1 00:00:01,240 --> 00:00:05,560 Speaker 1: Like a like a hero, Sophie, I deal with all 2 00:00:05,640 --> 00:00:09,680 Speaker 1: sorts of stresses that you can't even imagine, like the 3 00:00:09,800 --> 00:00:15,600 Speaker 1: stress of writing an episode about Alfredo Stressner, the dictator 4 00:00:15,640 --> 00:00:21,000 Speaker 1: of Paraguay. Boom. How's that? Also the episode started like 5 00:00:21,200 --> 00:00:25,800 Speaker 1: twenty seconds ago. Uh huh yeah, okay, Well we're doing great. 6 00:00:25,960 --> 00:00:30,600 Speaker 1: That was perfect. That was such a good introduction. Yeah, 7 00:00:30,600 --> 00:00:35,199 Speaker 1: thank you, thank you everybody. How you doing, Sophie fu? 8 00:00:35,600 --> 00:00:43,519 Speaker 1: So this is Behind the Bastards, a podcast where Sophie 9 00:00:43,560 --> 00:00:47,240 Speaker 1: and I banter and then people on the subreddit decide 10 00:00:47,360 --> 00:00:54,960 Speaker 1: whether or not it's problematic. Um, it's the moral north 11 00:00:55,040 --> 00:00:58,639 Speaker 1: Star that is sebred Thank god. I just think it's 12 00:00:58,680 --> 00:01:01,880 Speaker 1: so I just the the subreddit. It's so funny sometimes 13 00:01:01,880 --> 00:01:06,000 Speaker 1: where they're like, oh is uh is everything okay? There? 14 00:01:06,120 --> 00:01:12,240 Speaker 1: It's like yes, but also no, none of it's okay. Yeah. 15 00:01:13,920 --> 00:01:16,440 Speaker 1: I mean the thing is, we love our fans, and 16 00:01:16,680 --> 00:01:19,480 Speaker 1: I appreciate that there's fifty five thousand people who want 17 00:01:19,480 --> 00:01:21,560 Speaker 1: to talk about the show and a subreddit that's that's 18 00:01:21,640 --> 00:01:24,720 Speaker 1: kind of amazing. But at the same time, there's like 19 00:01:24,760 --> 00:01:27,600 Speaker 1: a degree of all of these podcast episodes, everything we do, 20 00:01:27,720 --> 00:01:30,320 Speaker 1: there's like a script. Today's script for this two part 21 00:01:30,440 --> 00:01:32,560 Speaker 1: or is eighty six hundred and sixty five words. It's 22 00:01:32,640 --> 00:01:35,120 Speaker 1: usually between eight and ten thousand words, but also like 23 00:01:35,160 --> 00:01:37,200 Speaker 1: a third of the runtime of any episode. It's just 24 00:01:37,319 --> 00:01:41,000 Speaker 1: us talking and the amount of fine tooth comb going 25 00:01:41,040 --> 00:01:44,120 Speaker 1: over that people do like of like a like little 26 00:01:44,200 --> 00:01:47,240 Speaker 1: jokes or like someone will misspeak or you'll transpose a 27 00:01:47,280 --> 00:01:49,360 Speaker 1: couple of letters in a word, and then there's like 28 00:01:49,440 --> 00:01:54,240 Speaker 1: thirty people talking about it, and it's like, guys, come on, man, 29 00:01:54,280 --> 00:01:57,280 Speaker 1: we are recording a conversation. You know how those work. 30 00:01:58,520 --> 00:02:01,880 Speaker 1: We've already recorded several of the conversations. We will make 31 00:02:01,960 --> 00:02:05,400 Speaker 1: some gaffs. Yeah, to chill out, Come on, man, chill out. 32 00:02:06,240 --> 00:02:09,760 Speaker 1: God bless the people. I know. I yeah, I like subredits. Man. 33 00:02:10,040 --> 00:02:12,200 Speaker 1: I keep in my heart the people who are alike 34 00:02:12,680 --> 00:02:14,840 Speaker 1: just listening to this so they don't have to be 35 00:02:14,880 --> 00:02:18,080 Speaker 1: alone with their thoughts while driving or vacuuming the house 36 00:02:18,800 --> 00:02:23,000 Speaker 1: or you know, shearing a goat walking the dog. God 37 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:25,919 Speaker 1: bless all of you. God bless you, and God bless 38 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:29,760 Speaker 1: us everyone. James Stout, welcome to the program. Thank you, Robert. 39 00:02:29,960 --> 00:02:33,399 Speaker 1: It's glad to be here. Yep. Amongst the goat shearers, 40 00:02:33,560 --> 00:02:37,680 Speaker 1: amongst the goat Shearers, James, what do you know about Paraguay? 41 00:02:38,200 --> 00:02:41,440 Speaker 1: A relatively little. Actually, it's not another big area of 42 00:02:41,639 --> 00:02:44,040 Speaker 1: expertise for me, So I'm excited to learn. I'm gonna 43 00:02:44,200 --> 00:02:47,280 Speaker 1: I'm gonna venture to say, it's not really an expertise 44 00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:50,000 Speaker 1: for many people outside of Paraguay. This is not a 45 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:52,920 Speaker 1: country that gets talked about a lot. It's certainly not 46 00:02:52,960 --> 00:02:56,280 Speaker 1: a country that, like Americans, talk about a lot. I 47 00:02:56,320 --> 00:03:00,440 Speaker 1: had to really, really aggressively go into the reading about 48 00:03:00,440 --> 00:03:03,600 Speaker 1: this to learn much of any just because, like my life, 49 00:03:03,639 --> 00:03:05,640 Speaker 1: the first thirty four years of my life had not 50 00:03:05,720 --> 00:03:10,720 Speaker 1: provided me with much information passively about the country of Paraguay. Now, 51 00:03:10,800 --> 00:03:13,920 Speaker 1: Paraguay is, if you're like me, and up until recently 52 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:16,239 Speaker 1: had not spent much time thinking about the country is 53 00:03:16,240 --> 00:03:21,480 Speaker 1: a lovely little landlocked nation bordered by Bolivia, Brazil, and Argentina. 54 00:03:21,520 --> 00:03:24,359 Speaker 1: And it is perhaps the most doomed little country I've 55 00:03:24,400 --> 00:03:28,480 Speaker 1: ever read about. Maybe Belgium, but they wound up dooming 56 00:03:28,480 --> 00:03:30,600 Speaker 1: a lot of other people and Paraguay never did that. 57 00:03:30,720 --> 00:03:34,560 Speaker 1: So the subject for our episode today is another little 58 00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:39,440 Speaker 1: another dictator, Alfredo Stressner. And you know, we got to 59 00:03:39,480 --> 00:03:41,640 Speaker 1: go through some history before we talk about Stressner because 60 00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:45,360 Speaker 1: as a man himself, he's not the most like He's 61 00:03:45,400 --> 00:03:48,960 Speaker 1: not like Hitler or like Saddam, where his early life, 62 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:51,000 Speaker 1: as dark as it is, is just this like wacky 63 00:03:51,080 --> 00:03:56,960 Speaker 1: cavalcade of madness. Stressner