the Paraná, was established by a 1973 treaty. Its construction was hindered by delays, however, and the plant operated below capacity for many years because of lack of financing to complete the ancillary works. In 2004 Paraguay and Argentina reached an agreement to complete the necessary work so that the reservoir on the Paraná River, which was first filled in 1994, would reach its optimum depth and boost the dam’s electricity-generation capacity. (This came about partly because Argentina had been experiencing energy shortages.) Because domestic demand absorbs only a small percentage of the combined output of Itaipú and Yacyretá, Paraguay has become one of the world’s largest exporters of electricity.

Manufacturing
Although the industrial sector registered high growth rates in the late 1970s and early ’80s, Paraguay is one of the least industrialized countries in South America. Manufacturing is generally small-scale and directed toward processing agricultural products. These include refined soybean oil, flour, sugar, tinned meat, textiles, leather products, alcohol, beer, and cigarettes. The construction and cement industry boomed in the late 1970s and early ’80s because of the Itaipú Dam and other hydroelectric projects. A small steel mill, inaugurated in 1986, and a factory that has produced ethyl alcohol (ethanol) from sugarcane since 1980 were sold in the 1990s under a privatization program instituted by the government.

Finance
The main state banks are the Central Bank of Paraguay, which handles all monetary functions, and the National Development Bank, which grants credits to agricultural enterprises and manufacturers. There are also branches of Latin American, European, and U.S. commercial banks. Foreign currency is freely available at banks and exchange houses. In 1992 the government approved laws encouraging foreign investment and the development of a stock market. Dollarization of the economy was pronounced following a series of bank collapses from 1995 to 2002, but depreciation of the U.S. dollar and improved macroeconomic management led to more than two-fifths of deposits in the banking system being held in domestic currency in the early 21st century. The guaraní, Paraguay’s national currency, has been relatively stable by Latin American standards.

Trade
Until the 1970s the economy was largely dependent on the export of tannin, meat products, yerba maté, tobacco, and cotton. Whereas these products have declined, the cultivation of soybeans, which are grown in the Eastern Region, has increased significantly. By 2006, Paraguay was one of the top exporters of soybeans in the world. Soybeans and the country’s other principal exports—meat products, wheat, corn (maize), and sawn timber—are marketed primarily in Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, The Netherlands, Italy, Germany, and Switzerland. Paraguay imports machinery, petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, and automobile and bus parts, principally from Brazil, Argentina, China, the United States, and Japan. The country’s trade statistics have been severely underestimated because of widespread smuggling of consumer goods to Brazil and Argentina; however, from the late 1990s the Brazilian government’s introduction of stricter control of purchases made in Paraguay led to a drop in the smuggling trade. Paraguay is a member of Mercosur, a regional economic organization formed by the Treaty of Asunción in 1991.

Services
The service sector accounts for about two-fifths of the country’s gross domestic product and employs about one-fifth of the country’s documented workforce. Tourism plays an important role in the economy, and Paraguay’s many historic churches and towns serve as points of interest. Several missions established by the Jesuits in the 17th and 18th centuries remain; two of these, La Santísima Trinidad de Paraná and Jesús de Tavarangue, were designated UNESCO World Heritage sites in 1993. The Chaco region is home to many national parks and biological reserves. On Paraguay’s eastern border, Iguazú Falls and the Itaipú Dam are frequently visited sites, as is Ciudad del Este, one of South America’s largest shopping centres, where visitors come from mainly Brazil and Argentina to buy duty-free goods.

Labour and taxation
Paraguay has one of the most inequitable income distributions of any country. Unemployment remains high; more than one-fifth of the workforce is unemployed or underemployed. Women make up about one-third of the labour force and work mainly in factories and domestic service. Under Gen. Alfredo Stroessner (1954–89), labour unions were strictly controlled, which helped to keep wage increases low. For most of his rule, the country had one large, government-recognized trade union, the Confederation of Paraguayan Workers (Confederación Paraguaya de Trabajadores; CPT). After Stroessner’s fall, a number of independent union groupings emerged, most notably the Unified Workers Central (Central Unitaria de Trabajadores; CUT). About one-seventh of workers are members of Paraguay’s more than 1,500 labour unions.

Paraguayan residents and nonresidents alike are subject to individual income tax depending on their income levels. Paraguay has a limited business tax and a slight value-added tax. Since 1991, taxes in Paraguay have been lower than those in other South American countries to compensate citizens for the earlier misuse of tax funds by the government. In general, tax evasion has been widespread in Paraguay. In the early 21st century the rate of taxation on businesses was reduced in a move to ensure companies’ compliance.

