Paraguay's awful history
The never-ending war
How a terrible but little-known conflict continues to shape and blight a nation
Dec 22nd 2012 | ASUNCIÓN | from the print edition
He died with his homeland
THE fall of the “father of all Paraguayans” was even more abrupt than his rise. In 2008 Fernando Lugo, a Catholic bishop and liberation theologian who called himself a champion of the poor, won his country’s presidential election and broke the Colorado Party’s chokehold on power. Shortly after his inauguration, however, four women said that he had fathered their children while under a vow of celibacy; Mr Lugo recognised two of them. The Liberal party, whose support had propelled him to the presidency, repudiated him. In June 2012 …ver más…

Soon afterwards López declared war on Brazil and attacked its interior province of Mato Grosso. He later dispatched a force to Uruguay as well. When Argentina refused to let him march troops through its territory, López sent them anyway. Once the Brazilian-backed side won the war in Uruguay, the three governments signed a secret pact. They agreed to annex half of Paraguay’s territory, collect reparations and forbid it from keeping an army—and to fight until López was ousted.
The odds were stacked against Paraguay. The allies’ combined population was 25 times bigger. Paraguay relied on Napoleonic-era kit—muskets, 17th-century cannon and wooden boats—and, being landlocked, could not import modern armaments. Many of its horses were crippled by a spinal ailment. The allies ultimately mustered long-range rifles, artillery and ironclad warships.

Victory or death. It was death
The Paraguayan invaders were soon beaten back from Uruguay and Brazil, and López proposed peace. But Pedro’s honour would not let him quit until his rival was toppled (the Brazilian troops did most of the fighting). Honour similarly prevented López from abdicating, though perhaps no alternative, self-respecting Paraguayan leader could have surrendered on the secret pact’s terms. What began as a capricious escapade became a total war, and a struggle for national survival.
For three years the outgunned, undermanned Paraguayans battled their enemies to a