is a guy who is an 64 00:03:56,960 --> 00:04:01,120 Speaker 1: incredibly effective dictator. He might be best at being a 65 00:04:01,160 --> 00:04:04,040 Speaker 1: dictator if anybody we've covered on this show, but he's 66 00:04:04,080 --> 00:04:07,120 Speaker 1: also the best at being a dictator because he kind 67 00:04:07,160 --> 00:04:10,600 Speaker 1: of lucks into the perfect situation for a dictator. Paraguay 68 00:04:10,640 --> 00:04:13,240 Speaker 1: is almost like crafted over the course of about one 69 00:04:13,320 --> 00:04:16,200 Speaker 1: hundred and fifty years to be the ideal country to 70 00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:19,200 Speaker 1: have a dictator like Stressner. I've never really encountered a 71 00:04:19,279 --> 00:04:22,120 Speaker 1: situation like this in a history, and it's fascinating as 72 00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:25,000 Speaker 1: a result of that, But it all kind of comes 73 00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:27,080 Speaker 1: back to the fact that Paraguay might kind of be 74 00:04:27,160 --> 00:04:32,520 Speaker 1: cursed this. They have a rough chunk of history after 75 00:04:33,040 --> 00:04:37,799 Speaker 1: the liberation from Spain. Like most of Latin America, Paraguays 76 00:04:37,800 --> 00:04:41,080 Speaker 1: founded as a Spanish colony in the early sixteenth century 77 00:04:41,440 --> 00:04:44,320 Speaker 1: and up until the last twenty years or so, it 78 00:04:44,400 --> 00:04:47,520 Speaker 1: was not democratic in any meaningful way. One book that 79 00:04:47,560 --> 00:04:50,760 Speaker 1: I read Paraguay under Stressner by Paul Lewis describes it 80 00:04:50,800 --> 00:04:54,640 Speaker 1: as an unbroken sequence of dictatorships. Now, that is a 81 00:04:54,720 --> 00:04:57,680 Speaker 1: nasty way to describe a political situation. It's also worth 82 00:04:57,720 --> 00:05:00,160 Speaker 1: noting that when we're talking about the eighteen hundreds, that's 83 00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:04,599 Speaker 1: an accurate description for basically everywhere on Earth. Like you 84 00:05:04,640 --> 00:05:06,880 Speaker 1: could argue it's not that far off from describing the 85 00:05:06,960 --> 00:05:09,240 Speaker 1: United States in that period, given the amount of people 86 00:05:09,240 --> 00:05:13,400 Speaker 1: who are enslaved or otherwise disinfraniation. So Paraguay is not alone, 87 00:05:13,480 --> 00:05:16,280 Speaker 1: you know, in the eighteen hundreds and having a bunch 88 00:05:16,279 --> 00:05:21,040 Speaker 1: of dictatorships. Um. Now, when the country achieved its independence 89 00:05:21,040 --> 00:05:24,320 Speaker 1: from Spain in eighteen eleven, it left behind a Obviously 90 00:05:24,360 --> 00:05:27,159 Speaker 1: Spain was a could be a very brutal colonial master, 91 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:34,200 Speaker 1: but it didn't like do so in order to take 92 00:05:34,279 --> 00:05:38,279 Speaker 1: on a more liberatory political system. The architect of their 93 00:05:38,279 --> 00:05:41,840 Speaker 1: split from Spain, a guy named doctor Jose Gaspar Rodriguez 94 00:05:41,880 --> 00:05:45,520 Speaker 1: de Francia, wound up as dictator, and that's probably not surprised. 95 00:05:45,600 --> 00:05:47,680 Speaker 1: Was not surprising to that many people. He seems to 96 00:05:47,760 --> 00:05:51,200 Speaker 1: have been fairly popular. He spends twenty five years in power, 97 00:05:51,240 --> 00:05:55,320 Speaker 1: which is a substantial reign for a dictator. Stalin Mao, 98 00:05:55,360 --> 00:05:57,919 Speaker 1: both only get like four years more than that, and 99 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:01,400 Speaker 1: those are kind of two famously, and this is eighteen eleven, 100 00:06:01,440 --> 00:06:04,039 Speaker 1: which makes it, I think more impressive. Yeah, because people 101 00:06:04,080 --> 00:06:07,240 Speaker 1: didn't look very long. Yeah. So he's in there a 102 00:06:07,279 --> 00:06:10,279 Speaker 1: long time. And while he's in charge, you know, it 103 00:06:10,360 --> 00:06:13,840 Speaker 1: is a dictatorship, and he brutally purges, you know, any 104 00:06:13,920 --> 00:06:17,240 Speaker 1: kind of opposition that attempts to form. But for most Paraguayans, 105 00:06:17,360 --> 00:06:22,080 Speaker 1: it's a pretty peaceful and relatively positive time, especially compared 106 00:06:22,080 --> 00:06:24,800 Speaker 1: to kind of the previous period. It's worth noting that 107 00:06:24,880 --> 00:06:28,320 Speaker 1: his official title voted to him by the Populace was 108 00:06:28,320 --> 00:06:31,880 Speaker 1: El Supremo, so they could vote for his title, but 109 00:06:32,640 --> 00:06:37,320 Speaker 1: not for when I vote put quotation marks. I don't know. 110 00:06:37,560 --> 00:06:39,520 Speaker 1: It's like a thing where they've got like a parliament 111 00:06:39,600 --> 00:06:43,160 Speaker 1: or whatever, or a congress that's like, you know, is 112 00:06:43,320 --> 00:06:46,400 Speaker 1: basically enthralled to the dictator and periodically he'll have it 113 00:06:46,480 --> 00:06:48,920 Speaker 1: vote for things. You know. That's kind of the story 114 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:51,880 Speaker 1: of Paraguay for quite a while. I want to be 115 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:54,599 Speaker 1: judging this guy based on his apparent but this man 116 00:06:54,720 --> 00:06:58,680 Speaker 1: has a face like a spank toss if we I've 117 00:06:58,680 --> 00:07:02,039 Speaker 1: never heard anyone describe that way. Next leg. I spoke 118 00:07:02,120 --> 00:07:04,479 Speaker 1: a picture for him in a chat, and I think 119 00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:08,080 Speaker 1: it'll come to you like that is they's not a looker. 120 00:07:08,920 --> 00:07:13,119 Speaker 1: Oh my god, you know his face people, you need 121 00:07:13,120 --> 00:07:15,440 Speaker 1: to google this man. His face does look like a 122 00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:17,600 Speaker 1: spanked ass. If there's no other way of coming. If 123 00:07:17,600 --> 00:07:19,440 Speaker 1: you put a nose on an us, that would be 124 00:07:19,560 --> 00:07:22,000 Speaker 1: his face. It's like the bottom half of its His 125 00:07:22,120 --> 00:07:26,160 Speaker 1: face collapsed in on itself because he smelled something so unpleasant, 126 00:07:26,480 --> 00:07:30,720 Speaker 1: like it looks like he's yeah, like awful. His five 127 00:07:30,760 --> 00:07:35,239 Speaker 1: head is is Yeah, really, it's incredible. What a horrible portrait. 