Transportation
During the mid-20th century, most international freight was transported along the Paraguay and Paraná rivers, which link Asunción and other Paraguayan ports to the Atlantic Ocean via Argentina. From the 1970s freight was increasingly taken by road, particularly to the Brazilian ports of Santos and Paranaguá; however, since 2000 there has been a resurgence of the use of river barges, especially in transporting soybeans for export, because of rising fuel costs.

Roads
Paraguay has a sizable road network equipped with adequate bridges, but a considerable portion remains unpaved. The country’s major highway network forms a triangle connecting Asunción, Encarnación, and Ciudad del Este, where the Friendship Bridge spans the Paraná and carries the highway into Brazil. This paved road continues to the port of Paranaguá, a free trade zone. Another bridge links Encarnación to Posadas, Arg., while a suspension bridge, part of the Pan-American Highway, links Asunción and Clorinda, Arg. A bridge links Asunción to the Trans-Chaco Highway, which runs northwest to the Bolivian border.

Railways
The railway system is made up of the Ferrocarril (Railway) Presidente Carlos Antonio López. It used to run from Asunción southeastward to Encarnación, where it connected with a train ferry to Posadas; however, only a small section continues to operate—from the outskirts of Asunción to Areguá, beside Lake Ypacaraí—and it is used exclusively for tourism.

Water transport
Asunción is the country’s largest port and has modern facilities. The port of Villeta, about 12 miles (20 km) south of Asunción, is also important. Paraguay’s merchant marine, the state-owned Flota Mercante del Estado, was created in 1945 and operated cargo vessels on the Paraguay and Paraná rivers. In the 1990s it was split into several entities and privatized.

Air services
The state-owned airline, Líneas Aéreas Paraguayas, was privatized in 1994; now owned principally by Brazilian Transportes Aéreo Marilia, it was renamed TAM Mercosur. National Transport Airlines serves interior cities. An international airport is located 9 miles (15 km) from Asunción. In 1996 another international airport opened near Ciudad del Este, on the border with Brazil.

Telecommunications
Paraguay has one of the lowest ratios of fixed-line telephone and Internet usage per person in South America. Partly in response to this, cellular phone use has risen dramatically, with about one-half of Paraguayans having cellular phone service.

Government and society
Constitutional framework
The 1992 constitution is the basic charter of Paraguay. It was drawn up by a Constituent Assembly, which was elected in December 1991, and it replaced the constitution of 1967. The constitution states that Paraguay is a representative and pluralist democracy and that government is exercised by the separate powers of the legislature, executive, and judiciary bodies.

The legislative body is the Congress, composed of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. All its members are elected by popular vote for five-year terms on the same date that the presidential elections are held.

The president is elected by a simple majority of votes for a five-year term and must be a Paraguayan by birth and at least 35 years old. There is no runoff election if the leading candidate fails to obtain an absolute majority. Stroessner amended the 1967 constitution in 1977 to allow his reelection indefinitely as president, but the 1992 constitution specifically rules this out. The president is the commander in chief of the armed forces and is authorized to appoint and remove commanders of the army and police. The 1992 constitution created the post of vice president. A council of ministers is appointed by the president.

The constitution guarantees the right to strike, specific rights for indigenous peoples, and basic civic liberties, including freedom of expression, of association, and of religion. The death penalty was abolished in 1992. Exceptions to the constitution can be made by the president or the Congress only in cases of international armed conflict or serious internal unrest.

Local government
Paraguay is divided into departamentos (departments). Each department is further divided into distritos (districts). Until 1991 the central government appointed departmental governors and local mayors, but in May of that year direct municipal elections were held for the first time. The 1992 constitution, in another innovation, provided for elections for a governor and a departmental board for each department, also to be held every five years.

Justice
The judicial system is headed by the Supreme Court. The 1992 constitution increased the number of justices from five to nine; they are chosen by the Senate and the president and are appointed for a term of five years. Judges who are confirmed for two terms following the terms of appointment cannot be removed from their post until they reach the mandatory retirement age established for Supreme Court justices. The Supreme Court appoints judges of lower courts and magistrates. There is also an attorney general appointed by the president. The judiciary body has budgetary autonomy. Supreme Court rulings have generally been inconsistent and politically influenced.

