Paraguay in 1996Article Free Pass
Paraguay is a landlocked republic of central South America. Area: 406,752 sq km (157,048 sq mi). Pop. (1996 est.): 4,964,000. Cap.: Asunción. Monetary unit: guaraní, with (Oct. 11, 1996) a free rate of 2,075 guaranies to U.S. $1 (3,269 guaranies = £1 sterling). President in 1996, Juan Carlos Wasmosy.
Democracy in Paraguay, established after the overthrow of Gen. Alfredo Stroessner in 1989, faced its biggest challenge when in April 1996 Pres. Juan Carlos Wasmosy dismissed the army commander, Gen. Lino César Oviedo, for breaking the constitutional ban on political activity by officers currently serving in the military. Oviedo, a candidate for presidential nomination by the ruling Colorado Party in 1998, had called for the postponement of internal party elections. With Oviedo refusing to accept dismissal and amid speculation of a coup, Wasmosy offered to appoint him minister of defense. Under pressure from demonstrators and the opposition majority in Congress, Wasmosy then changed his mind. In June Oviedo was arrested on charges of insurrection. In a newspaper interview from his cell, he claimed that Wasmosy’s business interests were profiting from the award of public contracts and that the coup threat in April was an invention of the government.
Oviedo’s defeat provided little relief for Wasmosy, as the Colorado Party winner was Luis María Argaña, a minister under Stroessner who favoured a return to the economic policies of the dictatorship. Argaña’s victory forced Wasmosy to rely on him for support and put him in a strong position to win the 1998 nomination.
Earnings from cotton, Paraguay’s most important agricultural export, were reduced by low prices and disease. Total exports were projected at $2.2 billion, compared with $2 billion in 1995, while imports were expected to rise from $3.3 billion to $3.6 billion.
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