General Alfredo Stroessner, the former President of Paraguay who died yesterday aged 93, was one of the last of Latin America's old-style military dictators. Stroessner came to power in a coup which toppled President Federico Chavez in 1954, and succeeded in being elected and re-elected for eight five-year terms of office after revising the constitution, which had banned him from serving for more than two. In style, Stroessner's dictatorship most resembled that of General Franco in Spain. Like Franco, Stroessner provided stability after a civil war and near-anarchy; his motto, "Peace, Justice, Democracy", played to the hopes of an isolated society fearful of political instability.| “The speciality of his chief torturer, Pastor Coronel, was said to be conducting interviews with the subject immersed in a bath of human excrement...” |
In the murky world of Latin American politics, Stroessner was adept in the arts of "guided democracy", tolerating a token opposition that kept the Americans happy while ensuring that any real opposition was snuffed out. The speciality of his chief torturer, Pastor Coronel, was said to be conducting interviews with the subject immersed in a bath of human excrement.