FOXNews.com - Former Paraguayan Dictator Dies at 93

Former Paraguayan Dictator Dies at 93

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

By VIVIAN SEQUERA, Associated Press Writer

BRASILIA, Brazil — Alfredo Stroessner, the canny anti-communist general who ruled Paraguay for decades with a blend of force, guile and patronage before his ouster in 1989, died in exile on Wednesday. He was 93.

Stroessner contracted pneumonia after a hernia operation in Brazil's capital, where he had lived i1102n near total isolation since he was forced from power.

He died of a stroke with his family gathered around him in the Hospital Santa Luzia, his grandson Alfredo Dominguez Stroessner said in a radio interview. Dominguez Stroessner said his grandfather left no instructions on his funeral but the family was considering burial in Encarnacion, the Paraguayan city where the former dictator was born.

Stroessner seized power in a 1954 coup and through fraud and repression, held it for 35 years to become one of Latin America's longest-ruling strongmen.

Finally ousted by his own generals, Stroessner remains hated by many in Paraguay, where he was accused of repression and human rights violations, even though some stalwarts credit him for big public works projects that modernized the country.

A staunch U.S. ally, Stroessner made Paraguay a refuge for some Nazi war criminals among 200,000 Germans he sheltered after World War II. He twice denied extradition requests for Dr. Josef Mengele, the infamous"Angel of Death"at Auschwitz. Mengele later fled Nazi hunters to Brazil, where he died under an assumed name.

Stroessner also sheltered fellow right-wing dictators, including Anastasio Somoza of Nicaragua.

"Stroessner didn't have any problem giving refuge to people with blood on their hands,"said Aaron Breitbart, a senior researcher with the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles."His death is no loss to democratic values in Paraguay."

After his ouster, Stroessner lived as a recluse in Brazil, where his asylum status made extradition impossible. Neighbors said they rarely saw him leave his house on the shore of Lake Paranoa in Brasilia.

As Stroessner's health failed, President Nicanor Duarte said there were no plans to honor him after his death.

The son of a German immigrant father and a Paraguayan mother, Stroessner fought in the 1930s Chaco War against Bolivia, and became a general at age 40. He studied tactics in Panama, Brazil and the United States and became army chief of staff in 1951.

He rigged his re-election every five years after his 1954 seizure of power and brought Paraguay into the modern age, transforming a stagnating, politically tumultuous country with open sewers and no running water, even in the capital, into a relatively prosperous and modern nation.

Stroessner put his name on schools, public buildings and the international airport. An important river port was christened Puerto Stroessner. His portrait decorated the walls of public offices, shops and living rooms, and a huge neon sign in a central plaza of the capital, Asuncion, blinked the message:"Stroessner: Peace, Work and Well-being."

His public works projects included the $16 billion Itaipu dam _ built with neighboring Brazil _ which began producing power in early 1985. But most of the new wealth did not reach average citizens in the nation of 3.8 million people.

Paraguay sought for years to question Stroessner about the"disappearances"of his opponents. Human rights activists say his regime was a key part of"Operation Condor,"a network of right-wing military governments, secretly supported by U.S. intelligence agencies, that repressed leftist dissidents across South America in the 1970s and early 1980s.

The general described virtually all his opponents as Marxist subversives bent on returning the country to political chaos.

Some 1,500 victims identified by a"Truth and Justice"commission are being compensated by the Duarte government for injuries suffered under the dictatorship, but his death puts an end to many lawsuits against him.

"Today we should be celebrating with the death of Stroessner; unfortunately, he died with impunity,"said Hugo Rubin, a journalist jailed by the regime in the 1980s.

Stroessner's iron grip began to loosen in the mid-1980s, when protesters and police sometimes fought in the streets of Asuncion, unrest inconceivable a few years earlier.

Members of the ruling Colorado Party, his main tool of political control, began to accuse him of repression and dictatorial tactics. Stroessner responded by trying to stamp out dissent in late 1988 _ ordering many military officers to retire and attempting to force out a powerful army commander, Gen. Andres Rodriguez.

Rodriguez rebelled on Feb. 2, 1989, sending soldiers and tanks to the presidential guard headquarters, where Stroessner had taken refuge. Stroessner surrendered and went into exile in Brazil, where he remained for the rest of his life.

Rodriguez became de facto president until hastily called elections made him the constitutionally elected head of the government, a position he held until the first civilian government was elected in 1993.