drevolution6

The political and civil war prisoners were released; the frontiers were open for the return of all exiles; a regime of autonomous economic development was taking place and 'the 'Partisan Reconciliation' (Reencuentro Partidario) was accomplished on October 27, 1955, so the upcoming Colorado Convention -to be held on March 4, 1956- could sanction it and thereafter we would only concentrate on the country's democratic institutionalization.
   The legitimation of the victorious revolutionary leadership -the Colorados'- was then and is still now, the logical preceding step toward political normalization in Paraguay.
   Centering this process was the talented and charismatic Epifanio Mendez Fleitas, a natural top leader to both civilian and military, having been behind that objective since his youthful years.
   But paralleling it -once again as in other times- there was a plot underway, on this occasion masterminded by our own party's oligarchy.
   The conspiracy, which had visibly started on January 4, 1954, -because of the May 4, 1954s event- could not succeed until December 21, 1955. (17)

   Stroessner -won over by the internal and international reaction backing his political team newly born in the pseud 'unification'- brought about a selfcoup against the real Unification (the Reencuentro). (18)
   Thereafter, the sovereign Coloradismo (labelled 'Epifanismo') began to be marginalized and cruelly persecuted by the new government which since then was run ironically under its name and symbols. (19)

The same masquerading technique used by the rulers to neutralize the February '36 revolution in taking over its political apparatus (the Febrerista Party) was also implemented to control the Colorado Party after Dec. 21, 1955.
   That genuinely Colorado period (1949/55) had to be ignored and its protagonists -civilian and military- had to be destroyed at all costs, either by implicating them with the tyranny's emerging structure or by burying them under mountains of ignominy.
   The organic defection of the party's Democratic faction as antithesis to the totalitarian Guionistas, left the loyal Colorados to our principles (as Epifanistas) in the position of a new antithesis.
   The qualitative change operated in the partisan dialectic, following the oligarchic pact in Sanchez Quell's home, was reflected on the new names:
consistent Democrats turned into Epifanistas/ alienated Guionistas and Democrats turned into Stronistas.
   Namely, after Dec. 21, 1955, the question is no longer Guionistas vs Democrats, but Stronistas vs Epifanistas.

Subsequently, there was the crackdown on the Paraguayan Confederation of Workers (Aug '58) and the step by step purging of the regime's political team until they finally gave way to the consolidated stronista system, consecrated by 'the 1967s Constitutional Assembly'. (20)
   The gradual shrinkage of the Colorados' representation as the main decision maker, was being covered up scientifically by a 'democratic' facade opportunely orchestrated by basically bringing back to the political arena, the obsolete oligarchic groups militarily defeated in Aug. '47.
   Internationally, the North American-Brazilian sponsorship through the implementation of the McCarthyist pseud anticommunism by the Secretary John F. Dulles, was critical for Stroessner's success.

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THE STRONISTA BETRAYAL