Political process
Voting is compulsory for all Paraguayans age 18 to 75. Elections are governed by an electoral code, which can be changed by Congress. Resident aliens are allowed to vote in municipal elections. Until 1990 the party that won a simple majority was awarded two-thirds of the seats of both chambers; this was replaced by a system of proportional representation.

From the late 19th century, Paraguay’s two traditional political parties were the Liberal Party (last in power in 1940) and the National Republican Association (Asociación Nacional Republicana; ANR), popularly known as the Colorado Party. From 1947 until 1962 the Colorado Party was the only legal party in Paraguay, and it remained in power continuously until 2008. Under Gen. Alfredo Stroessner’s rule (1954–89), all political parties were closely controlled, including the dissident factions of his Colorado Party. The police kept dossiers on citizens, particularly political opponents, and political repression was widespread. Senior generals played a major part in government.

Political freedom improved significantly under Presidents Andrés Rodríguez (1989–93) and Juan Carlos Wasmosy (1993–98), and the internal factions of the Colorado Party were openly tolerated. In 2008 Fernando Lugo was elected president as the candidate of the Patriotic Alliance for Change (Alianza Patriótica para el Cambio; APC), a centre-left coalition that included the Authentic Radical Liberal Party (Partido Liberal Radical Auténtico; PLRA), an offshoot of the traditional Liberal Party, as well as a number of groups representing the interests of Indians, peasants, and leftist unions. Among the country’s other political parties are the Paraguayan Communist Party (Partido Comunista Paraguayo; PCP), the Beloved Fatherland Party (Partido Patria Querida; PPQ), and the National Union of Ethical Citizens (Partido Unión Nacional de Ciudadanos Éticos; PUNACE). Parties dedicated to the substitution of force for democracy may not be organized. No party may receive aid or instructions from foreign organizations or states or establish structures that directly or indirectly embrace violence as a political methodology.

The family usually determines an individual’s allegiance to political parties; a change of political affiliation is often considered an act of betrayal. Party membership means less the adherence to a political ideology than the unswerving support of the party’s candidates. Especially in the rural areas, such loyalty is often the route to employment.

Security
Paraguay’s military consists of an army, navy, and air force. The 1992 constitution reduced military service (which is compulsory for males age 18 and older) from 18 to 12 months; conscientious objectors may opt for an alternative to service. During the Stroessner years, all military officials were obliged to become members of the Colorado Party. The 1992 constitution banned all military personnel in active service from belonging to political parties or engaging in any political activity.

Health and welfare
Measles, tuberculosis, acute respiratory infections, dysentery, hookworm, and hepatitis are prevalent in Paraguay. Chagas disease and leishmaniasis are endemic, and there have been sporadic outbreaks of the mosquito-borne dengue fever and yellow fever. Although infant mortality rates have declined significantly since the 1960s, they are still higher than those of other South American countries. Malnutrition and limited public health services, especially poor implementation of immunization programs, have led to thousands of preventable deaths, particularly in rural areas, where the health of residents is generally worse than that of their urban counterparts. By 2000, about four-fifths of Paraguayans had access to safe drinking water (up from about three-fifths in 1992), yet in general the government has spent little on health care. About four-fifths of Paraguayans do not have health insurance. The state-run Institute of Social Provision (IPS) is funded by contributions from government, employers, and employees. It offers pensions, medical care, and subsidies during illness but reaches only a small percentage of the salaried workers.

Education
Basic education is free and, where possible, compulsory for children between ages 7 and 13. Although the official enrollment figures are high, the dropout rate is also high. More than nine-tenths of the population is literate, though functional literacy is probably lower. The two oldest universities—the public National University of Asunción (1890) and the private Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic University (1960)—are located in Asunción, with branches in other towns. These universities also have specialty schools for engineering, medicine, agriculture, business, and veterinary science. Beginning in the 1990s, the number of private universities has increased. At least half of all university graduates are female. Government spending on education increased after a 1992 constitutional requirement portioned one-fifth of the government’s budget for that purpose. Nevertheless, the number of schools is still insufficient, especially in rural areas, and teaching resources are inadequate throughout the country.

Cultural life
Cultural milieu
The main characteristic of Paraguayan culture is its fusion of both the Guaraní and Spanish traditions. Folklore, the arts, and literature reflect this dual origin. The country’s outstanding handicraft is the production of ñandutí lace, which is thought to represent a combination of 16th-century needle lacemaking techniques from Europe with Guaraní traditions.

Daily life and social customs
Social life tends to revolve around the family. Godparents are particularly important; if parents become unable to provide for their children, godparents are expected to assume responsibility for them.

