PARAGUAY

Three horizontal bands of red, white, and blue with an emblem in the center; the emblem is different on each side of the flag; the front side has the national coat of arms (a yellow five-pointed star within a green wreath capped by the words República del Paraguay); the back side has the seal of the treasury (a yellow lion below a red Cap of Liberty and the words Paz y Justicia (Peace and Justice) and the words República del Paraguay also.

NAME: República del Paraguay (The name comes from Guaraní words for "water" and "sea".)

POPULATION: 6,900,000 (2008); 6,700,000 (2014)

ETHNIC GROUPS: Mestizo (95%); Amerindian (4%); White (1%)

CAPITAL: Asunción, 2,000,000)

INDEPENDENCE DAY: November 3, 1903 (independence from Spain)

LANGUAGES: Official languages: Spanish and Guaraní

RELIGION: Roman Catholic (90%); Protestant (6%)

LIFE EXPECTANCY: Men (73); women (79)

LITERACY: 95%

GOVERNMENT: Democratic constitutional republic

President: Fernando Armindo Lugo Méndez (1951 – present)

Legislature: Bicameral Congress

MILITARY: Army, National Navy (Armada Nacional, Naval Aviation, Marine Corps), Air Force (Fuerza Aérea Paraguaya, FAP)

ECONOMY: Exports: bananas, shrimp, sugar, coffee, and clothing

MONEY: Guaraní (PYG) (5,000 PYG = $1.00 US)

GEOGRAPHY: Paraguay is landlocked; it lies between Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil; the population is concentrated in southern part of country.

INTERNET CODE: .py

HISTORY:

11,000 BCE (or up to 34,000 BCE): pre-Colombian settlers

pre-1537 Seminomadic, Guaraní-speaking tribes, who were reputed to be fierce warriors

1515 Juan Díaz de Solís was the first Spanish explorer to set foot on present-day territory of Paraguay.

1537 Juan de Salazar y Espinoza (Spanish explorer) founded the Spanish colonial city of Asunción, first the center of the Jesuit missions and later capital of the independent country of Paraguay.

1593-1767 The Jesuits control Paraguay by eventually creating up to 31 missions (called reducciones / reductions or reservations) with as many as 113 Jesuit missionary priests and around 100,000 native converts. The mission of the Jesuits was to undo the forceful oppression the Guaraní had suffered under the encomienda system; overcome the Guaraní's aversion to the Spanish religion; and to undo the colonists' bad examples. The Jesuits' program was to give "liberty" to the Indians; emancipate them from de facto slavery; and to gather the Guaraní into mission communities and ranches in order to achieve a conquista espiritual run by the Jesuits.

1767 The Jesuits were expelled from all Spanish territories all around the world.

1811 May 14: Independence Day from Spain

1811-1816 The actual fighting for independence in Paraguay took place during these years.

1816-1840 Dictatorship under José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia. Francia was one of the worst dictators in world history.

1840-1865 Dictatorships under Carlos Antonio López and Francisco Solano López, two more terrible dictators.

1865-1870 The War of the Triple Alliance: Paraguay fought against an alliance of Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil. Paraguay suffered a crippling defeat. This war is also known as the Paraguayan War or the Great War. Two-thirds of the population died from war and disease. Paraguay lost much of its territory.

1870-1904 National reconstruction controlled and led by governements under the Colorado Party, which alternated and contended for power with the Liberal Party.

1904-1932 Government controlled by various governments under the Liberal Party.

1932-1935 The Chaco War. Paraguay won chunks of former Bolivian territory in the region of the Gran Chaco:

1947-1954 Civil War in Paraguay; the Colorado Party returned to power after the Paraguayan Civil War.

1954-1989 Dictatorship under Alfredo Stroessner.

1989-present Functioning democracy in Paraguay.

1992 Current Constitution promulgated

2003-2008 President Nicanor Duarte Frutos

2008-2013 Paraguay elected Fernando Armindo Lugo Méndez, a former Catholic bishop, as president. His election victory broke 60 consecutive years of power for the Colorado Party.

2012 …, but, in 2012 President Lugo Méndez was charged by the Senate with “poor performance of his duties;” he was impeached, convicted, and removed from office; he was replaced as president by the vice president, Federico Franco, who will finish the term in 2013.

2013–2018 Horacion Cartes electes president

PRINCIPAL POLITICAL PARTIES:

Asociacion Nacional Republicana (Colorado Party, ANR)

Movimiento Union Nacional de Ciudadanos Eticos (UNACE);

Patria Querida (Beloved Fatherland Party, PQ)

Partido Encuentro Nacional (PEN)

Partido Liberal Radical Autentico (PLRA)

Partido País Solidario (PPS)

CULTURE:

Synchretism of European humanities with Amerindian culture, especially the Guaraní.

Augusto Roa Bastos (1917-2005) was one of Latin America's greatest writers of the Generación del Boom (or Magical Realism period). He fought in the Chaco War, and he earned his living as a journalist, screenwriter, professor, and novelist. His most acclaimed work is the novel Yo, el supreme (I, the Supreme, 1989). In 1989, Roa Bastos won Spain's distinguished Cervantes Prize for literature for this novel. The novel deals with the dictator Francia.