| Again ... the 1904's adventure hadn't been enough to set us back right away; our reconstruction's greatest architects, Gen. Bernardino Caballero and Gen. Patricio Escobar, had to physically go away (1912) for neocolonialism to regain its full grip until Feb.17, 1936. (7) So, above all, unquestionably in this century, the root of our woes happens to be the disastrous fact that one of the National Party's genuine branches -the Liberal- became associated with Paraguay's foes to oust the other one, the Colorado Party. Unhealed generations coming from that first fratricidal strife following the Triple Alliance War, are the cause-effect forces still moving on our modern society. Right after the Chaco War (1932-35) (8) with Bolivia, our armed people expressed themselves on the February 17, 1936, revolutionary explosion, initiating then a process still open, due to the same pending motivation: the integral liberation of Paraguay. The February's revolution, probably lacking a well defined theory, was soon absorbed by the totalitarian nazi-fascist influence. On August 13, 1937, the restoration of the Liberals' regime took place; as usually happens, the economic structure posed resistance to the political ideal. Thus, the Armed Forces were retaken by their reactionary old guard wing. So it happened also to the incipient Febrerista Party, born among the revolutionary troops -the very Chaco's defenders- eversince only theoretically led by Col. Rafael Franco, a symbol to the ideals of February. (9) The February 17, 1936's popular and nationalistic revolution, brought about -according to Mendez Fleitas- by the most brilliant generation of our history's contemporary period, has undoubtedly such enormous prestige that despite its premature failure, the social effervescence created, made it impossible for the Liberals to maintain their regime's restoration. Then, on February 18, 1940, the dictatorship of Gen. Jose F. Estigarribia was instituted. Shortly after the inauguration on Sept. 7, 1940, he was killed in a suspicious plane accident. (10) His successor was the Defense Minister Gen. Higinio Morinigo, reputed to be the best exponent of nationalism in the Army after Col. Rafael Franco. Morinigo's tenure lasted until June 3, 1948, strongly supported by the Armed Forces. (11) Unforeseen to many, the strength of his domestic policy relied on a remarkable anti-liberalism, though he proclaimed to be neutral. Internationally, his diplomacy nominally endorsed the democratic countries fighting nazi-fascism, but most people knew that the regime's survival depended highly upon the Axis powers' fate. In the course of his administration a kind of nazi-fascist militarism was flourishing. At the end of World War II with the defeat of the Axis, popular pressure was uncontainable forcing Morinigo to establish the democratic system. While his diplomacy celebrated the victory of 'their cause', Morinigo was being shaken by the internal democratic forces. But besides Morinigo ... what was our political spectrum then? for those forces to embody ideals in greatly needed social reforms. The Liberal Party was in a full moral bankruptcy and Febrerismo was ironically controlled since its birth by the totalitarian military wing in power, blamable for the failure of the February '36 revolution. |
| A PROCESS STILL OPEN: the February 17, 1936's revolution |