Paraguayan cuisine reflects traditional Guaraní cooking styles. Beef dishes and freshwater river fish are popular. Other typical foods are soups, often with meat, and various breads, especially chipa, which is flavoured with cheese and egg. Corn (maize) is a staple ingredient in many dishes, including sopa paraguaya, a pie made from corn, eggs, and milk; avatí mbaipy, a corn soup; and mbaipy he-é, a dessert made from corn, milk, and molasses. Beer and caña, a cane sugar spirit, are popular drinks. Yerba maté, the local herbal tea, is consumed year-round—chilled in summer, hot in winter. A common pastime is drinking tereré (a bitter tea made from the same type of leaves that are used to brew yerba maté) from a shared gourd or from a hollowed cow’s horn, or guampa, which often is beautifully carved.

Outside Asunción the pace of life is slow. Religious celebrations throughout the country are well attended; for example, thousands of Paraguayans visit Caacupé on December 8 to participate in the city’s annual celebration of the festival of the Virgin of Miracles. The Feast of Saint John (San Juan Ara), on June 24, is celebrated with traditional games, one of which includes walking on hot coals. The country’s Afro-Paraguayan community at Kamba Kua celebrates an annual music and dance festival. Throughout the country, on August 1 it is a tradition to imbibe carrulim, a Guaraní drink made of caña, ruda (a root plant that produces yellow flowers and is used mostly as a medicine), and lemon. These three ingredients, according to Guaraní beliefs, bring happiness, drive away evil, and protect a person’s health. Many Paraguayans believe that the month of August brings misfortune and bad luck to those who do not drink the concoction. Herb vendors and kiosks sell carrulim in specially prepared bottles in towns and villages each August 1.

The arts
Paraguay has a distinctive musical tradition, especially of songs and ballads. Paraguayan songs, which tend to be languid and sentimental, were made popular by artists such as Los Paraguayos and Luis Alberto del Paraná in the 1950s. Typical music for dancing includes polkas, courtship dances of Bohemian folk origin, and the galopa, a variant of which is the bottle dance, so called because the dancers balance bottles on their heads. José Asunción Flores (1904–72) was the country’s most outstanding composer and harpist. He invented the guaranía, a musical style that features haunting and melancholic melodies that encapsulate the Paraguayan identity. Feliz Pérez Cardozo and Emiliano R. Fernández are also noted for their musical compositions.

The number of books published in Paraguay increased significantly in the 1980s and particularly after the coup in 1989. Paraguay’s most famous author is Augusto Roa Bastos, whose novel Yo, el supremo (“I, the Supreme”; 1974), based on the life of the 19th-century dictator José Gaspar de Francia, won wide acclaim.

Cultural institutions
Paraguay’s principal cultural institutions are located in Asunción. There are learned societies concerned with Paraguayan and Guaraní history and culture, as well as various other societies and research institutes. The Normal School of Music, the Conservatory of Music, the National Academy of Fine Arts, and the Asunción Symphony Orchestra are major arts institutions. Paraguay has museums of ethnography, natural history, and military history, as well as art galleries with collections of the work of Paraguayan artists such as Carlos Colombino and Ricardo Migliorisi.

Library services are centred in Asunción. The largest collections are in the National Library and Archive (1869) and in the private Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic University.

Sports and recreation
Paraguayans are fond of sports. While football (soccer) is the most popular sport, fishing, tennis, basketball, and golf are also common. The annual Transchaco Rally, a three-day motor rally covering thousands of miles of dirt roads of the sparsely populated Paraguayan Chaco, is held in September. Paraguay made its Olympic debut at the 1968 Games in Mexico City.

Media and publishing
Censorship was widely practiced during the Stroessner years but was relaxed considerably under the Rodríguez regime. Virtually all newspapers and periodicals are published in Spanish. The Asunción daily newspapers include ABC Color (shut down during the Stroessner regime from 1984 to 1989, it resumed publication in 1989), El Popular, La Nación, and Ultima Hora.

The National Telecommunications Administration oversees radio and television broadcasting. Radio Nacional is the government network, but there are many privately operated stations. Commercial television networks transmit from Asunción, Encarnación, and Ciudad del Este.

