Popular Colorado Movement Movimiento Popular Colorado | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 15 May 1960 |
| Dissolved | 1989 |
| Merged into | Colorado Party |
| Ideology | Anti-Stronism |
| Political position | Centre |
The Movimiento Popular Colorado (Popular Colorado Movement), better known as MOPOCO, was an internal movement within the Colorado Party of Paraguay that advocated for more democracy and social justice in the country. It was founded in 1959 as a response to the cruelty of the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner, and as one of the opposition groups to his rule, it suffered heavy repression at the hands of the regime.
The MOPOCO has its origins in 1959, when a group of young activists from the Colorado Party won the elections of the Central Committee of Youth of the party. At this point the country was in the middle of the long Stroessner dictatorship, and these activists proposed several reforms: partisan freedom, respect for popular sovereignty, and an ethical conduct of politics. On March 12 of the year the movement was founded, and the members of the latter published the "Note of the 17", [1] in which they demanded that the Governing Board of the Colorado Party adopt measures such as "the lifting of the State of Siege", and respect the "full validity of all freedoms". Days after this statement was published, MOPOCO was expelled from the ANR, and its leaders began facing heavy persecution.
With the expulsion of MOPOCO from the Colorado Party, the main leaders had to go into exile. And it was in Resistencia, Argentina, in March 1960, where they held their first congress. The first elected president of the movement was José Zacarías Arza. [2] During that convention, MOPOCO joined forces with Epifanio Méndez Fleitas, a former ally of Stroessner who went into exile and became a fierce critic of the regime. In 1973, MOPOCO and the "epifanists" would separate, since the latter would found a new dissident group, the Asociación Nacional Republicana en el Exilio y la Resistencia (ANRER).
At the 1962 ANR convention, some MOPOCO militants attempted the last participation of the movement in the headquarters of the Colorados, when some militants tried to obtain the lifting of the sanction that weighed on the leaders of the movement, but this was unsuccessful, and the group remained in exile, participating in seminars and debates. They also published the Patria Libre newspaper, which harshly criticized the Stroessner dictatorship. At this point, MOPOCO leader Agustín Goiburú also tried to hijack a Paraguayan military plane and land it in Punta del Este, Uruguay in order to expose the dictatorship's crimes, but this plan was foiled.
In 1979, the Movimiento Popular Colorado joined forces with the Revolutionary Febrerista Party, the Christian Democratic Party and the Authentic Radical Liberal Party joined forces and formed a united opposition front called the National Agreement, promoting the re-establishment of democracy in Paraguay. [3]
In the 1980s, MOPOCO began pressing its militants to return the country to fight against the dictatorship in all possible ways. In 1983, the president of the movement, Dr. Miguel Ángel González Casabianca, would enter the country through Encarnación. That would mark a new stage for MOPOCO, where more and more exiled militants would return to put pressure on the dictatorship. At this point, dissent against Stroessner was growing within the Colorado Party, as many were dissatisfied with the President's refusal to step down. This movement grew in strength until the coup d'état of 2 and 3 February 1989, when Stroessner was deposed and replaced by his former confidant, Andrés Rodríguez Pedotti, with the support of the army. With the fall of the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner, MOPOCO decided to re-enter the ranks of the Colorado Party, considering that its fight for the return of democracy to Paraguay had come to an end. Some of the movement's members became advisor in the subsequent Rodríguez government. [4]
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Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda was a Paraguayan army officer, politician, statesman, and President of Paraguay from 15 August 1954 to 3 February 1989.
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.
The National Republican Association – Colorado Party is a conservative political party in Paraguay, founded on 11 September 1887 by Bernardino Caballero. Since 1947, the Colorado party has been dominant in Paraguayan politics, ruling as the only legal party between 1947 and 1962, and has controlled the presidency since 1948 notwithstanding a brief interruption between 2008 and 2013. With almost 2 million members, it is the largest political party in the country.
The Authentic Radical Liberal Party is a centre-left liberal and radical political party in Paraguay. The party is a full member of Liberal International. The liberales, as they are known, are the leading opposition to the dominant conservative Colorado Party. They have taken this position since the end of the Alfredo Stroessner dictatorship in 1989. They are the political successors of the Liberal Party, which traces its history back to 10 July 1887.
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.
