Word: stroessner
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Paraguay's Congress, where in April he announced his "aim of perfecting a durable democratic regime." President Alfredo Stroessner, 46, sent a bristling order of dissolution. With that, Stroessner went back to the chancy business of running the last dictatorship on the continent of South America...
Paraguay's Congress voted 26 to 23 to condemn the "police methods." Stroessner, who had been watching the debate minute by minute, decided democracy had gone too far, ordered units of the cavalry into Asunción, clamped on a state of siege, and Paraguay's democratic interlude was all over...
...miles from Asuncion sat the 2,000-man cavalry, fiercely opposed to any liberalizing. Siding with the cavalry was the 600-man navy, with two gunboats (one under repair), seven admirals. A third army group -the 1,500-man 5th Military Region headquartered in the storied Chaco area-wanted Stroessner to restore a measure of freedom. Supporting these liberals was the 400-man air force (five DC-38, one PBY Catalina, two vintage trainers...
...Stroessner thought the power balance through, and on the day that Congress reconvened last week, he put on a civilian suit, rode in an open blue convertible escorted by plumed lancers down troop-lined streets to the Congress building, to make his yearly state-of-the-nation speech. There he announced his "aim of perfecting a durable, democratic regime." He said the government would introduce bills to lift the state of siege, proclaim a general political amnesty, lift restrictions on freedom of expression, adopt a new constitution...
Underground oppositionists scoffed. Said one of their leaders: "On the day we take over, we will do all those things Stroessner promises today. And we will do one more thing: punish the men who enslaved, tortured and starved the people of Paraguay for years...