James E. Painter
R. Andrew Nickson



 

History

Early history
The Guaraní occupied the region between the Paraguay and Paraná rivers long before the arrival of Europeans (about 2000–1000 bce). They were a Tupian-speaking people, and in most respects their customs resembled those of the other Indians in the tropical forests. The women cultivated corn (maize), cassava (manioc), and sweet potatoes, and the men hunted and fished. They were warlike, seminomadic people who lived in large thatched dwellings grouped in villages; each village was surrounded by a defensive palisade. In the 15th century raiders from the Gran Chaco region made frequent attacks upon Guaraní tribes. Crossing the Paraguay River, the Guaraní retaliated and subdued their enemies, carrying the conflict into the margins of the Inca empire. They were, therefore, the natural allies of early European explorers who were seeking short routes to the mineral wealth of Peru. Alejo García, making his way from the Brazilian coast in 1524, and Sebastian Cabot, sailing up the Paraná in 1526, were the earliest of these explorers to reach the area.

Colonial period
The first colonial settlements were established by Domingo Martínez de Irala in the period 1536–56. The first Spanish colonists, unsuccessful in their search for gold, settled peacefully among the Guaraní in the region of Asunción, the present capital of Paraguay. These first settlers established their notorious “harems” of Guaraní women; their ethnically mixed descendants gradually grew into the rural population of modern Paraguay, which still considers itself to be Guaraní in custom and habit. With Asunción as his principal base, Irala laid the foundations of Paraguay and made it the centre of Spanish power in southeastern South America. Irala’s colonization policy involved the delimitation of the boundary with Brazil through a line of forts against Portuguese expansion, the foundation of villages, the settlement of the Guaraní to provide food, labour, and soldiers, and extensive Guaraní-Spanish intermarriage. Rapidly, a national and fairly homogeneous amalgam of Indian and Spanish cultures came into being.

For more than 150 years from early in the 17th century, Jesuit communal missions in the Paraná and Uruguay basins of southeastern Paraguay governed the lives of 150,000 Indians in 30 reducciones, or settlements. These were centres of religious conversion, agricultural and pastoral production, and manufacturing and trade; they served also as strategic outposts against Portuguese expansion from southern Brazil. Isolated from the heart of Paraguay, which centred on Asunción, the missions became an autonomous military, political, and economic “state within a state,” increasingly exciting the envy of the Spanish landowners in the Asunción area. In the period 1721–35 the latter waged a struggle to overthrow the Jesuit monopoly of Indian trade and labour. Unaided, the settlements also had to defend themselves against slave raiders from São Paulo and, in 1754–57, a combined Spanish-Portuguese attack that was designed to enforce a territorial partition of the mission settlements. Defiance of such powerful groups paved the way for the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767. The settlements were abandoned, the Indians were absorbed by either the landed estates or the jungle, the settlements fell into ruin, and economic activity ceased.

In 1776 the new Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata was created, with its capital in Buenos Aires. This effectively made Asunción and all of Paraguay dependent on Buenos Aires, thus ending the region’s colonial dominance.

Struggle for independence
As the power of Buenos Aires grew, the leaders of Paraguay began to resent the decline in their province’s significance, and, although they had early challenged Spanish authority, they refused to accept the declaration of Argentine independence in 1810 as applying to Paraguay. Nor could an Argentine army under Gen. Manuel Belgrano enforce Paraguayan acceptance, as Paraguayan militia repulsed Belgrano’s forces in 1811. Later, however, when the Spanish governor sought assistance from the Portuguese in defending the colony from further attacks from Buenos Aires, he underestimated the nationalistic spirit of the Paraguayans. Under the leadership of the militia captains Pedro Juan Cabellero and Fulgencio Yegros, they promptly deposed the governor and declared their independence on May 14, 1811.

Elman R. Service
Gilbert James Butland
John Hoyt Williams

Establishment of the republic

The Francia regime
A governing junta was soon established, led by Yegros but in reality dominated by a civilian lawyer, José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia. Francia proposed the idea of a confederation of equals to Buenos Aires. The city was hoping for eventual domination but settled for a vague military alliance, which was signed in October 1811. This constituted de facto recognition of Paraguayan independence, and, when Buenos Aires attempted to use the alliance to acquire Paraguayan troops for its own interprovincial quarrels, the accord became void. Buenos Aires’s response was to blockade Paraguay. In the face of regional fragmentation, Buenos Aires sent Nicolás de Herrera to Asunción to frighten, bluff, or bribe Paraguay into a union of unequals. Francia responded by convening a congress, which on Oct. 12, 1813, formally declared Paraguay an independent republic and rejected further treaties with Buenos Aires. A consulate of two men, Yegros and Francia, was established to rule the republic for a year.

