In this small country located in the heart of South America, with an area of 406,752 square kilometers and a population of 5,5 million people, Paraguayan native people have lived as prisoners for 35 years (1954-1989) under one of the most cruel dictatorships of the Southern Cone.
The military regime that implanted State terrorism under the leadership of Army General Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda, main promoter of the so-called “Operativo Cóndor” (Condor Operation) in that region, strengthen his de facto government with intrigues and denunciations, imprisonment, torture, and exile of humble citizens as a way of demonstrating his “great power”.
From the very beginning, Stroessner used terror as a method to rule and up to this date there are victims of his omnipotence in Paraguayan prisons.
A civil-military movement lead by General Andrés Rodríguez, supported by "Los Carlos", nickname given to the high military chiefs, freed the country from Stroessner’s yoke in the so-called Revolución Colorada para la Justicia (February 2 & 3, 1989) aimed at the restoration of the National Armed Forces, fraternity among Paraguayans, respect for the rules of Catholic Church and the validity of the Constitution.
Unfortunately, such revolution was betrayed at its inception because without the bravery of "Los Carlos" and the decision of then-Cavalry Coronel Lino César Oviedo Silva Stroessner would not have left in exile freeing Paraguayans from his misfortune.

The weak democracy established in that heroic deed was not perceptive enough to prevent "el retorno de los brujos" (the return of the warlocks) henchmen of Stroessner, who crouching down took revenge of everyone and each of the individuals who were related to the above mentioned events, and still today - perpetuated in different sectors of the political power - again and continuously stamp on Paraguayan people.
General Andrés Rodríguez was the First President –after the dictatorship – elected by the people. The New National Constitution was adopted and approved (June 1992) under his administration. It was then that the Republic of Paraguay could breath some fresh air of freedom and began a new era of institutional normalization.
Juan Carlos Wasmosy, known as one of the "Barones de Itaipú", successor of the dictatorship, took power, and remained in power from 1993 to 1998. He achieved the sad record of making the country bankrupt. Under his administration the amount of 6.000 million dollars disappeared from the coffers of the State. He has been adjudged “the privilege” of positioning Paraguay as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
In those days, Wasmosy, a candidate imposed by his business friends and the political sons of General Rodríguez (Antonio Sacarello and Gustavo Saba, today tried for embezzlement and tax evasion), became the first civilian ruler of the Republic of Paraguay. However, not much time passed until he showed his personal desires since he prostituted the Public Forces paying congressmen in order to obtain arrangements and promotions. Wasmosy very proudly gave imported cars away to congressmen in order to obtain benefits; he paid no respect to seniority in order to impose his iron will and he was finally withdrawn as a Life Senator after he promoted illegal assistance with public funds to bankrupt Banks and the sale of items of the State’s property, such as Flota Mercante del Estado; Cañas Paraguayas S.A.and Líneas Aéreas Paraguayas S.A.
In the general elections held on May 10, 1998, another engineer, Raúl Cubas Grau, received the support from the majority of the Paraguayan voters (54%) to rule the destiny of the nation, after the long internal struggle of the political parties.
On August 15, 1998 he settled into Palacio de los López, accompanied by a select cabinet, made up of experts specialized in the different sectors: health, security, economy …
The day that he took office, his first address to the Paraguayan people requested confidence in his administration and stated that he would employ all his will and effort to recover all the property stolen to the State. He expressed that he would directly fight against corruption, piracy and drug trafficking. He committed to the promotion of specialists in areas of fundamental importance for the State, in prosecuting tax evaders and eliminating the monopolies and latifundia. No mention was made to the illegitimate debt of Entidad Binacional Itaipú; he committed to achieve the maximum exploitation of the electric energy sources existing in the country and recover inland security for citizens and prospective investors, promoting adequate measures to that aim, among other measures that discerned a future of progress. History of a long conspiracy
Immediately, the economic and political heirs of the dictatorship, together with the blood heirs of dictator Alfredo Stroessner, started an open conspiracy against the constitutional government.
That long list of heirs was formed by: José Alberto Planas: son of Stroessner’s former Chief of Investigations; the Aguirre’s brothers, sons of General Juan Esteban Aguirre, persecutor of the militants of the well-known Ligas Agrarias (Agrarian Leagues); the Argaña family: sons of the former President of the Supreme Court of Justice under dictator Stroessner’s regime; Jaime Bestard: son of his former Vice-Minister of the Interior, and Luis Angel González Macchi: son of his former Sub-Chief of the Police and later Minister of Justice and Labor – grandson of Lola Miño, well-known influence trafficker and smuggler of the riverside areas.
A majority of corrupt congressmen and prevaricate judges “rose up" against the Executive Branch. According to the report issued by the World Bank, the most corrupt branch of government in Paraguay is precisely the Judiciary.
Such conspiracy materialized with the assassination of the Vice President of the Republic, Luís María Argaña, under obscure circumstances that simulated an attack. Both the conspiracy and the ins and outs of an attack that WAS NOT SUCH A THING were reported and founded in this website . As from that moment, and always hand in hand with "los guantes blancos" [an expression that makes reference to white collar crime] each day that passes different circumstances inexorably turn the Republic of Paraguay into the most moral, social and economic poverty.
