Independence
In 1806 and 1807 there were the English Invasions that occupied the areas of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata corresponding to the Eastern Band and a large part of Buenos Aires, from Asunción and from Córdoba troops were sent to support the victory against the attackers.
In 1810 the news reached Buenos Aires that Spain had been occupied by French troops from Napoleon Bonaparte. Argentine patriots prepared the revolutionary movement.
Due to the First Independent Board of Buenos Aires, the royal governor of Asunción, Bernardo de Velasco sent a note to Buenos Aires communicating the separation of the Province of Paraguay from the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, Velasco and his followers formed a board on 24 June 1810, meeting that reiterated its loyalty to the Spanish monarchy of Fernando VII.
In 1811 the troops under the command of General Manuel Belgrano marched on an expedition to liberate Paraguay, but were defeated in the battle of Tacuarí (March 9, 1811) and in Paraguarí by local troops, until then declared royalists.
The victorious troops assumed a new identity and on May 14, 1811 the Paraguayan revolutionary movement broke out, led militarily by Captain Pedro Juan Caballero, Fulgencio Yegros, Vicente Ignacio Iturbe and Mauricio José Troche and politically by Fernando de la Mora., Juana de Lara, Juan Valeriano Zeballos and José Gaspar Rodríguez from Francia, who urged Governor Velasco to join them. Zeballos and France then assumed a co-government with the Spanish official. Velasco would be removed from office within a month.
According to youremailverifier, the Second National Congress met from September 30 to October 12, 1813. There it was decided to adopt the name of Republic, which replaced that of Province.
The 25 of November of 1842 a congress formally declared independence from the Paraguay regarding the Confederation Argentina, being officially recognized on 17 of July of 1852. [3]
The War of the Triple Alliance or Great War was the greatest warlike conflict in the history of the South American subcontinent. Paraguay fought against the assembled forces of Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, supported by the United Kingdom. In fact, it was the British Empire that led, incited and financed the destruction of the prosperous country.
Paraguay lost much of its territory (169,174 km²) and was forced to pay a large war indemnity. After the war, the industry had completely vanished, free public education disappeared and the so-called “estancias de la patria”, which supplied food to the population, disappeared in the same way. The railway and the telegraph line were confiscated as a means of payment for the war debt.
Twentieth century
Between the years 1930 and 1940, Paraguayan policies were defined by the Chaco War (1935) against Bolivia, the Paraguayan Civil War (1947), military dictatorships, and periods of extreme political instability.
General Alfredo Stroessner came to power on May 4, 1954 through a coup. Stroessner had an outstanding career in the Paraguayan army. In 1954 he was promoted to major general and in May of the same year he led a coup in which Federico Chávez was deposed. In August 1954 he was elected by the Governing Board to be the President. He was reelected in 8 terms in fraudulent elections, being the only candidate: 1958, 1963, 1968, 1973, 1978, 1983 and in 1988.
Stroessner was anti-communist and favored American interests. During his government between 3 000 and 4 000 people were eliminated, using torture, kidnapping, political assassinations. Their motto was: ” at least we are not communists.” He showed great sympathy for the Nazis, granting political asylum to several of them in Paraguay, including Dr. Josef Mengele, after World War II. The Mengele event was harshly criticized by the international media. It also allowed the entry of overthrown dictators from other countries such as Anastasio Somoza Debayle.
In the early hours of the 3 of February of 1989 General Andrés Rodríguez, supported by the United States he led a coup, a prisoner taking Stroessner for a few days until he was sent to a “golden exile” in Brasilia, capital of the neighboring Brazil.
In 1992, Martín Almada discovered the Archives of Terror, which shows that Paraguay, during the Stroessner dictatorship, participated in Operation Condor, an anti-communist military agreement, promoted by the North American CIA and that involved the military dictatorships of the other South American countries: Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Peru, and Ecuador.
Recent history
The 20 of April of 2008 in a historic election, the Colorado Party lost the presidency after more than sixty years in power. Former bishop Fernando Lugo was sworn in as President of the Republic on August 15, 2008. Among his most important works are the beginning of the renegotiation of the Itaipu treaty with Brazil. In September 2011, Paraguay officially became the 12th member of UNASUR when President Fernando Lugo endorsed the bill approved by the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies that authorized the entry of the nation as a full member of the integration body. regional [4] .
The 21 of June of 2012 the Chamber of Deputies of Paraguay approved almost unanimously a process of impeachment against President Lugo for his role in the confrontation between police and peasants occurred on 15 of June of 2012. The president says that he will not present his resignation and will stand trial because “there is no valid legal or political cause” for his departure [5] . On June 22, the Senate of Paraguay meets and with 39 votes in favor, 4 against and 2 abstentions, President Fernando Lugo was removed from office by the Paraguayan Senate for “poor performance of his duties.” In his place was the vice president Federico Franco, who received the presidency band minutes after the Senate ruling. Faced with such a situation, the people took to the streets to denounce the parliamentary coup against the constitutional president of the Republic, these were joined by several Latin American presidents, this fact caused a political crisis in the country and the suspension of Mercosur.
In the general elections of May 2013, the Colorado Party candidate, Horacio Cartes, was elected with 45.8% of the votes, who easily beat the ruling party, Efraín Alegre, of the Authentic Radical Liberal Party, who only reached 36, 94% of the valid votes [6] .