128 00:07:37,600 --> 00:07:39,480 Speaker 1: I wonder if he killed the person who painted this, 129 00:07:39,560 --> 00:07:43,400 Speaker 1: because look, if I would, that would be okay. I'm 130 00:07:43,400 --> 00:07:47,600 Speaker 1: just gonna say it. It's having this portrait made of you. 131 00:07:47,880 --> 00:07:51,200 Speaker 1: It justifies at least one murder. This person struck a 132 00:07:51,240 --> 00:07:56,520 Speaker 1: powerful blow for democracy. Cons So. One of the fun 133 00:07:56,560 --> 00:07:59,760 Speaker 1: things about Paraguayan dictators is that they all are named 134 00:07:59,800 --> 00:08:04,800 Speaker 1: like luchadors um. So this guy is El Supremo. His successor, 135 00:08:04,880 --> 00:08:10,160 Speaker 1: Carlos Antonio Lopez, who's also dictator for life, is El Excellentissimo. Um. 136 00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:12,760 Speaker 1: Oh wow, yeah, I know it's fun. These are these 137 00:08:12,760 --> 00:08:16,920 Speaker 1: are some good names. I'm gonna be yeah. Um he 138 00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:19,160 Speaker 1: was like, yeah, we gotta throw a fucking adjective up 139 00:08:19,200 --> 00:08:23,720 Speaker 1: on that. Yeah, I'm taking to the max. So if 140 00:08:23,720 --> 00:08:26,240 Speaker 1: you look at Paraguay on a map again, it is 141 00:08:26,280 --> 00:08:29,960 Speaker 1: immediately obvious why the country has had such a tumultuous history. 142 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:34,000 Speaker 1: It is landlocked, and it is surrounded by Brazil and Argentina, 143 00:08:34,200 --> 00:08:37,800 Speaker 1: two countries that are famously not peaceful with their neighbors 144 00:08:37,880 --> 00:08:42,040 Speaker 1: during the eighteen hundreds. Um, although it's Paraguay that's going 145 00:08:42,080 --> 00:08:45,160 Speaker 1: to be starting shit with them. So the early eighteen 146 00:08:45,280 --> 00:08:48,120 Speaker 1: hundreds are not a peaceful time in South America. And 147 00:08:48,200 --> 00:08:50,840 Speaker 1: given the fact that Paraguay lacked any natural difference, so 148 00:08:50,840 --> 00:08:53,640 Speaker 1: Paraguay is kind of geographically you might think of them 149 00:08:53,640 --> 00:08:56,439 Speaker 1: as the opposite of Switzerland. Switzerland is like such a 150 00:08:56,559 --> 00:08:59,280 Speaker 1: natural fortress that even with very few people, they could 151 00:08:59,320 --> 00:09:04,040 Speaker 1: hold off as many times their size. Paraguay has basically 152 00:09:04,080 --> 00:09:06,720 Speaker 1: no natural offenses other than that it's hot and there's 153 00:09:06,760 --> 00:09:10,880 Speaker 1: lots of mosquitoes, which isn't nothing, but like anyone can 154 00:09:10,960 --> 00:09:14,400 Speaker 1: kind of walk in there and cause problems. And so 155 00:09:14,640 --> 00:09:18,920 Speaker 1: as a result, it's early dictators chose wisely to invest 156 00:09:19,080 --> 00:09:21,680 Speaker 1: very heavily in the army. They're like, we're probably gonna 157 00:09:21,720 --> 00:09:25,240 Speaker 1: wind up getting our asses kicked if we don't do this. 158 00:09:26,360 --> 00:09:30,079 Speaker 1: And by the time Carlos Lopez, that's l Excellentissimo dies, 159 00:09:30,440 --> 00:09:34,960 Speaker 1: his son, Francisco Solano Lopez takes power and at that 160 00:09:35,040 --> 00:09:37,720 Speaker 1: point the little country has a military that is larger 161 00:09:37,840 --> 00:09:40,319 Speaker 1: and more well funded than one would expect from a 162 00:09:40,360 --> 00:09:45,920 Speaker 1: country of that size. Unfortunately, Francisco Lopez is um, he's 163 00:09:45,960 --> 00:09:49,120 Speaker 1: going to take an ill advised year abroad to Europe. 164 00:09:49,120 --> 00:09:51,080 Speaker 1: It's actually more like eighteen months. When he's in his 165 00:09:51,120 --> 00:09:54,640 Speaker 1: twenties now. A lot of people go on gap year 166 00:09:54,840 --> 00:10:00,000 Speaker 1: and you know, it's, yeah, go to some raves and yeah, 167 00:10:00,120 --> 00:10:03,800 Speaker 1: intolerable in Barcelona. Yeah, it takes some e briefly date 168 00:10:04,080 --> 00:10:08,680 Speaker 1: a German girl who has interesting opinions on the moon landing. 169 00:10:08,760 --> 00:10:11,680 Speaker 1: You know, it's it's all. We've all had good experiences 170 00:10:12,120 --> 00:10:15,000 Speaker 1: on our gap year. Unfortunately, that is not the case 171 00:10:15,080 --> 00:10:22,760 Speaker 1: with Francisco Lopez, because so his equivalent of entering into 172 00:10:22,800 --> 00:10:25,400 Speaker 1: an ill advised romantic relationship from someone he met at 173 00:10:25,440 --> 00:10:28,120 Speaker 1: a rave is he hangs out with Emperor Napoleon the 174 00:10:28,160 --> 00:10:32,600 Speaker 1: third of France, um friend of the pod and so 175 00:10:34,160 --> 00:10:36,720 Speaker 1: I'm gonna quote from an article in the January twenty 176 00:10:36,920 --> 00:10:40,439 Speaker 1: thirteen issue of Military Heritage magazine. Here he was taken 177 00:10:40,480 --> 00:10:43,200 Speaker 1: particularly with the glittering marshal splendor of the court of 178 00:10:43,200 --> 00:10:46,320 Speaker 1: the French Emperor Napoleon the Third. Returning home, Lopez brought 179 00:10:46,360 --> 00:10:48,880 Speaker 1: back with him several steamships to fill out the embryonic 180 00:10:48,920 --> 00:10:52,000 Speaker 1: Paraguayan fleet, along with all the guns, ammunition, and gold 181 00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:54,839 Speaker 1: braid that his deep pockets could purchase. He also brought 182 00:10:54,880 --> 00:10:59,840 Speaker 1: back it's it's a bling that. Yeah, he's he's getting 183 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:03,040 Speaker 1: going doubt. He also brought black a new mistress, an 184 00:11:03,040 --> 00:11:05,800 Speaker 1: Irish adventuress named Eliza Lynch, who, like many a gold 185 00:11:05,840 --> 00:11:08,800 Speaker 1: digger before her, catered to her meal tickets outsized ego, 186 00:11:08,880 --> 00:11:13,199 Speaker 1: recklessly encouraging his delusions of grandeur in dreams of imperial glory. Now, 187 00:11:13,480 --> 00:11:15,920 Speaker 1: I don't know