At the end of that year, a new congress met and proclaimed Francia supreme dictator of the republic for a period of five years; in 1816 a third congress made him perpetual dictator, and his will was the law in Paraguay for an additional 24 years. El Supremo, as he was known, prohibited any political activity, stripped the church of its holdings and power, confiscated the wealth of the small Spanish elite, abolished the municipal government of Asunción, and generally isolated Paraguay from its rather hostile neighbours. In 1820 El Supremo found out about a plot to depose him and restore the native elite to power. Hundreds of arrests were made, and in the following year at least 68 men of the traditional Paraguayan aristocracy (including Fulgencio Yegros) were executed. Their wealth in land and slaves became part of the national patrimony, and well before Francia’s death (1840) the state came to own a vast proportion of the country. With the borders sealed, Paraguay became of necessity almost self-sufficient; only a small, carefully regulated commerce was permitted with Argentina and Brazil. Uninvited foreigners were often held for years under loose arrest in the interior.

The start of modernization
When Francia died, he left behind a quietly prosperous country that had adjusted well to what amounted to state socialism, but he also left a country of rustics with no political experience and a strong tradition of dictatorial rule. In 1841 a second consulate emerged from the chaos in the figures of a civilian, Carlos Antonio López, and a soldier, Mariano Roque Alonso. It was soon clear that López was the true ruler of Paraguay, and in 1844 a congress named him president. The same congress promulgated a constitution, notable for the great powers accorded the president and the absence of the word liberty from its text. López devoted much of his two decades in power to opening the country slowly to the wider world and to modernization. Doing so provoked international crises, and it was not until after the fall of the Argentine dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas in 1852 that Argentina recognized Paraguayan sovereignty and eased its stranglehold on the rivers leading to the sea.


 

Paraguay’s conflicts with its neighbours
While López was attempting to modernize Paraguay, he also had to attend to border crises with Brazil and Argentina. These crises convinced him that Paraguayan modernization should proceed along military avenues. Thus, hundreds of foreign engineers, medical workers, scientists, machinists, and advisers were put to work on military projects. López was threatened by a major Brazilian naval expedition on the Paraná River in 1855; in 1858 a large flotilla of the U.S. Navy appeared to force a solution to a complex diplomatic issue, but British war vessels captured and held for a time the flagship of the small Paraguayan navy. In most of these contretemps, López was forced to give in, and the consequent humiliation lent greater urgency to his desire to strengthen Paraguay’s defenses. By the time of his death, in September 1862, he had created a major regional military machine. López, a cautious man, warned his eldest son, Francisco Solano López, who was to succeed him, not to use the new military might capriciously but to settle disputes through diplomacy and negotiation.

War of the Triple Alliance
Francisco Solano López in 1862 was the inexperienced, spoiled son of an iron-willed dictator. He overestimated the military strength of his country and felt that Paraguay should have a larger voice in the affairs of the region. Thus, when Uruguay, wracked by civil war, was threatened with intervention by Brazil, López took an increasingly bellicose position. When Brazil ignored his warnings and ultimatums and invaded Uruguay in August 1864 to support a pro-Brazilian faction in the civil war, López decided to use the strength of his military machine. In November he ordered the capture of a Brazilian war steamer and sent units of his army and navy north to invade the Mato Grosso Plateau, simultaneously preparing a larger army corps to strike south to destroy the Brazilian army in Uruguay. When Argentina denied his request for transit of a Paraguayan army, he declared war on Argentina as well, in March 1865. In May, as Paraguayan troops were approaching, a puppet Uruguayan government signed the Treaty of the Triple Alliance with Brazil and Argentina, committing all three to the war against Paraguay.

The Paraguayan force heading southward was destroyed at Uruguaiana, in Brazil, and a strike into northeast Argentina resulted in heavy Paraguayan casualties and the virtual destruction of López’s fleet in 1865. Much of the rest of the war was fought in southwestern Paraguay, near and around Humaitá. In May 1866 López threw the elite of his army into suicidal attacks against allied forces at Tuyutí, losing almost 20,000 of his best men. Other lost battles in 1866–68, as well as widespread epidemics of Asiatic cholera, devastated the population of the country. In 1869 and 1870 the tragedy was completed as López, pursued by large allied forces, retreated through the interior of his country with a shattered army and thousands of civilian refugees, dragging famine, disease, and death in his wake. Perhaps by this point unhinged, he ordered the executions of hundreds of people, including his own two brothers, two brothers-in-law, and scores of his officers. Finally, on March 1, 1870, his last camp was attacked at Cerro Corá by Brazilian cavalry, and López died in combat. His country by then lay in ruins, with more than half of its former population dead. A Brazilian occupation army remained, further draining the country, until 1876. This Paraguayan War, or War of the Triple Alliance, was one of the bloodiest in Latin American history.

