Paraguay

Paraguay

Demographics
Population:	7,353,038
GDP (million):	37,836
GDP p/cap.:	5,146
Life expectancy:	75.8
Development Index:	0.728

Government
Democracy Index:	6.18
Corruption Index:	28

More
Education Index:	0.638
Religiosity:	92

Paraguay is a country in South America and is the second poorest country on the continent. Like the rest of South America, it has had a problem with dictators.

Dictators[edit]

Jose Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia[edit]

Jose Rodriguez de Francia became the first dictator (of many) of Paraguay in 1814. He established Paraguay's first secret police force (of many) to round up as many people as possible to use for cheap prison labor. He was also fond of executions, and he had lots of dissidents hanged from an orange tree outside his mansion.^[1]

One of Francia's first decrees as president was to ban non-interracial marriage for Europeans. Only interracial marriages were allowed so that the population could homogenize (no more Europeans or indigenous, only mixed-race "mestizos"). European Hispanic people had to marry either a Native American or an escaped slave from Brazil's slave plantations. ^[2] He also abolished higher education so more people would join his army.

While some might think this is progressive (indeed, it wouldn't be the first time some misguided leftists have said European people should not reproduce, or should only breed with non-Europeans), it actually isn't progressive at all. Not only is deciding who gets to breed a form of eugenics (and disabled people are often excluded), but there is no guarantee non-European minorities will be leftist. Some examples of this include Candace Owens, Barack Obama (admitted he's really a "moderate Republican"), Rishi Sunak (Hindu and Indian-British), Sheriff David Clarke, Nikki Haley, Bobby Jindal, Tulsi Gabbard, Suella Braverman, Michelle Malkin, Herman Cain, Thomas Sowell, Clarence Thomas, Tila Tequila, and more.

Furthermore, when government gets into the bedrooms and dictates breeding, it's a sign the government will most likely not respect any other rights you have. This is why forced breeding policies (and the antithesis, forced abortions, like what is seen in Cuba, Nazi Germany, and China) are always seen with dictators and oppressors.

Francisco Solano Lopez[edit]

Francisco was the eldest son of Juana Pabla Carrillo and Carlos Antonio Lopez, a former president of Paraguay (and surprisingly not a dictator). When Francisco himself became president, his mother revealed to him that he had been born before his parents married, and so Francisco had technically been born a bastard. Francisco had his mother whipped in public for this.

During the 19th century, Paraguay was much bigger and more populated than it is today, and was in fact in the same league as Brazil and Argentina as far as territory and population. That is, until it unwisely tried to steal some land from Brazil in 1864 to get an ocean coast and got itself involved in a war against Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, a war that became known as War of the Triple Alliance. Amazingly, Lopez's Paraguay actually managed to put up a fair fight, and only gave up when Lopez (and a whopping 70% of the male population) got killed after six years of fighting.

Alfredo Stroessner[edit]

General Alfredo Stroessner (of German origin) became military dictator of Paraguay following a coup in 1954. He made Paraguay a notable hideout for Nazis and played a prominent role in Operation Condor from 1975 until the mid-80s. Also, his whole dictatorship was run by pedophiles.^[3] In 1989, he was overthrown in a military coup. What goes around comes around.

Andres Rodriguez[edit]

He was the military dictator who overthrew Stroessner. Interestingly, his daughter was married to Stroessner's son.

Non-Dictators[edit]

Surprisingly, there have been some.

Fernando Lugo[edit]

Fernando Lugo was the first Paraguayan head of state since 1948 not to be a member of the all-powerful Colorado Party. A former Catholic bishop with left-leaning sympathies, he admitted to having several relationships with women, some of them when he was still bishop, and fathered a number of illegitimate children.^[4] He was impeached in 2012 on flimsy pretexts.

Trivia[edit]

Paraguay is unique among Latin American countries in that the majority (90%) of its population, including people of mostly European descent, speaks an indigenous pre-colonial language, Guaraní.^[5]

Paraguay's flag is unique in that it has two different emblems on its obverse side (front, as pictured above) and reverse (back) side,^[6] a trait only shared by a few municipal flags, including the modern flag of Oregon.

On the bright side, it's the happiest nation in the world.^[7]

References[edit]