how entirely fair it is to blame 188 00:11:15,960 --> 00:11:19,160 Speaker 1: this Irish jack. We are like, what happens next, But 189 00:11:19,280 --> 00:11:22,880 Speaker 1: that's how that magazine put it. Yeah, so conte Military 190 00:11:22,920 --> 00:11:26,600 Speaker 1: Heritage being particularly woke on gender, Yeah, that is very 191 00:11:26,720 --> 00:11:29,520 Speaker 1: likely that said she does come up in any rite 192 00:11:29,559 --> 00:11:31,200 Speaker 1: up you find it. The guy. I think there's there's 193 00:11:31,200 --> 00:11:32,760 Speaker 1: a lot going on. I mean, he's a rich kid 194 00:11:32,840 --> 00:11:36,640 Speaker 1: whose dad was the dictator, and he goes to Europe, 195 00:11:37,160 --> 00:11:39,800 Speaker 1: falls in love with these European armies, and he builds 196 00:11:39,880 --> 00:11:42,840 Speaker 1: himself a splendid little army based on the solid base 197 00:11:42,920 --> 00:11:45,480 Speaker 1: that his dad has left him. In eighteen fifty seventies, 198 00:11:45,480 --> 00:11:48,000 Speaker 1: made vice president to Paraguay, and then in eighteen sixty 199 00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:51,600 Speaker 1: two his dad dies in Francisco, takes power, and he 200 00:11:51,800 --> 00:11:54,120 Speaker 1: from the beginning he cannot give up kind of these 201 00:11:54,559 --> 00:11:59,280 Speaker 1: these dreams Napoleon had stoked of military excellence. He's a 202 00:11:59,320 --> 00:12:01,480 Speaker 1: little bit like that doomed Hapsburg who's going to get 203 00:12:01,559 --> 00:12:05,880 Speaker 1: murdered in Mexico right around this same time period. So 204 00:12:06,200 --> 00:12:09,400 Speaker 1: this little military, very good military his predecessors had built, 205 00:12:09,440 --> 00:12:12,280 Speaker 1: was adequate, very adequate to the task of defending Paraguay 206 00:12:12,280 --> 00:12:16,760 Speaker 1: from intrusion by a neighbor. So he's he's got this 207 00:12:16,920 --> 00:12:20,640 Speaker 1: toy like his for Lopez, this wonderful army that his 208 00:12:20,720 --> 00:12:23,280 Speaker 1: predecessors built is like this big, shiny toy, and he 209 00:12:23,360 --> 00:12:26,280 Speaker 1: spends like a couple of years outfitting it and getting 210 00:12:26,280 --> 00:12:29,880 Speaker 1: it really set up. But he's, you know, the reasonable 211 00:12:29,920 --> 00:12:32,280 Speaker 1: thing to do if you're Paraguay is just kind of 212 00:12:32,320 --> 00:12:35,400 Speaker 1: try to keep being Paraguay, right, as opposed to starting 213 00:12:35,400 --> 00:12:38,319 Speaker 1: a war with the neighbors who surround you and are 214 00:12:38,320 --> 00:12:41,920 Speaker 1: all much larger. Lopez, though, he wants to be a 215 00:12:41,920 --> 00:12:45,840 Speaker 1: big continental power like France, and so in eighteen sixty 216 00:12:45,880 --> 00:12:50,080 Speaker 1: four he decides to um to take that leap, you know, 217 00:12:50,120 --> 00:12:54,440 Speaker 1: to throw the iron dice. So Uruguay, which is you know, 218 00:12:54,520 --> 00:12:57,160 Speaker 1: pretty close, is racked by a sort of soft civil 219 00:12:57,200 --> 00:13:00,400 Speaker 1: war at the time between two rival political parties. Again 220 00:13:00,760 --> 00:13:03,040 Speaker 1: neither of them is very democratic, but one of these 221 00:13:03,080 --> 00:13:06,280 Speaker 1: parties is backed or one of these parties, which is 222 00:13:06,320 --> 00:13:08,679 Speaker 1: like the party in power at the time, is friendly 223 00:13:08,720 --> 00:13:12,680 Speaker 1: with Lopez and Paraguay. Brazil backs the other party, and 224 00:13:12,760 --> 00:13:15,360 Speaker 1: in this kind of internecine struggle, the party that Brazil 225 00:13:15,480 --> 00:13:19,160 Speaker 1: is backing and arming wins. Lopez takes offense to this. 226 00:13:19,480 --> 00:13:22,760 Speaker 1: He demands that Brazil stopped giving military support to Uruguay, 227 00:13:22,760 --> 00:13:25,520 Speaker 1: and Brazil is like, you guys are like a speed bump, 228 00:13:25,559 --> 00:13:29,199 Speaker 1: where Brazil, of course not you. What do you think 229 00:13:29,200 --> 00:13:33,160 Speaker 1: we're gonna listen to you? They are much bigger. So 230 00:13:33,720 --> 00:13:37,920 Speaker 1: he makes a questionable decision. Paraguay is on this river 231 00:13:38,080 --> 00:13:41,600 Speaker 1: and there's like a Brazilian merchant ship that's import in 232 00:13:41,679 --> 00:13:45,640 Speaker 1: the capital, and he has his forces sees that merchant 233 00:13:45,679 --> 00:13:47,880 Speaker 1: ship and when they do, they find out that the 234 00:13:47,920 --> 00:13:52,080 Speaker 1: Brazilian governor of the bordering province of Matta Groso is 235 00:13:52,080 --> 00:13:55,160 Speaker 1: on the ship. So Lopez arrests this guy, throws him 236 00:13:55,160 --> 00:13:57,560 Speaker 1: in a dungeon and then sends his arm and then 237 00:13:57,640 --> 00:14:01,560 Speaker 1: invades Matta Groso and like, and it's this, it's a 238 00:14:01,679 --> 00:14:05,080 Speaker 1: very big, sparsely populated province. He basically just marches in, 239 00:14:05,160 --> 00:14:07,680 Speaker 1: takes the tiny capital town and then it's like, we 240 00:14:07,760 --> 00:14:14,320 Speaker 1: own this whole thing. So that is a bold yeah, okay, 241 00:14:14,600 --> 00:14:17,840 Speaker 1: doubling the side of his country in one fells group, yeah, 242 00:14:17,880 --> 00:14:21,480 Speaker 1: and thinking this will probably be okay. So, like, this 243 00:14:21,600 --> 00:14:24,040 Speaker 1: is a bold move at the best of times. And 244 00:14:24,080 --> 00:14:26,680 Speaker 1: if he had just wound up going to war with Brazil, 245 00:14:27,240 --> 00:14:31,200 Speaker 1: that's a tough fight for Paraguay, right, That's like that's 246 00:14:31,240 --> 00:14:37,360 Speaker 1: like Kansas going to war with the entire state of Texas. 247 00:14:37,480 --> 00:14:41,400 Speaker 1: Like it's not you know, the kind of odds are 248 00:14:41,400 --> 00:14:43,640 Speaker 1: stacked against him as he is as it is, but 249 00:14:43,720 --> 00:14:47,160 Speaker 1: he doesn't like stop just at taking Mattagroso, because the 250 00:14:47,160 --> 00:14:49,520 Speaker 1: next thing he does is He's still pissed that Brazil 251 00:14:49,640 --> 00:14:52,200 Speaker 1: has backed the side he didn't like in this conflict 252 00:14:52,200 --> 00:14:55,400 Speaker 1: in Uruguay. So he sends his army to Uruguay to 253 00:14:55,520 --> 00:14:58,880 Speaker 1: like take back power for his people. And at the time, 254 00:14:58,920 --> 00:15:01,200 Speaker 1: by the way, while he's doing all of this, he 255 00:15:01,280 --> 00:15:04,520 Speaker 1: has he has himself get voted the nickname El Supremo. 