Alfredo Stroessner was a dictator of which South American country from 1954 to 1989?
Alfredo Stroessner Alfredo Stroessner Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda (; November 3, 1912 – August 16, 2006) was a Paraguayan Army officer who served as President of Paraguay from 1954 to 1989. He ascended to the position after leading an army coup in 1954. His 35-year-long rule, marked by an uninterrupted period of repression in his country, is the longest in modern South American history. Stroessner's rule is ranked 20th-longest among non-royal national leaders since 1900 and made him one of the world's longest-serving non-royal heads of state. In 1954, he ousted Federico Chávez, becoming president after winning an election in which he was
Alfredo Stroessner rivals contended could only have been obtained through massive fraud. On February 3, 1989, only six months after being sworn in for what would have been his eighth full term, Stroessner was ousted in a coup d'état led by General Andrés Rodríguez, his closest confidant for over three decades. One reason for the coup was that the generals feared one of Stroessner's offspring would succeed him. Of the two, Alfredo (aka 'Freddie'), was a cocaine addict and Gustavo, a pilot, was loathed for being homosexual. A more outlandish rumour was that Lino Oviedo threatened Rodríguez with a grenade if he