Thus, the individuals who ruled the country until a few months ago conspired before the imminent restructuring of the entire Republic, cornered by the unforgiving measures of the new leader Cubas Grau and the civic support of Lino Cesar Oviedo, a man who was unfairly not allowed to be a candidate and who, should there be no political tricks, would have for sure been the president of Paraguay; a man in favor of workers’ rights and the Guarani people, still today arbitrarily exiled in Brazil.
President Cubas, had initially been a candidate for the Vice Presidency in Lino Oviedo’s presidential formula; Lino Oviedo was first accused of organizing a coup against President Wasmosy (April 1996), reason why he was obliged to retire, and later on started in the political arena and drastically won on September 7, 1997 in the internal elections of the Colorado party, shaking both the parties and the political scenario. At the moment, and even after being proven innocent, Lino Oviedo was again tried by a Special Military Tribunal (unconstitutional and only valid in war cases); as a result of such lawsuit he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Due to the fact that Oviedo was barred from being a candidate in the elections, a new presidential formula was created between then-candidate to the Vicepresidency Raúl Cubas Grau and Luis María Argaña, the failed presidential candidate of the opposition’s formula.
Initially, Argaña did not want to be a part of the formula but his supporters advised him to do so "so that in that way [he] could conspire from inside the government" (sic).
Cubas, with the slogan "tu voto vale doble" (your vote is worth double) captivated the supporters of the Colorado Party an even more the supporters of Lino Oviedo’s political movement (UNACE) to whom he promised the prompt and deserved freedom of the former general.
Oviedo’s fair release
The formula Cubas – Argaña won in the elections and indeed, the new president, complied with the Colorado party supporters, but before complying with the “oviedistas” [name given to Oviedo´s supporters], the Congress passed a meteoric Anti-Amnesty Act, in that way restricting the presidential power to release Lino Oviedo who had been unconstitutionally indicted and arrested.
However, President Cubas released Oviedo based on the following arguments:
a) No person shall be tried twice for the same cause and Lino César Oviedo had already been acquitted by a Civil Court of Law.
b) Using his Presidential power, he commuted the sentence imposed on the former general.
Such a decision stated in Decree No. 117 dated August 1999 was the beginning of the project to Impeach President Cubas. In the meantime agricultural and workers’ demonstrations were conducted, attacks were made by congressmen, judges and politicians of the opposition, making citizens believe through the “published opinion” that such actions were caused by "the group under Oviedo’s leadership" (sic).
Until that moment, leaders and supporters of Cubas Constitutional Government did not know the dimensions of the sham that was being conceived. It was the days of March 1999 and under those circumstances, the congress conspirators obtained the votes required to try Cubas and set April 7 of that same year as the date to conduct the trial.

However, the result of the negotiations of the government with fraternal political parties was positive and it was clear that the Impeachment would not take place.
Agricultural groups demanded their debts to be forgiven and demonstrated in Plaza del Congreso from the early hours of May 23 and at 8:45 a.m. - what a coincidence! – the media broadcasted the hard news of the “an attack” (?) against Vice President Argaña, something which logically made supporters and opponents nervous, and later on, and over Argaña’s body, finally the youth and the congressmen demanded Cubas Grau’s immediate resignation or that the Impeachment scheduled for April 7 be conducted at an earlier date.
Some congressmen, friends of the government, were whether in their hometowns in the interior of Paraguay or in some international event and such situation was taken advantage of to commence the Impeachment due to the non resignation of the Constitutional President, illegitimately demanded by the opposition’s conspirators. The votes required for the Impeachment were met, but before it took place, a scared Cubas Grau, resigned!, fulfilling the conspiracy plan that contemplated that then-President of the National Congress, Senator Luis Ángel González Macchi would take power for a constitutional term of 90 days. That term was not observed and through all kinds of unconstitutional maneuvering he retained the illegitimately obtained power, until he pass it on (not very willing) after the last elections that gave Paraguay a new President from the Colorado Party: Nicanor Duarte Frutos, who would lead a government, that though being new, belongs to the same political line of corruption that seems to perpetuate at the head of a beaten Paraguay..
Internal Corruption
According to a Report issued by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) published in London, Paraguay is the only country of the Southern Cone that showed no progress in the democratic and economic reforms during the last years.
The reinstallation of torture as a system of government under González Macchi’s himself and practiced by his Minstry of the Interior to women, childen, and young people; the illegal purchase of a BMW (stolen in Argentina) and its further sale to the Paraguayan State for an amount exceeding 200,000 dollars, the diversion of funds amounting to 16 million dollars from the Paraguay’s Central Bank, initially in complicity with the Superintendet of Banks, son of the “consultant” of the Executive Branch of Republic; the relation of his father and brothers to this illegal act to obtain donations for the Lola Miño Foundation, grandmother of González Macchi; the purchase of US dollars at a higher price than the one fixed by the Administración Nacional de Electricidad (National Energy Bureau); nepotism in the public administration; quick release of drug traffickers by venal judges; sale of wild animal furs by military officers and units of the Armed Forces and the release of prisoners by the Director of Prisons himself, are some of the cases that are “worth” being mentioned as examples of the existing corruption, being the Judiciary an accomplice of the government. Not to mention the ridiculous process on the “Death of the assassinated body” of Vice President Argaña, the details of which present some colorful, mysterious and contradictory elements similar to famous assassinations in history such as John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s, in which the killing bullets (like in that case) make pirouettes before entering the body of the victim or with the presence of around 12 different terrorists (according to the witnesses of the alleged attack) and who amazingly all were traveling a same middle-sized car.