256 00:15:04,960 --> 00:15:09,080 Speaker 1: So El Supremo sends his forces off to to Uruguay 257 00:15:09,080 --> 00:15:11,760 Speaker 1: to win some glory. But the problem is that there's 258 00:15:11,760 --> 00:15:18,440 Speaker 1: like this slice of Argentina. So Lopez like asks for 259 00:15:18,520 --> 00:15:23,880 Speaker 1: permission to send his army through, and Argentina is like, no, hey, 260 00:15:23,920 --> 00:15:25,400 Speaker 1: what do you what are he of course not, We're 261 00:15:25,440 --> 00:15:27,840 Speaker 1: not gonna let you do this, and so he declares 262 00:15:27,880 --> 00:15:32,280 Speaker 1: war on Argentina too, So great, what a chat. The 263 00:15:32,400 --> 00:15:35,280 Speaker 1: third thing that happens is that because of everything else 264 00:15:35,320 --> 00:15:38,120 Speaker 1: we've talked about, Uruguay winds up declaring war on him 265 00:15:38,120 --> 00:15:42,840 Speaker 1: as well. Um. So this is a this is a 266 00:15:42,960 --> 00:15:47,320 Speaker 1: bad situation to be in um And he, you know, 267 00:15:47,440 --> 00:15:50,160 Speaker 1: he launches a couple of attacks with his well made 268 00:15:50,160 --> 00:15:52,880 Speaker 1: little army, and his well made little army winds up 269 00:15:52,960 --> 00:15:55,400 Speaker 1: getting just bashed to pieces, in large part because he 270 00:15:55,440 --> 00:15:59,000 Speaker 1: is an incompetent commander. After thousands and thousands are dead, 271 00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:01,760 Speaker 1: it becomes clear to Supremo that the population of young 272 00:16:01,800 --> 00:16:04,480 Speaker 1: adult males is not going to be enough to sustain 273 00:16:04,560 --> 00:16:08,400 Speaker 1: Paraguay's war effort, so he starts drafting children, creating battalions 274 00:16:08,400 --> 00:16:11,000 Speaker 1: of twelve year olds to hold the line and suicidal 275 00:16:11,080 --> 00:16:13,720 Speaker 1: last stands to delay the enemy. For an idea of 276 00:16:13,720 --> 00:16:16,640 Speaker 1: how yeah, for an idea of how bad this is, 277 00:16:16,680 --> 00:16:19,880 Speaker 1: there are ports of like Brazilian soldiers massacring trench lines 278 00:16:19,920 --> 00:16:21,960 Speaker 1: and then when they realize they've just shot a bunch 279 00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:25,080 Speaker 1: of twelve year olds, like weeping and like just breaking 280 00:16:25,120 --> 00:16:29,800 Speaker 1: down because like you know, like that's a pretty bad situation. 281 00:16:31,400 --> 00:16:34,480 Speaker 1: Twelve year old. No, nobody, very few people want to 282 00:16:34,560 --> 00:16:39,320 Speaker 1: kill twelve years yeah. Yeah. So, as this war drags on, 283 00:16:39,520 --> 00:16:42,520 Speaker 1: Lopez starts drafting old men and eventually even women. He 284 00:16:42,560 --> 00:16:45,200 Speaker 1: has them doing a lot of logistics work in the back, 285 00:16:45,600 --> 00:16:49,640 Speaker 1: and in eighteen sixty nine, Asuncion the capitol falls and 286 00:16:49,680 --> 00:16:52,640 Speaker 1: Lopez flees into the hills to fight a guerrilla war, 287 00:16:52,920 --> 00:16:55,040 Speaker 1: which he is just as bad at as the rest 288 00:16:55,040 --> 00:16:57,840 Speaker 1: of this The last of his forces are surrounded in 289 00:16:57,880 --> 00:17:00,760 Speaker 1: eighteen seventy and he dies a band ending them trying 290 00:17:00,760 --> 00:17:06,520 Speaker 1: to wade across the river. So now that's that's that's 291 00:17:06,600 --> 00:17:09,200 Speaker 1: kind of funny the way this ends. And like, objectively, 292 00:17:09,240 --> 00:17:11,800 Speaker 1: there's an absurdity to how badly this war goes. But 293 00:17:11,880 --> 00:17:14,320 Speaker 1: like James, you and I have both reported on and 294 00:17:14,359 --> 00:17:16,760 Speaker 1: studied a lot of wars. I don't think I've ever 295 00:17:16,800 --> 00:17:19,320 Speaker 1: read about a war that goes worse for a country. 296 00:17:19,640 --> 00:17:21,639 Speaker 1: No war this goes. This is called the War of 297 00:17:21,640 --> 00:17:24,800 Speaker 1: the Triple Alliance. So the death toll of the War 298 00:17:24,840 --> 00:17:27,840 Speaker 1: of the Triple Alliance is comparable to the American Civil War. 299 00:17:28,280 --> 00:17:31,800 Speaker 1: There is no accurate pre war census of Paraguay. All 300 00:17:31,840 --> 00:17:34,800 Speaker 1: of the estimates of the of the percentage of the 301 00:17:34,840 --> 00:17:37,960 Speaker 1: country that dies are kind of based on calculations that 302 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:40,840 Speaker 1: are themselves a little bit of a crapshoot um. But 303 00:17:40,920 --> 00:17:44,320 Speaker 1: I have every analysis that I've read makes basically the 304 00:17:44,359 --> 00:17:47,320 Speaker 1: same point, which is, Paraguay suffered a higher percentage of 305 00:17:47,320 --> 00:17:50,159 Speaker 1: its populace dead than any country in a war I 306 00:17:50,240 --> 00:17:54,520 Speaker 1: can I can name. Um. The most common estimates say 307 00:17:54,560 --> 00:17:57,639 Speaker 1: that two thirds of the pre war population die. Um. 308 00:17:57,840 --> 00:18:01,080 Speaker 1: Some estimates place the death tolet. There are estimates as 309 00:18:01,119 --> 00:18:04,520 Speaker 1: high as ninety percent, although that's likely high, but everyone 310 00:18:04,560 --> 00:18:07,439 Speaker 1: seems degrees sixty per seventy percent of the entire country 311 00:18:07,480 --> 00:18:12,280 Speaker 1: dead is a reasonable estimate. This includes nine ninety percent 312 00:18:12,520 --> 00:18:16,320 Speaker 1: of the pre war male population. Wow, and so post 313 00:18:16,320 --> 00:18:18,359 Speaker 1: war chunks of the country will have a twenty to 314 00:18:18,400 --> 00:18:22,600 Speaker 1: one ratio of women to men. So that's about as 315 00:18:22,640 --> 00:18:25,200 Speaker 1: bad as a war could go. Yeah, yeah, that's not great. 