Ex-Paraguayan dictator Stroessner hospitalized

[Judi Lynn]

Ex-Paraguayan dictator Stroessner hospitalized
Sun 13 Aug 2006 12:23 PM ET

BRASILIA, Brazil, Aug 13 (Reuters) - The aging former Paraguayan dictator, Alfredo Stroessner, was hospitalized in the Brazilian capital of Brasilia, where has been living in exile for the last 17 years, a hospital spokesman said on Sunday.

The spokesman could not confirm what was ailing Stroessner, who is 93. But a source close to the Stroessner family told Reuters that he was in the intensive care unit recovering from a hernia operation.

Stroessner ruled the small South American nation of Paraguay for 35 years until he was toppled by a military coup in 1989. The only Latin American leader that has had a longer tenure in office is Fidel Castro, who has ruled Cuba since 1959.
(snip/)

http://today.reuters.com/News/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=N13210148

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ALFREDO STROESSNER
President-for-Life of Paraguay
Alfredo Stroessner came to power in 1954, but European correspondents who visited Paraguay during his rule used the term the "poor man's Nazi regime" to describe the Paraguayan government. The parallels may have been more than a coincidence, for many Nazi war criminals, such as Joseph Mengele, had settled there with Stroessner's blessing.

From the Nazis the Paraguayan military leamed the art of genocide. The native Ache Indians were in the way of progress, progress represented by American and European corporations who planned to exploit the nation's forests, mines, and grazing lands. The Indians were hunted down, parents killed, and children sold into slavery. Survivors were herded into reservations headed by American fundamentalist missionaries , some of whom had participated in the hunts.

Between 1962 and 1975, Paraguay received $146 million in U.S. aid. Paraguayan officials seemingly wanted more, however, for in 1971, high ranking members of the regime were implicated in the Marseilles drug ring, with Paraguay their transfer point for shipments from France to the U.S. In the 1980s America finally condemned Paraguayan civil rights abuses and drug trafficking. Stroessner still looked as if he'd be dictator for life but in 1988 one of his closest generals, Andres Rodriguez, a known drug dealer, took over after a coup. Rodriguez promised to restore democracy, and President Bush called the 1989 elections "a democratic opening," but opponents declared them "a massive fraud." Rodriguez's Colorado party won 74% of the vote.
(snip/)

http://home.iprimus.com.au/korob/fdtcards/SouthAmerica.html

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Paraguay in Transition

by William Stief
ASUNCION, PARAGUAY--For nearly 35 years, until February 3, 1989, General Alfredo Stroessner ruled as the dictator of Paraguay. He and his Colorado Party, founded as the National Republican Party September 11, 1887, in emulation of the U.S Republican Party, ran "a patrimonial system," according to Fernando Masi, an economist who worked for the World Bank in Washington, D.C., and who now heads the Paraguayan Institute for Latin American Integration.

That meant, Masi says, that Stroessner "distributed the wealth of the state to a small group of people, creating a new military-civilian elite which had big farms, numbered bank accounts in Switzerland five or six houses apiece." Stroessner also abolished export taxes in the 1960s to benefit himself and his allies.
(snip)

According to Caballero, Stroessner "jailed and tortured" 8,000 people, making it difficult for an effective opposition to develop. Carmen de Lara Castro, a founder of the Paraguayan Commission for defense of human rights, corroborates that figure, though she adds that no one knows the precise number of political activists jailed and tortured. Her human rights group- -non-governmental and one of Latin America's oldest--was formed during one of Stroessner's many "waves of repression." She says, "most political prisoners were peasants" whose relatives, in fear for themselves, ignored the prisoners' plight. Middle class people, she says, were more likely to be freed, "depending on the mood of the dictator."
(snip)

The Stroessner regime's extended brutality has induced a survivalist passivity in the people of Paraguay. Masi points to the 60 percent hike in electricity rates in 1988 to emphasize the extent of the inertia. "There were no protests. The state grew like a monster and nearly digested the whole country," he says.

Some have credited Stroessner with improving Paraguay's infrastructure, but the facts point in a different direction. There are only 88,000 telephones and 1,250 miles of paved roads in Paraguay and only Asuncion and a small city near the Brazilian border have running, potable water.
(snip)

Under these circumstances, paying off the country's foreign debt is likely to be difficult. "If we could get the money Stroessner and his clique stole, we could pay off a third of our foreign debt," Masi says. But chances of that are slim.
(snip/...)

http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1989/07/steif-paraguay.html

[shain from kane]

1. Calling Dr. Mengele. Your patient is Code Blue. n/t

[cyclezealot]

2. God the guy should have been executed as a war criminal

Like Bush. Stroessner was a thug. Bodies floated down the Paraguay river daily. Probably even worse than Pinochet.

[pretzel4gore]

3. oh oh stroessener

death is waiting for you. patiently, as only death can wait :) and death has a handmaiden, a really ugly old hag of indeterminate xxx some call magog, others beelzebub, maybe lucifer or just the 'red eye rapist' (lol)....and alfredo, old horny has yall in its sights, like a dead chicken espied by a hyena zombie!...you yum yum time alfredo...and you're the MAIN COURSE hahahahaha!
there is no such thing as death as you'd like, alfredo, just total understanding. all those innocence you murdered, all of them, are curious about yall....
:hide:

[Botany]

4. WHAT A PIG

He used people from the 3rd reich to train his military and they
used to goose step during parades .......

ALFREDO STROESSNER

President of Paraguay

Alfredo Stroessner seized power in Paraguay in 1954, leading an army coup deposing President Federico Chavez. Soon after 1954 coup Stroessner was credited with stabilizing the country's currency, moderating inflation, and providing new schools, roads, and health facilities, though half of the national income was spent on the military.

European correspondents who visited Paraguay during his rule used the term the "poor man's Nazi regime" to describe the Paraguayan government. Of German descent, Stroessner was a great admirer of Nazism, and this showed not only in the refuge he offered to many Nazi war criminals, such as Joseph Mengele, but also in his ruthless methods.

From the Nazis, the Paraguayan military learned the art of genocide. The native Ache Indians were in the way of progress -- progress represented by American and European corporations who planned to exploit the nation's forests, mines, and grazing lands. The Indians were hunted down, parents killed, and children sold into slavery. Survivors were herded into reservations headed by American fundamentalist missionaries, some of whom had partipated in the hunts.

Between 1962 and 1975, Paraguay received $146 million in U.S. aid. Paraguayan officials seemingly wanted more, however, for in 1971, high ranking members of the regime were implicated in the Marseilles drug ring, with Paraguay their transfer point for shipments from France to the US. In the 1980s, America finally condemned Paraguayan civil rights abuses and drug trafficking. Stroessner still looked as if he'd be dictator for life, but in 1988 one of his closest generals, Andres Rodriguez, a known drug dealer, took over after a coup. Rodriguez promised to restore democracy, and President Bush called the 1989 elections a democratic opening, but opponents declared them a massive fraud. Rodriguez's Colorado party won 74% of the vote. Stroessner took refuge in Brasilia, Brazil.

[theanarch]

5. more proof (as if we needed any) that only the good die young