Report from Paraguay
FRIEDENBERG, DANIEL M.
VISITING THE 17TH CENTURY Report from Paraguay By Daniel M. Friedenburg ASUNCION Among The national fossils that still remain, Paraguay has a prominent place. Only nine hours by jet from New...
...My brief direct impression was of a hearty man in his '50s, obviously of Teutonic blood, with a commanding manner...
...It Thus lacks meaning to call Paraguay a dictatorship in the sense that most Americans use the word—a state in which a strong man holds power against the will of a contrary-minded people...
...While modern historians do not share a uniform abhorrence of the Supreme One, mainly because of his pro-Guarani policy, virtually all of them agree that the Marshall was a maniac...
...Modern ideas are as rigorously excluded as contempo-rary politics...
...In the struggle against slave raiders from Brazil, the Jesuits armed the Guaranis and turned them into formidable warriors...
...Only nine hours by jet from New York—and this will be cut to less than five hours by 1970—it is a 17th century Spanish relic stranded in the ob scure hinterland of South America...
...A state like Paraguay seems to exist in defiance of any rules...
...criticism, the shadow but not the substance of a two-party system...
...At the age of 19, he considered himself the greatest military strategist in Latin Americ a. His efforts to enlarge his territory led to the Triple Alliance War in 1870...
...The docility of the mestizo, the military nationalist tradition, the mystique of dictatorship, the lack of any exciting ideas on the part of the political opposition, all indicate that a way of life consecrated over three centuries will not readily change...
...This, however, was no mere palace putsch but a return to the style of the pre-1870 dictators...
...General Stroessner, searching for a nickname which would identify him with the two earlier great dictators —El Supremo and El Mariscal— chose El Continuador, the Continuer...
...Storekeepers who sell imported goods and men involved with the tourist trade form the first group...
...Constitution, political parties freed Paraguay from dictatorship and turned it over to speculators...
...Two parties were formed, the Liberal and the Colorado, but both groups agreed with that 19th century laissez-faire philosophy which stated that a backward country advanced to the degree it sold its natural wealth...
...The great claim of the Liberals has been victory over Bolivia in the Gran Chaco War, in which a vast waste of swamps and thickets—the "green hell" of the Chaco—was finally yielded to Paraguay...
...the storekeepers and tourist people tend to support the Liberal opposition...
...In the process he destroyed the plantations, ruined the little industry that had taken hold, and butchered the liberal opposition...
...cattle and horses were slaughtered, estates abandoned, and the general populace reduced by more than a third in a series of epidemics caused by privation...
...Out of a total population of less than two million, it is claimed that some 700,000 Paraguayans have fled to Argentina—a statistic of qualified meaning since the large majority of these are economic exiles, seeking a better life outside the country...
...Nevertheless, several thousand Paraguayans are true political exiles, and they represent the cream of the nation...
...At first, the new dictator brutally suppressed his opponents...
...One compliant wing of the Liberal party occupies some seats in the House of Representatives...
...But these are mere frills on the surface, having little effect on the national pulse...
...In both standard of living and general culture it is close to the bottom of the world barrel...
...Four anti-government newspapers are allowed to publish, but they cannot criticize Stroessner directly...
...Their regime was racked by civil war in its first decade—10 presidents were deposed in eight years and four presidents in 1911 alone...
...Yet in only 10 years we have seen unbelievable events shake the "content" peons of Cuba and the Dominican Republic...
...almost complete isolation...
...The internal tensions between the Right-wing elements in command of each party and their dissident opponents grew until an explosion occurred in 1947...
...But the history which set Paraguay apart also doomed it to stagnation...
...To raise money in order to live, Paraguayans sold whatever they had—and all they had was land...
...A hero of the Triple Alliance War, General Bernardino Caballero, organizer of the Colorado party, manipulated the strings of power during the latter part of the 19th century...
...With the coming of a liberal, democratic constitution, proclaimed in 1870 and containing many features of the U.S...
...exaggerated nationalism...
...By geography, culture and economics it should be a northern province of Argentina—and would have been were it not for an odd set of historical accidents...
...aid has today replaced Argentine speculative and investment capital, and the sewer and water system of Asuncion, as well as its modern transport, the new town of Puerto Presidente Stroessner on the Brazilian frontier, the recent TransChaco Road and the sparkling jet airport are all partly or wholly products of American dollar grants...