316 00:18:25,240 --> 00:18:29,160 Speaker 1: That's it's really sub optimalcome for everyone. Yeah, maybe from 317 00:18:29,200 --> 00:18:34,359 Speaker 1: the dude to survive, but yeah, the graphic collapse, wow, yeah, 318 00:18:34,400 --> 00:18:36,080 Speaker 1: it is, it is it. It's like, I don't I've 319 00:18:36,119 --> 00:18:38,720 Speaker 1: ever heard of a war going that badly, Like when 320 00:18:38,720 --> 00:18:42,000 Speaker 1: you're making German casualties in World War two seem like, 321 00:18:42,040 --> 00:18:47,520 Speaker 1: well that's you know, you can bats back from that. Yeah, yeah, 322 00:18:47,560 --> 00:18:49,440 Speaker 1: I mean it didn't even do like twelve year olds 323 00:18:49,480 --> 00:18:51,159 Speaker 1: at the Battle of the Psalm that is. Yeah. I 324 00:18:51,960 --> 00:18:55,239 Speaker 1: love that the sort of the misogyny kept on if 325 00:18:55,240 --> 00:18:57,240 Speaker 1: when they were sending twelve year olds out there, that like, 326 00:18:57,440 --> 00:18:59,240 Speaker 1: we've got to keep women out of the front line, 327 00:18:59,320 --> 00:19:03,520 Speaker 1: can't company yea guns? Yep. It's uh, there's a lot 328 00:19:03,560 --> 00:19:06,080 Speaker 1: actually to say about because I've read a couple of 329 00:19:06,200 --> 00:19:08,399 Speaker 1: articles about this about like the way in which this 330 00:19:08,560 --> 00:19:11,679 Speaker 1: impacts kind of cultures of entrenched misogyny in Paraguay that 331 00:19:11,680 --> 00:19:14,040 Speaker 1: I am not really competent to go into. But there's 332 00:19:14,320 --> 00:19:16,080 Speaker 1: you know, a lot, there is a lot written about 333 00:19:16,119 --> 00:19:19,080 Speaker 1: like what happens when you're like the first generation of 334 00:19:19,119 --> 00:19:23,399 Speaker 1: young men after this, and there's like like twenty twenty 335 00:19:23,400 --> 00:19:25,800 Speaker 1: to one female male ratio and all this attention being 336 00:19:25,880 --> 00:19:28,880 Speaker 1: kind of like lavished on you because of how badly 337 00:19:28,920 --> 00:19:32,400 Speaker 1: this war goes and how decimated the population of men 338 00:19:32,560 --> 00:19:34,400 Speaker 1: was prior to this. There you can find some really 339 00:19:34,440 --> 00:19:37,119 Speaker 1: interesting writing on this. I don't want to, like, uh, 340 00:19:37,560 --> 00:19:39,600 Speaker 1: we'd be getting a little bit off of where I 341 00:19:39,640 --> 00:19:41,720 Speaker 1: feel competent talking to go much more into it, but 342 00:19:41,720 --> 00:19:44,600 Speaker 1: it's most worth reading that, Yeah, you're going to fuck 343 00:19:44,680 --> 00:19:48,680 Speaker 1: up your society for genetically as well as social. It's 344 00:19:48,680 --> 00:19:51,440 Speaker 1: really it's very rarely good if ninety percent of any 345 00:19:51,480 --> 00:19:56,880 Speaker 1: group and your society gets massacre. He's like he's bested 346 00:19:56,960 --> 00:20:00,280 Speaker 1: the Black Death in terms of decimating his own Sula 347 00:20:00,640 --> 00:20:04,400 Speaker 1: Lopez gets our gets the behind the Bastards of award 348 00:20:04,440 --> 00:20:07,720 Speaker 1: for probably the worst at Warum, I don't think I've 349 00:20:07,760 --> 00:20:10,200 Speaker 1: ever heard if anyone fail worse at having a war 350 00:20:10,280 --> 00:20:13,800 Speaker 1: than this. But you know who's good at engaging in 351 00:20:14,240 --> 00:20:20,040 Speaker 1: unrestricted warfare? Oh, the Raith Young Corporation. That they are, 352 00:20:20,119 --> 00:20:22,520 Speaker 1: They are one of the best. And all of our 353 00:20:22,560 --> 00:20:25,879 Speaker 1: sponsors believe that you can only truly achieve victory in 354 00:20:25,880 --> 00:20:28,960 Speaker 1: a conflict by salting the earth with the bones of 355 00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:31,800 Speaker 1: your enemy. Um. So you know you get the gold, 356 00:20:31,880 --> 00:20:34,320 Speaker 1: isn't it You grow grows from the bones, That's right, 357 00:20:34,359 --> 00:20:36,880 Speaker 1: That's right, that's where gold comes from. And also where 358 00:20:36,920 --> 00:20:49,560 Speaker 1: the best delivered mattresses are forged from. Anyway, the biom mattress. Ah, 359 00:20:49,560 --> 00:20:54,159 Speaker 1: we're back. So Paraguay just kind of barely ekes it 360 00:20:54,280 --> 00:20:57,040 Speaker 1: out as a country after this. Um. And if you're 361 00:20:57,040 --> 00:20:59,199 Speaker 1: if you're interested in kind of much more detail about this, 362 00:20:59,240 --> 00:21:01,600 Speaker 1: the War of the Triple Alliance, which if you google 363 00:21:01,600 --> 00:21:03,840 Speaker 1: it that's also like you'll get a lot of World 364 00:21:03,840 --> 00:21:07,320 Speaker 1: War One results, but this is a different thing. The 365 00:21:07,359 --> 00:21:10,399 Speaker 1: Lions led by Donkeys podcast did a good series on this, 366 00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:12,359 Speaker 1: which which you should check out. They go into it, 367 00:21:12,400 --> 00:21:13,840 Speaker 1: spend a lot more time on it than we are, 368 00:21:13,840 --> 00:21:16,040 Speaker 1: because this is just kind of setting the scene. So 369 00:21:16,480 --> 00:21:20,119 Speaker 1: Paraguay and kind of like there's this series obviously afterwards, 370 00:21:20,119 --> 00:21:23,600 Speaker 1: Brazil occupies the country, the people, the countries who would 371 00:21:23,600 --> 00:21:25,680 Speaker 1: want to take about a third of the land mass 372 00:21:25,680 --> 00:21:28,040 Speaker 1: of Paraguay as kind of part of the war debt, 373 00:21:28,240 --> 00:21:30,800 Speaker 1: and then there's another like cash war debt that staggers 374 00:21:30,800 --> 00:21:33,960 Speaker 1: the economy for a few generations. The only reason that 375 00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:36,639 Speaker 1: Paraguay survives at all less a nation is that Brazil 376 00:21:36,720 --> 00:21:39,960 Speaker 1: and Argentina are big rivals and neither of them is 377 00:21:39,960 --> 00:21:42,720 Speaker 1: willing to let the other have Paraguay. Right, they kind 378 00:21:42,720 --> 00:21:45,520 Speaker 1: of like maintain a rump state there just because it's 379 00:21:45,560 --> 00:21:47,760 Speaker 1: not worth dealing with the conflict over who gets to 380 00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:52,840 Speaker 1: have it now. Argentina in this period had played host 381 00:21:52,920 --> 00:21:55,760 Speaker 1: to a lot of dissident Paraguayans, members of the old 382 00:21:55,840 --> 00:21:57,920 Speaker 1: upper class who had had to flee the country when 383 