70 years after Paraguay’s dictatorship, protesters see its legacy in the entrenched right-wing party

Associated Press

ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay (AP) — It has been 70 years to the day that Latin America’s longest-ruling dictator, Gen. Alfredo Stroessner, seized power in Paraguay in a 1954 coup and secured the virtually uninterrupted dominance of his conservative Colorado party for decades. Those who pushed the painful process of democratization after Stroessner’s downfall said they believed their country was on the upswing, that its civic institutions were getting stronger. But now activists say they’ve increasingly seen a trend in the opposite direction. In a rare eruption of public outrage on Thursday, hundreds of protesters streamed through the streets of Asunción, chanting against the government. Victims of the dictatorship argue the government hasn’t really reckoned with or redressed the legacy of Stroessner in Paraguay.