Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. It has a population of around 6.1 million, nearly 2.3 million of whom live in the capital and largest city of Asunción, and its surrounding metro area.
The history of Paraguay encompasses thousands of years of human habitation. Both agricultural and nomadic Guaycuruan lived in the region at the time of the Spanish Conquest. It became a relatively neglected part of the Spanish Empire due to its isolation and lack of mineral wealth, nonetheless a small group of Spanish settlers came to reside in the area, increasingly intermarrying with native women to produce a mestizo population. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Jesuit missionaries organized the natives into planned communities known as reducciones, and the experiment gained notable attention in Enlightenment Era Europe.
Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda was a Paraguayan army officer, politician and dictator who served as President of Paraguay from 15 August 1954 until his overthrow from power on 3 February 1989. His rule is commonly referred inside Paraguay as El Stronato.
Andrés Rodríguez Pedotti was a military officer and politician, being President of Paraguay from February 3, 1989, to August 15, 1993. He led the coup d'état on February 2 and 3, 1989, against the dictator Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda.
Óscar Nicanor Duarte Frutos is a Paraguayan lawyer, journalist and politician who served as the 47th President of Paraguay from 2003 to 2008. A member of the Colorado Party, he became the central figure of Paraguayan politics during his presidency.
The National Republican Association, also known as the Colorado Party, is a conservative political party in Paraguay, founded on 11 September 1887 by Bernardino Caballero. Since 1947, the colorados, as they are known, has been dominant in Paraguayan politics and has controlled the presidency since 1948 –notwithstanding a brief interruption between 2008 and 2013– as well as having a majority in both chambers of Congress and department governorships.
Lino César Oviedo Silva was a Paraguayan army officer and politician, who was the leader of the National Union of Ethical Citizens, which split from the Colorado Party in 2002.
Raúl Alberto Cubas Grau is a Paraguayan politician and electrical engineer who served as the 45th President of Paraguay from 1998 until his resignation in 1999.
Luis María del Corazón de Jesús Dionisio Argaña Ferraro was a Paraguayan politician and jurist. A prominent and influential member of the Colorado Party, he was a Supreme Court judge, unsuccessfully ran for the Colorado Party's nomination for president in the 1993 election and eventually was elected Vice-President in the 1998 election, but was assassinated seven months after assuming office in March 1999 at a time when it appeared likely that he would inherit the presidency from Raúl Cubas, who was on the verge of being impeached. The incident and its aftermath is known in Paraguay as Marzo paraguayo. An airport in Paraguay, Dr. Luis María Argaña International Airport, is named for him.
Ángel Roberto Seifart was a Paraguayan senior politician from the Colorado Party.
The nations of Mexico and Paraguay established diplomatic relations in 1831. Both countries are full members of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, Latin American Integration Association, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States and the United Nations.
Domingo Isabelino Laíno Figueredo is a Paraguayan politician, economist, and activist. The first leader of the Authentic Radical Liberal Party, a Senator, and a former Member of the Chamber of Deputies, Laino first became known for his opposition to the Stroessner dictatorship: in 1956, he was arrested for having publicly opposed the arrest of university students. In the years that followed, he was arrested so many times that he "lost count".
Below is the timeline of Paraguayan history.
General elections were held in Paraguay on 9 May 1993. They were the first free elections in the country's 182-year history, the first with no military candidates since 1928, and the first since the adoption of a new constitution the previous summer. The presidential election was the first regular presidential election since the overthrow of longtime leader Alfredo Stroessner in 1989; incumbent Andrés Rodríguez was in office by virtue of winning a special election for the remainder of Stroessner's eighth term.
Carlos Alberto Filizzola Pallarés is a Paraguayan physician, labor unionist and politician who served as mayor of Asunción from 1991 to 1996, being the first one to be democratically elected. He later served four terms as senator, from 2003 to 2011 and again from 2012 to 2023, having been appointed Minister of the Interior in the meantime, under the presidency of Fernando Lugo. He was also the President of the Senate from 2005 to 2006 and the running mate of Domingo Laíno in the 1998 presidential election.
The illegal drug trade in Paraguay is significant in both production of cannabis and trans-shipment of cocaine. In 2011 the United Nations reported that it was the largest cannabis producer in South America, accounting for 15 per cent of world cannabis production. It was also responsible for 30-40 tons of cocaine trans-shipment annually.
The dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner, colloquially known as Stronismo or Stronato, was the period of almost 35 years in the history of Paraguay in which army general Alfredo Stroessner ruled the country as a de facto one-party state under an authoritarian military dictatorship, from 15 August 1954 to 3 February 1989.
The 1989 Paraguayan coup d'état, also known as La Noche de la Candelaria, was a coup d'état that took place on 2–3 February 1989 in Asunción, Paraguay, led by General Andrés Rodríguez against the regime of long-time leader Alfredo Stroessner. The bloody overthrow which saw numerous soldiers killed in street fighting was sparked by a power struggle in the highest echelons of the government. Rodríguez's takeover spelled the end of El Stronato, Stroessner's thirty-four year long rule, at the time the longest in Latin America, and led to an array of reforms which abolished numerous draconian laws and led to the liberalization of Paraguay.
The Marzo paraguayo was a political crisis that occurred in Paraguay because of the assassination of the then-Vice President Luis María Argaña on 23 March 1999. The opposition blamed the then-President, Raúl Cubas Grau, and also the strongman of Paraguayan politics of that time, Lino Oviedo, for the assassination. Argaña's assassination provoked a series of demonstrations by opponents and supporters to Oviedo and the Cubas government, which culminated in clashes in which seven demonstrators opposed to the government died, which resulted in the resignation of Cubas from the presidency.
The 1996 Paraguayan coup d'état attempt was an attempted coup d'état in Paraguay that took place between 22 April and 25 April 1996 with the purpose of deposing then President of Paraguay Juan Carlos Wasmosy. The attempted coup was undertaken by then Army General Lino Oviedo, who declared himself in rebellion against the president for forcing Oviedo into retirement. The attempted coup caused a serious political crisis that would last for three days, being the first serious crisis to occur after the fall of Alfredo Stroessner's dictatorship in the 1989 Paraguayan coup d'état, and its consequences would extend at least until the beginning of the following decade.