00:21:58,040 --> 00:22:00,680 Speaker 1: the dictators took over right when Spain gets kicked out, 384 00:22:01,119 --> 00:22:04,480 Speaker 1: and a bunch of these guys, when Argentina participates in 385 00:22:04,480 --> 00:22:07,199 Speaker 1: this invasion of Paraguay, they form up and join the 386 00:22:07,320 --> 00:22:10,800 Speaker 1: Argentine army and like make a unit of like exiled 387 00:22:10,840 --> 00:22:14,120 Speaker 1: Paraguayans fighting to liberate the country from Lopez. And so 388 00:22:14,160 --> 00:22:17,560 Speaker 1: after eighteen seventy, Argentina successfully kind of helps maneuver these 389 00:22:17,600 --> 00:22:20,920 Speaker 1: guys into power, and they draw up a democratic constitution 390 00:22:20,960 --> 00:22:24,480 Speaker 1: that basically existed as an excuse for these people to 391 00:22:24,640 --> 00:22:27,119 Speaker 1: sell off all of the state's land and businesses for 392 00:22:27,119 --> 00:22:31,800 Speaker 1: their own personal profit. The British banking firm Bearing Baring's brothers. 393 00:22:31,800 --> 00:22:36,840 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, James, how did I know that the British 394 00:22:36,880 --> 00:22:39,680 Speaker 1: banking industry would get involved? I was just going to 395 00:22:39,720 --> 00:22:42,399 Speaker 1: remark of selling off the entire country's assets for your 396 00:22:42,400 --> 00:22:44,600 Speaker 1: own personal profit is a very British vibe. Like the 397 00:22:44,680 --> 00:22:48,240 Speaker 1: thing is so it is. I mean waiting as a 398 00:22:48,640 --> 00:22:51,199 Speaker 1: as a rule, if there's like a dictator in the 399 00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:54,600 Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds, there's a British bank behind God, let's not 400 00:22:54,800 --> 00:23:01,040 Speaker 1: let's not limit the time period so narrowly, very air. Yeah, 401 00:23:01,040 --> 00:23:03,440 Speaker 1: we've made a long and proud tradition of during three 402 00:23:03,600 --> 00:23:10,600 Speaker 1: twentieth century. So Margaret's kid. So the Bearings brothers are like, Wow, 403 00:23:10,800 --> 00:23:15,000 Speaker 1: things are going great in Paraguay. Look at how effectively 404 00:23:15,080 --> 00:23:18,040 Speaker 1: they have taken all of these national resources and handed 405 00:23:18,040 --> 00:23:20,720 Speaker 1: them off to a tiny chunk number of oligarchs. Here's 406 00:23:20,760 --> 00:23:24,119 Speaker 1: a couple of very large loans Paraguay, and the oligarchs 407 00:23:24,160 --> 00:23:26,520 Speaker 1: say thank you for the loans that are meant to 408 00:23:26,520 --> 00:23:29,720 Speaker 1: develop our country. We're just going to take the money though, 409 00:23:30,280 --> 00:23:34,160 Speaker 1: and buy houses. Yeah, and so the nation has left 410 00:23:34,200 --> 00:23:38,119 Speaker 1: bankrupt and in ruinous debt. After this, it's again not 411 00:23:38,720 --> 00:23:42,959 Speaker 1: the first or the last time this will happen. So 412 00:23:43,040 --> 00:23:45,520 Speaker 1: the Brazilian military occupies Paraguay for a while, but they 413 00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:47,800 Speaker 1: bounce pretty quick and Paraguayans are left to try and 414 00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:50,800 Speaker 1: navigate their place in South America. Bereft of a couple 415 00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:53,919 Speaker 1: generations of men and also any money. It does not 416 00:23:54,200 --> 00:23:58,920 Speaker 1: go smoothly. As scholar Paul Lewis describes, Paraguayan governments after 417 00:23:58,960 --> 00:24:01,840 Speaker 1: eighteen seventy brought either internal peace nor liberty, although they 418 00:24:01,880 --> 00:24:05,960 Speaker 1: were still dictatorships. Managed elections, or the direct seizure of 419 00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:09,200 Speaker 1: power was the means by which every succeeding president achieved office. 420 00:24:09,400 --> 00:24:12,359 Speaker 1: Forty four men occupied the presidency in the eighty five 421 00:24:12,440 --> 00:24:15,399 Speaker 1: years between the death of Slano Lopez and Alfredo Streissner's 422 00:24:15,400 --> 00:24:20,360 Speaker 1: coup in nineteen fifty four, one president every twenty three months. Moreover, 423 00:24:20,440 --> 00:24:22,720 Speaker 1: of those forty four, more than a half twenty four 424 00:24:22,760 --> 00:24:25,360 Speaker 1: were forced from office by violence of the threat of violence. 425 00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:28,480 Speaker 1: Many of the remainder were simply provisional presidents who headed 426 00:24:28,520 --> 00:24:32,040 Speaker 1: caretaker governments while the real contestants for power fought it out. 427 00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:35,000 Speaker 1: Sixteen of the twenty four presidents were overthrown. Who were 428 00:24:35,040 --> 00:24:37,639 Speaker 1: overthrown served for less than a year, and five of 429 00:24:37,680 --> 00:24:43,000 Speaker 1: them were in office less than a month. Amazing. This 430 00:24:43,080 --> 00:24:46,840 Speaker 1: is a lot of turnover. Yeah, the worst is the 431 00:24:46,920 --> 00:24:50,399 Speaker 1: period from nineteen ten to nineteen twelve. That is a 432 00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:53,600 Speaker 1: two year period in which Paraguay has seven presidents and 433 00:24:53,760 --> 00:25:00,560 Speaker 1: nine administrations outstanding. Again, don't just wait, because we could 434 00:25:00,560 --> 00:25:03,200 Speaker 1: still do that in the United Kingdom. We've been we've 435 00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:05,800 Speaker 1: been pushing for it. Hey, I believe both your country 436 00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:08,600 Speaker 1: and my country can have seven presidents in two years. Yeah, 437 00:25:08,680 --> 00:25:11,080 Speaker 1: we'd love to see. All it's gonna take is the 438 00:25:11,119 --> 00:25:15,760 Speaker 1: Secret Service getting a little bit more into cocaine. And 439 00:25:15,840 --> 00:25:19,480 Speaker 1: they're already pretty into cocaine. It's gonna be like, get 440 00:25:19,560 --> 00:25:21,720 Speaker 1: cocaine bear up and there in the CIA, and it'll 441 00:25:21,760 --> 00:25:25,840 Speaker 1: be I think it would be nice if, like our president, 442 00:25:26,280 --> 00:25:29,640 Speaker 1: we adopted like a pseudomystical tradition where like the president 443 00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:31,679 Speaker 1: gets to continue to be president as long as the 444 00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:34,280 Speaker 1: cocaine bear does not eat him, and when it does, 445 00:25:34,600 --> 00:25:36,720 Speaker 1: we all agree not to be partisan about it. It's 446 00:25:36,760 --> 00:25:39,600 Speaker 1: just like it's it's like that that what's its name? 447 00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:42,440 Speaker 1: Seeing its shadow and deciding we're going to have more winter. 