...And behind this form is the reality of power, huge landed estates, now mainly in foreign hands, tied in with the new rich contraband dealers...
...military prowess...
...The Right-wing then gathered its forces and in 1954 General Alfredo Stroessner, the Chief of Staff of the Army, seized control...
...Though historically such a nation had meaning, geographically it was absurd...
...Very early in the colonial period Jesuits settled in Paraguay and set up their famous communist societies among the Guarani Indians...
...After five years, Paraguay was left almost lifeless...
...With the general economic collapse that succeeded the flight of Creole traders and landowners, the Supreme One enforced intermarriage between the Guaranis and remaining whites, even adopting the Indian tongue...
...they are better defined as "out" rather than "in...
...Besides, educated people say that the militares have power though they call themselves Colorado...
...The Paraguayan masses are either Colorado or Liberal by family tradition rather than private conviction...
...This pitted Paraguay against the combined forces of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, which might be compared to Switzerland attacking Germany, Austria and France...
...Here there is nothing like that...
...Though Stroessner rules supreme, he is a true reflection of the traditionalist forces within the country...
...Since Brazil and Argentina, the two powerful members of the Alliance, bickered over territorial claims, Paraguay, though reduced in size and saddled with enormous reparation debts, emerged substantially intact from the War...
...its population is approximately 1.85 milDANIEL M. FRIEDENBERG, a previous contributor, writes frequently about Latin American affairs...
...There are no Castro-type threats...
...ish crown...
...Indeed, nothing is manufactured in Paraguay and the small business class, which is composed of two groups, is either non-productive or parasitic...
...Paraguay is a firm ally...
...Oil is reputed to lie under the swamps...
...Its heroes are admired for all the wrong reasons and its best leaders executed or forced into exile...
...Yet it would be a mistake to label the intransigent Liberals as "Left...
...For while the Jesuit experiment was a success on its own terms, its effect was to create a people accustomed to absolute obedience in both peace and war...
...The choice was most accurate...
...and a regime led by autocrats who favor the mestizos among the population...
...The Bolivians lost 70,000 men, an even worse blow...
...the second, and more important, is an organized league of contraband runners...
...Intellectuals and the better educated members of the tiny middle class tended in the past to be Liberal while the Army often preferred the Colorado label, but this distinction can be exaggerated...
...From this insight it is perhaps not too long a step into the contemporary world...
...Foreign speculators, mainly Argentine, gobbled up enormous tracts of the country...
...The form of the state is the same as it has been since its inception: totalitarian, military, violently nationalistic, with its base a supine mestizo population...
...Paraguay has always been an absolutist state and the struggle between the Stroessner Colorados and the intransigent Liberals might be more correctly labeled one between late feudalists and early capitalists...
...Money was abolished, there was absolute equality of condition, and detailed rules were laid down for each minute of the day and night...
...For 160 years—a period almost equal to the time the United States has been a free nation—the Jesuits regulated Indian life with an elaborate system of bell signals from a central tower in each settlement...
...Then came the carpet-baggers...
...The ruling dictator, in blood and policy, is a typical Iberian Haps burg...
...Paraguay is "stable...
...The nature of this ally is worth noting...
...Less than a generation after the death of Rodriguez Francia came Francisco Solano Lopez, who styled himself El Mariscal...
...The three-year struggle cost the lives of 25,000 Paraguayan soldiers—some 10 per cent of the male population —a frightful loss in a country barely recovered from the Triple Alliance War...
...Paraguay is the distributive center for all of southern South America for illegal whiskey, cigarettes, nylon products, pharmaceutical drugs, cameras, watches and radios...
...400,000 Paraguayan soldiers, including male children, were killed in the insane battles...
...UNDER THE dictators, the Paraguayan usually had his own plot and lived off its produce...
...The national outline of the country remained on the map, but its best land belonged to foreigners...
...The standard of living and culture were reduced to their lowest possible points in a reign of egalitarian horror—except, of course, for the retinue of the dictator...
...Whatever initiative and self-reliance the native population may have had, however, soon disappeared...
...The end result has been that 45 per cent of the productive land is now owned by foreigners, while almost three-quarters of the principal export commodities are owned by outside interests...