In this website , you will be able to read the journalistic investigation that revealed the irregularities and erros made by those who conceived, together with the corrupt Judiciary of Paraguay, a real coup covered up under an alleged attack, throwing in the face of president Cubas Grau “a dead body” to threaten him and at the same time “kill two birds with one stone”: Cubas Grau himself and Lino Oviedo, who was “a pain in the neck politically”, putting them aside from the political scene.

The role be played by the US in the years to come will be crucial for Paraguay –according to the report of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) – to face the fragility of its democracy, the level of insecurity and the insufficient social development of the region, since the countries still cannot deal with the enormous challenges that they face.
In this context, Paraguay is the symbol of the main drug dealer and one of the biggest centers of insecurity and instability. Very recently, deputy Walter Bower’s brother, denounced the owners of a modern “narcoranch” that has its own runways in the Department of Misiones region, without the judicial authorities conducting any investigations thereof; however, the authorities have taken the time to “invent causes” against those who opposed to the corrupt plans of the government, among them Lino Oviedo himself, who has tried and still works on it from his unfair exile, trying to open the eyes of Paraguayan people.
Oviedo’s Political Persecution
On December 17, 2001, the 11 Justices of the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court unanimously determined to deny the Extradition request made by the Paraguayan government against the formed Chief of the Armed Forces Lino Cesar Oviedo Silva. In that instance, it was also ordered his immediate freedom to travel and live, should he decide so, in the territory of the Federative Republic of Brazil. After thoroughly examining the Extradition request and the charges that they were trying to charge to Oviedo in his country of origin, the Justices of the Brazilian Supreme Court arrived at the conclusion that they were before a “disguised political extradition”. “It refers to cases in which a State (in this case Paraguay) maliciously attribute to a person an ordinary crime in order to guarantee that person’s return to his country of origin, covering up the actual purpose of a political persecution” declared the Reporter of the Process Maurício Corrêa at the moment of entering the judgment.
Bad Image of Paraguayan Politics
Europe, main investor in the country, had a downfall of investments in the country over the last months due exactly to the bad image of the country and the fact there is no domestic investment, no defined policy on development to be implemented by the new government of current President Duarte Frutos who generates confidence, transparency that strengthens the institutions and provides with judicial guarantees that support the intention of foreign companies to invest in the country. Unfortunately, we believe that his stagnation of the government will extend over a period of time complicating even more the weak situation of the nation.
The consequences
For any serious country, a reform of the State means the strengthening of institutions, driving descentralization, modernization of the public function and any tool that helps to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of the public sector and not to diminish its power as has happened in Paraguay.
The chances of giving a successful end to the crisis built up during the past years, even today and with a new government are inhibited by the disorder and the political incapacity that have featured the governmental administration over the last years and that seems to perpetuate due to the presence of old politicians that answer to the above mentioned ills of power; for example, the continues violation of the constitutional norms depending on the interests of those in power. It is then that the following saying materializes: “To our friends: everything; to the indifferent people: the Law; to the opponents, fight”.
Recovery will be an illusion as long as the social debt raises, the growing expansion of poverty devastates unprotected sectors of society and adds new members to the harmful underworld of crime.
Today, the country is debating between misery and the dramatic growth of unemployment. The denunciations of corruption are stringing among high investiture families of the rest of the Republic and the Executive Branch, the legitimacy of the origin of which is doubtful, is determined to lose legitimacy due to the lack of decorum in its administration and because it has put Paraguay under internationally shameful situations.
In Paraguay, “distinguished officers of high hierarchy” are accused of defrauding the Paraguayan State (former Presidential family of González Macchi); of the enormous robbery to the company Prosegur (Deputy Walter Bower, former Ministry of Interior); among many others ... and they are still free because the justice is "examining the cases". However, one of the less examined cases is the one by which Lino César Oviedo is unbelievably accused of being the intellectual author of the assassination of Argaña, another trick result of the internal corruption of the political power that became cancer for the most corrupt Judiciary of the history of South America; such situation has been acknowledged by constitutional experts members of the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court, when they declared to release Oviedo, realizing the Judicial and political maneuvering of Oviedo’s opponents, whose only intention was and is to trap him in order to exercise without limits their evident hate against him.
Unfortunately, this is the country that we have to present in this report, it is Paraguay, land of polkas and guaranias, of blossomed lapachos, a land that for those of us who had the privilege of visiting recognize in it a paradise, but that contrasts internationally for its corruption, impunity and absolute unfairness ...