Reconstruction
Under a liberal constitution promulgated in 1870, Paraguay began a painful reconstruction. Only the mutual jealousies of Brazil and Argentina prevented the country from losing much of its territory. As a result, Brazil gained no lands that it had not actually occupied before the war, and Argentina’s claims to most of the Chaco were reduced considerably when, in arbitration, U.S. Pres. Rutherford B. Hayes decided one key boundary issue in 1878 in favour of Paraguay. When the army of occupation was removed in 1876, it left a crowd of Paraguayan politicians noted for their corruption and ambition. In 1887 Paraguay’s two major political parties, the Liberal Party and the National Republican Association (Asociación Nacional Republicana; ANR), generally known as the Colorado Party, were born. The Colorados were in power from 1887 until a liberal revolt unseated them in 1904, and the Liberal Party, in their turn, dominated the presidency for the next 30 years.

The Chaco War
Paraguay’s reconstruction was complicated by a dispute with Bolivia concerning boundaries in the Chaco. The dispute was exacerbated when, in the 1880s, Bolivia lost its seacoast in the War of the Pacific with Chile and, seeing the Chaco as a possible outlet to the sea via the Paraná River, began to penetrate it with soldiers and colonists. By the 1920s, armed clashes began to take place as Paraguay moved into the region in greater force. As Paraguay was frantically trying to arm itself, a Bolivian force stormed a Paraguayan fort on June 15, 1932, and the war began. The Paraguayan president, Eusebio Ayala, gave a military carte blanche to Gen. José Félix Estigarribia, who gradually pushed the Bolivians back until they were almost entirely ejected from the Chaco. Through foreign mediation, a cease-fire was attained on June 12, 1935, and a peace treaty was signed three years later, awarding Paraguay three-fourths of the Chaco.

In February 1936, Ayala and Estigarribia were imprisoned following a military coup known as the Febrerista revolt, conducted by radical officers. The inept new government soon fell, however, and Estigarribia was elected president in 1939.

On Sept. 7, 1940, before he could actually implement a new constitution that gave him great authoritarian powers, Estigarribia was killed in an air crash. He was replaced by Gen. Higinio Morínigo, a harsh opportunist, who immediately persecuted the Liberals and rewarded the Colorados. A revolt of Liberals and other groups in 1947 caused a civil war that again devastated the country. Morínigo was deposed by the Colorados themselves in 1948. In the next six years, Paraguay had six weak presidents, and then, in 1954, Gen. Alfredo Stroessner, supported by both the Colorados and the army, seized power.

The Stroessner regime
The authoritarian Stroessner, with aid from the United States and later Brazil, managed to stabilize one of the world’s least stable currencies, attract foreign investment, and embark on large public works projects. Paraguayan isolation was broken down. However, harsh rule was not relaxed after 1960. Though elections on all levels were permitted, the Colorado Party never lost, and Stroessner was duly reelected every five years with a huge plurality. The church alone continued to object to the repressive aspects of the regime, such as the inhumane treatment of the Indian minority and censorship. Relations with the United States deteriorated throughout the 1970s, and U.S. aid was much reduced. Partly because of this, the Stroessner government aligned itself closely with the authoritarian regime in Brazil, which offered aid and political support. The two countries cooperated in the building of the immense Itaipú hydroelectric plant on their shared border. As a result of this project, the national economy briefly improved, but it took a downturn in the early 1980s, causing some protests against the Stroessner regime.

The government showed little tolerance for opposition to its policies; most of the main opposition leaders were kept forcibly in exile. Such repression focused international attention on Paraguay for human rights violations, further hampering the country’s foreign relations and intensifying economic stagnation. The aging Stroessner, who had been elected in 1983 for a seventh term, also had to deal with dissension within his own Colorado Party that pitted the traditionalist, or “moderate,” wing of the party against the “militant” wing. The former sought to open the political and economic system somewhat, whereas the latter favoured continuation of the policies of the Stroessner regime and wanted Gustavo Stroessner to succeed his father whenever he stepped down from office. Factional discord rocked the Colorado Party, resulting in a partial purge of the traditionalists in 1988, and it appeared briefly that the militants were firmly in control. The traditionalists, however, were simply lining up their forces for the inevitable conflict. On Feb. 3, 1989, Stroessner was overthrown in a coup led by his erstwhile top military commander, Gen. Andrés Rodríguez, who announced that democracy had come to Paraguay.

