Alfredo Stroessner

President of Paraguay

3 November 1912 Encarnación, Paraguay

16 August 2006(2006-08-16) (93) Brasília, Brazil

August 15, 1954 – February 3, 1989

Military dictator of Paraguay from 1954 to 1989 In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Stroessner and the second or maternal family name is Matiauda. Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda (Spanish:  ; 3 November 1912 – 16 August 2006) was a Paraguayan Army officer, politician, and dictator who led an authoritarian government in Paraguay from August 15, 1954 to February 3, 1989. He led a coup d'état on May 4, 1954 with the support of the army and the Colorado Party with which he was affiliated, and after a brief provisional government headed by Tomás Romero Pereira, he was the Colorado Party's presidential candidate for the general elections of July 11, 1954; he won because no other political party participated. He officially assumed the presidency on August 15, 1954, quickly suspended constitutional and civil rights, and began a period of harsh repression with the support of the army and the military police against political parties and all people who opposed his dictatorship. On August 25, 1967 he introduced a new constitution enabling him to re-elect himself; in 1977 he modified that constitution to permit himself to be re-elected indefinitely. He was fraudulently re-elected seven times from 1958 until 1988; a year after the 1988 election he was overthrown in the coup d'état of February 2 and 3, 1989, led by his most trusted confidant Major General Andrés Rodríguez Pedotti with the support of the army. On February 5, 1989, shortly after the coup, the former dictator was exiled to Brazil, where he spent his last 17 years. He died on August 16, 2006 from complications of illness.