However, the civilian-military victory of the democratic forces (Aug '47) could not be enthroned politically through popular sovereignity, though significant measures had been taken in that direction. Between Aug '47 and Dec '55, the ideological conflict continued, already in the Colorados' jurisdiction: among the Democratic majority and Guionismo, residue of the old regime. At the peak of this development, when aproaching a definition, the totalitarian Guionismo led by Edgar Insfran and despite being widely beaten in popular support, was rescued from vanishing in Dec '55, by Stroessner who turned to the greedy interests defeated in 1947. There wasn't any revolt attempt against President Stroessner on Dec 21, 1955, nor did we need it. The upcoming Colorado convention on March 4, 1956, would solemnly solve our political crisis anyway. But the old guard officers and politicians getting behind Stroessner and fearing the free decision of the party convention, did need an excuse -a justification- for the actual self-coup perpetrated then against those officers -led by Major Virgilio Candia- respectful guardians of the legitimation process. In fact, this legitimist posture was and still is the 'plot' of which the neocolonial status' spokesmen -media, politicians- ... were euphemistically talking and fearing about, then and over the years (even now) ... the young officers' posture on Feb 3, 1989, a new chance for us to resume our democratic process to its conclusion. The major military purge and Mendez Fleitas' fall in 1955 although vital for having hit the spinal system on the Colorados' Administration, was just the beginning of a large-scale repression, concentrated primarily on our 'coreligionists': the Colorados, and secondly, reaching other political groups. It was a fact frecuently overlooked by the world information network, the horrendous persecution that we Colorados, suffered more than anybody else, in the name of Coloradismo -like Christians did under the Inquisition in the name of Christianity- for the regime to consumate its domain over Paraguay. Capt. Modesto Napoleon Ortigoza, our fellow and the Latin American longest serving prisoner of conscience -since 1962- barely released in early '88, exemplified the tyranny's anti-Coloradismo. (26) Thus, Stroessner needed to purge the remaining Democrats in May '59, and even Guionistas in Nov '66, in order to consolidate a loyal 'Colorado' political team at least for a while. In addition to the Guion-stronismo controlling our Party since Dec '55, here's what's more as a crowning touch: most of 1947s Liberal-Febrerista-Comunista alliance, who over the years called themselves 'revolutionaries', rather confirmed their reactionary nature in 1967, by fully and shamelessly joining the regime so as to perpetuate it. The socalled 'Constitutional Assembly of 1967' was under state of siege. So, in a close complicity, our 'political class' in its vast majority gave the regime as a part of it, national and international legitimacy for more than 20 years. The factual relationship Armed Forces-Colorado Party that emerged out of the 1947s civil war as a guarantee for legitimacy, was rudely degraded by stronismo during its rule, thereby becoming 'the marriage' to which some medias pejoratively refer. But in truth, this distorted relationship in itself is not what worries the oligarchy, that after all, used it for decades to its own benefit. The hidden fear -reflected thru its semantics, just now suggestively emphasizing a 'departisanship and reduction of the Armed Forces'- is the likelihood increasingly certain (since Feb 3, 1989) that that relationship may well be going back on track to its roots in 1947: the needed and renewed civilian/military confluence, as a safeguard for democracy. |
| GUION STRONISTAS VS DEMOCRAT EPIFANISTAS |