Democratic freedoms
Elections were held on May 1, 1989, and Rodríguez was elected president (by a 74 percent plurality). The opposition parties had not had much time to organize for the electoral contest, and control of Congress remained with the Colorado Party. The party also remained in control of the judiciary, and Rodríguez’s cabinet included a number of military officers. Moreover, there was some concern over the fact that Rodríguez had never changed his active-duty military status. Nonetheless, a new constitution went into effect on June 20, 1992, and the president adopted certain democratic measures. He declared freedom of the press, legalized all political parties, repealed a number of repressive laws, ratified the human rights treaties of the United Nations and Organization of American States, and freed the country’s remaining political prisoners.

Despite the establishment of democratic liberties, the armed forces remained a key power in Paraguay. Army Chief Gen. Lino Oviedo soon emerged as a major figure. He engineered the selection of Juan Carlos Wasmosy as the candidate of the Colorado Party in the 1993 presidential elections; Wasmosy won the election and became Paraguay’s first civilian president since 1954. But Oviedo and Wasmosy had a subsequent falling out, leading to a rebellion in April 1996, when only strong diplomatic pressure was able to avert a military coup. Oviedo retired from active service and reemerged as a Colorado Party front-runner in the 1998 presidential race, but Wasmosy retaliated by arresting Oviedo on charges arising from his 1996 coup attempt. Oviedo’s vice presidential running mate, Raúl Cubas Grau, replaced Oviedo as the party candidate and won the presidency for the Colorado Party with a convincing majority.

Three days after assuming office, in August 1998, President Cubas released Oviedo from jail and refused to return Oviedo to confinement even after the Supreme Court ruled his actions unconstitutional. A political impasse was broken following the assassination of Vice President Luís María Argaña, on March 23, 1999. Fearing military intervention, thousands of student demonstrators protested outside the National Congress building in Asunción, calling for the arrest of Oviedo, who was widely suspected of being involved in the assassination. Later that week, Oviedo supporters fired on the demonstrators, killing eight and wounding many. But this provocation failed to disperse the crowds. President Cubas resigned and was granted asylum in Brazil; meanwhile, Oviedo fled to Argentina.

At the end of March, Luis González Macchi, former head of the Senate, was sworn in as president to head a new “government of national unity,” comprising members of all three major political parties. Under strong external pressure from the United States and the International Monetary Fund, the new government announced its commitment to reform civil service, to privatize industry, and to mandate greater civilian control over Paraguay’s armed forces. But Colorado Party supporters of the assassinated vice president and former members of the Stroessner regime occupied key positions in the new government. They remained wedded to a corporativist style of politics that was opposed to fundamental reform.

Paraguay in the 21st century
After a decade of stagnation, the Paraguayan economy revived, spurred by rapid growth in soybean production. Indeed, Paraguay was one of the world’s largest exporters of soybeans at the beginning of the 21st century. However, despite faster economic growth, unemployment and crime rates remained high as the government failed to address the urgent need for land reform and industrialization. There was growing resentment at Paraguay’s subordinate role within the region, including calls to leave Mercosur. Also of concern were the terms of the hydropower Itaipú Treaty with Brazil (1973), which many Paraguayans saw as inequitable. Gonzalez’s term in office was scarred by corruption charges, and on April 27, 2003, Colorado Party candidate Nicanor Duarte Frutos won the presidential election, promising to fight corruption in his party and in his country. During his presidential term Duarte removed six judges from the Supreme Court who were suspected of corruption, introduced tax reforms, and pursued efficient macroeconomic policies. In June 2004 Oviedo returned from exile and was imprisoned for his 1996 convictions; he was paroled in 2007. In the historic 2008 presidential election, former bishop Fernando Lugo of the centre-left coalition Patriotic Alliance for Change (Alianza Patriótica para el Cambio; APC) defeated Blanca Ovelar of the Colorado Party, ending that party’s 62 years of continuous rule.

John Hoyt Williams
R. Andrew Nickson

In 2009 it was discovered that Lugo had fathered a son while he was still a bishop. Other paternity claims were filed against him shortly afterward. Lugo was urged to step down, but he said that he would fulfill his five-year term.

In April 2009 Lugo and Bolivian President Evo Morales signed an accord settling the border dispute over the Chaco region that had caused the Chaco War in the 1930s. They blamed foreign intervention for fueling the war.

Ed.