Introduction

Paraguay emerged from almost thirty-five years of one-man rule, a modern record for Latin America, when a rival general overthrew General Alfredo Stroessner in a bloody coup. The general who overthrew Stroessner, Andreas Rodriguez, was one of Stroessner’s closest associates. Rodriguez had invested much personal capital in Stroessner's regime and had benefited unabashedly from his rule. Rodriguez had become the constitutional president of the republic. He was elected three months after the coup to fill out the term of his predecessor, just as Stroessner had been elected in 1954 to fill out the term of the deposed Federico Chaves. Paraguay's population of 4 million is probably the most homogeneous on the continent, both racially and culturally. Agriculture has always dominated the Paraguayan economy, but it has become even more important as a foreign exchange earner. Paraguay is paradoxical.