Felipe Benigno Molas López was 39th President of Paraguay from February 27, 1949 – September 10, 1949, when he resigned.
The Popular Unitary Action Movement or MAPU was a small leftist political party in Chile. It was part of the Popular Unity coalition during the government of Salvador Allende. MAPU was repressed during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. In this period, some of its most radical members formed the Movimiento Juvenil Lautaro, whose leaders were political prisoners during the dictatorship and with the return to democracy. Another faction of the former members of the party joined the social democratic Party for Democracy in 1987.
Fernando Armindo Lugo Méndez is a Paraguayan politician and laicized Catholic bishop who was President of Paraguay from 2008 to 2012. Previously he was a Roman Catholic priest and bishop, serving as Bishop of the Diocese of San Pedro from 1994 to 2005. He was elected as president in 2008, an election that ended 61 years of rule by the Colorado Party.
Agustín Goiburú was a politician from Paraguay. He was the leader of the movement MOPOCO that represented the strongest opposition to the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner. He was murdered during the Operation Condor. He was a doctor, specialized in orthopedic surgery in Brazil. When he returned to the country, he worked in the Social Prevention Institute and in the Police Policlinic “Rigoberto Caballero”.
The Painful Easter is the name given by the Paraguayan press to the repression of several farmers groups accused of participating in the clandestine movement Organización Primero de Marzo (OPM) by the police of the Alfredo Stroessner regime. The persecution reached many regions of the country and destroyed any attempt of building any kind of organization between agriculture workers.
The First Of March Organization (Organizacion Primero de Marzo) (OPM) was a clandestine movement created in Paraguay in the mid 70s to fight General Alfredo Stroessner’s dictatorship. It was the most serious attempt at creating an armed resistance to the dictator’s repressive government. Even though the organization was discovered before it was capable of attacking in the government in any way, the wave of repression which followed the discovery was enormous. During that period of repression, several leaders of the organization were captured, tortured and then executed, but the violence also extended to many regions of the country, affecting several agrarian movements and agrarian workers that had nothing to do with the OPM.
Below is a timeline of the history of Paraguay:
Epifanio Méndez Fleitas was a Paraguayan politician, musician, writer and poet, and twice the president of Central Bank of Paraguay: from 1952 to 1954 and in 1955. He fled Paraguay during the Alfredo Stroessner years and was the uncle to future President Fernando Lugo. He died in Buenos Aires.
The dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner, colloquially known as El Stronismo or El 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.
Mario Abdo Benítez is a Paraguayan politician who served as the 51st president of Paraguay from 2018 to 2023. He was previously a senator and served as president of the Senate of Paraguay from 2015 to 2016.
Edgar Linneo Ynsfrán Doldán was a Paraguayan politician who held important governmental posts during the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner. He became Minister of the Interior in Paraguay in 1956, and held key roles in the severe political repressions of the late 50s and early 60s in the country. He was dismissed from his post in 1966 and retired from politics until the mid-1980s, when he emerged as one of the leaders of the anti-Stroessner movement within the military and the Colorado Party.
The term Cuatrinomio de Oro refers to a group of influential Paraguayan politicians of the 1960-1980s, representing the closest allies of the dictatorial President Alfredo Stroessner. The group included three members of the government and the presidential secretary. Under the leadership of Stroessner, members of the "Golden Four" stood at the highest levels of the regime, determining the policy of the state and the Colorado Party. They became infamous in the country due to their involvement in political repression and corruption. After the fall of the regime, they were prosecuted.
The Guión Rojo was a Paraguayan paramilitary organization of the 1930-1950s, which was formed in 1942 as the paramilitary wing of the Colorado Party. It united supporters of Colorado leader Juan Natalicio González, far-right nationalists, anti-communists and adherents of Falangist and pro-fascist ideas. It played a prominent role under the dictatorial regime of the 1940s, in the civil war of 1947, the subsequent political struggle and the establishment of Alfredo Stroessner's dictatorship.
During the course of the 20th century, the Colorado Party of Paraguay set up several paramilitary organizations and militias in the country. They defended party interests and positions by force and actively participated in armed civil conflicts, playing a decisive role in the 1947 civil war. During the period of one-party rule in Paraguay, they were key components of the repressive apparatus of the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner. Politically and ideologically, these paramilitary groups stood on ultra-right and anti-communist positions, from traditionalism to fascism.
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