...After a full-fledged rebellion, the progressive wing of the Colorado party took power, governing with a friendly attitude toward labor, and applying government restraints on speculation...
...Only after many years was Argentina split off as a separate colony, a fact which is basic to the Paraguayan cult of nationalism...
...As an admirer of Stroessner put it: "In countries like Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia, they have problems with Communists because they have rnines and industry, which lead to unions and agitation...
...after the War it was 231,000 and included only 14,000 surviving males, most of them old men and boys under 10...
...Their leader (an American-educated gentleman of the upper classes) told me with deep sincerity in an interview: "Both wings of the Liberal party are conservative...
...policies in such crucial matters as the Dominican affair...
...The feudal oligarchy, rooted in cattle, lumber and cotton, is behind any leader who maintains the status quo...
...The people, a blend of Span ish and Guarani Indian, subsist on a centuries-old level of economy and culture...
...But sheer numbers finally determined the conflict...
...Everyone has his piece of land, no matter how modest, and lives content...
...Not only was the land locked deep within the heart of a vast continent, but commerce was totally dependent on the Paraguay River which had to flow through a large expanse of Argentina before meeting the Atlantic Ocean (a sailling vessel at that time took three months to get from Asuncion to Buenos Aires, and even today it is a four-day voyage by water...
...The response of El Supremo to Argentine pressure for association was a complete break and total isolation...
...Except for very rare intervals, there is not nor has there ever been a "democratic will" or a "military imposition" in Paraguay...
...lion, of whom about 300,000 live in this capital city...
...The early work of the Jesuits, followed by the dictatorship of El Supremo, established a national pattern which still exists...
...Spanish adventurers seeking gold came up the Paraguay River less than 50 years after Columbus' first voyage, established Asuncion, then filtered into what is now Argentina where they founded Buenos Aires...
...Stroessner claims to be a Colorado, but the party title is a mere convenience to cloak a personal dictatorship...
...The maid cleaning my hotel room in Asuncion said, "I am neither Colorado nor Liberal because it doesn't mean anything to me whether one or the other has power...
...Gaspar Rodriguez Francia, , who called himself El Supremo, refused, and established a separate country...
...The Marshal vowed to fight to the end and did so, dying in battle...
...With the opposition broken and the secret police and Army in full control, General Stroessner has for the last few years permitted a marionette resistance in response to U.S...
...Surrounded by Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina, Paraguay is a bit larger than West Germany...
...The Liberals seized control in 1904, holding it for over 40 years...
...Thus the visitor to Paraguay today finds himself confronted by an egalitarian society of the most primitive sort imposed through terror...
...General Alfredo Stroessner, who reigns in Paraguay, is numbered among the best friends the United States has in all of Latin America...
...Unrest from Argentina must leak into this stagnant corner...
...History records few wars like this, for the impassive mestizos, trained by centuries of absolute obedience, were almost a match for the united enemy...
...the other or intransigent wing will not cooperate in the legal farce, believing only violence can drive out the dictator...
...The contrabandists have high connections with the military and naturally support the Colorados...
...Most of the exploited wealth goes to foreign investors with almost none seeping down to the people...
...LYou are born Colorado or Liberal like being born Catholic, That's it," a prominent opposition leader told me...
...Democracy in the American sense had as much reality to the Paraguayans, with their absolutist tradition, as snow in a boiler room...
...The population in 1865 was 800,000...
...In a land whose southern and eastern regions are an untouched granary where rich soil, fresh water and a semi-tropical climate could support a population 20 times the present size on a much higher level, the Paraguayan peasant sleeps fitfully beneath the stage of history...
...Paraguay may well be the most mismanaged country on record...
...His important vote in the various Pan American groups, including the Organization of American States, has supported U.S...
...But El Mariscal had stood up and fought, as Paraguayans see it, and he is the nation's greatest hero...
...The leaders of the two parties likewise have had little ideological argument...
...The ruling dictator, Jose...
...True, U.S...
...Though the Constitution provided for elections every four years, there were constant barracks revolts...
...In the early 19th century Argentine leaders urged Paraguay to coordinate a revolt against the Span...
...For whenever groups such as labor unions put forward what were considered radical ideas, the oligarchs of the Liberal and Colorado parties united in coalition until the danger was removed...
Vol. 48 • November 1965 • No. 22