448 00:25:42,560 --> 00:25:45,199 Speaker 1: She's like the bear the president. Can I get a 449 00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:51,000 Speaker 1: new one in there? He's talking about the groundhog. The groundhog. 450 00:25:51,080 --> 00:25:56,160 Speaker 1: I forgot the name groundhog, so sorry, yeah, Phill, Yeah, 451 00:25:56,280 --> 00:25:59,240 Speaker 1: that's I recently learned. Apparently there is another groundhog called 452 00:25:59,280 --> 00:26:03,440 Speaker 1: Staten Island phil Um. But the previous New York mayor 453 00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:13,640 Speaker 1: dropped it. Our ground hugs not drop safe. I think 454 00:26:13,680 --> 00:26:15,800 Speaker 1: it depends on the height and probably the angle of 455 00:26:15,800 --> 00:26:20,560 Speaker 1: the drop. This is another reason cats are superior. Yeah, yeah, 456 00:26:21,040 --> 00:26:22,760 Speaker 1: you can drop a cat all day long. I don't 457 00:26:22,760 --> 00:26:25,800 Speaker 1: get shit. Mayor? Was this? Do you know? Because I'm 458 00:26:25,840 --> 00:26:32,080 Speaker 1: just gonna look handsel Stan? Yeah, I guess it's let's 459 00:26:32,080 --> 00:26:39,480 Speaker 1: have a look stant nine and phil dropped de Blacio. 460 00:26:42,440 --> 00:26:46,120 Speaker 1: Here we go, Washington Post. Stannine, his famous groundhog died 461 00:26:46,119 --> 00:26:53,240 Speaker 1: after build de Blacio dropped it. Incredible, incredible, p he's 462 00:26:53,240 --> 00:26:58,040 Speaker 1: the Francisco Solano Lopez of New York groundhogs. Yeah, there 463 00:26:58,080 --> 00:27:00,760 Speaker 1: were pictures. The dog is a pitch of it on 464 00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:06,719 Speaker 1: its way down. Oh, how far did you drop him. Okay, 465 00:27:07,400 --> 00:27:10,280 Speaker 1: was he standing on a balcony? Was he? Was he 466 00:27:10,440 --> 00:27:17,320 Speaker 1: doing a Michael Jackson with this animal? Oh god, if 467 00:27:17,359 --> 00:27:20,199 Speaker 1: I had, Deblascio would have been at the top of 468 00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:26,200 Speaker 1: my list of mirrors. He's blamed the groundhog for his unpopularity. 469 00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:30,880 Speaker 1: Wow yeah, wow. This manisode goes out to that groundhog. Yeah, 470 00:27:30,880 --> 00:27:34,560 Speaker 1: this is this is now dedicated to whatever that groundhog's 471 00:27:34,640 --> 00:27:38,800 Speaker 1: name was. Just Staten Island film stann Island, Phil r I, 472 00:27:39,119 --> 00:27:45,600 Speaker 1: Oh god, Deblascio, what the fuck this? Honestly as you 473 00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:50,800 Speaker 1: can't blame you can't blame the groundhog. No, I like, 474 00:27:51,080 --> 00:27:55,800 Speaker 1: he's another victim of state violence, and I have to 475 00:27:55,840 --> 00:28:00,440 Speaker 1: say it another example of classic groundhog shaming, which is 476 00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:04,600 Speaker 1: a plague in this country. So back to Paraguay in 477 00:28:04,640 --> 00:28:07,879 Speaker 1: the late nineteen twenties, things are finally starting to improve 478 00:28:08,040 --> 00:28:11,920 Speaker 1: slightly after that, after that two year seven precedent run 479 00:28:13,840 --> 00:28:17,680 Speaker 1: even out a little bit. They get some more competent 480 00:28:17,760 --> 00:28:21,119 Speaker 1: leaders who start to reinvest. I mean they're mainly reinvesting 481 00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:25,639 Speaker 1: in the military, but also not the worst idea given 482 00:28:25,880 --> 00:28:29,160 Speaker 1: kind of the situation, because at this point the late twenties, 483 00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:32,480 Speaker 1: the only neighbor that Paraguay has not lost a devastating war. 484 00:28:32,520 --> 00:28:36,800 Speaker 1: Two Bolivia starts sniffing around this region in northern Paraguay 485 00:28:36,800 --> 00:28:41,280 Speaker 1: called the Chaco, and Bolivians are like, well, the last 486 00:28:41,280 --> 00:28:43,520 Speaker 1: time Paraguay went to war didn't go good, and like 487 00:28:44,040 --> 00:28:46,880 Speaker 1: we could probably take them, and there's this kind of 488 00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:49,880 Speaker 1: this place, the Chaco is kind of this like wasteland 489 00:28:49,960 --> 00:28:53,520 Speaker 1: in the northern significant chunk of the country. It's not 490 00:28:53,560 --> 00:28:55,560 Speaker 1: a wasteland, but that's how it gets described by people. 491 00:28:55,600 --> 00:28:59,600 Speaker 1: It's like a kind of desertified territory. It looks beautiful. Honestly, 492 00:28:59,600 --> 00:29:01,560 Speaker 1: I'd love to go hike there or something, although there's 493 00:29:01,560 --> 00:29:04,560 Speaker 1: a hell of a lot of skeeters. But there's this 494 00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:08,200 Speaker 1: like the Olivia becomes briefly convinced because of like they 495 00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:11,040 Speaker 1: find a little bit of oil there. There's not really 496 00:29:11,040 --> 00:29:13,000 Speaker 1: oil in the Chaco, but they are convinced that, like 497 00:29:13,080 --> 00:29:15,640 Speaker 1: there's a shitload of oil in the Chaco, and so 498 00:29:15,760 --> 00:29:18,440 Speaker 1: they're like, let us, let's let's go invade and take 499 00:29:18,480 --> 00:29:21,480 Speaker 1: this from Paraguay. And it's kind of obvious for a while. 500 00:29:22,280 --> 00:29:24,040 Speaker 1: Part of why this is happening is that, like when 501 00:29:24,040 --> 00:29:27,480 Speaker 1: everybody gets their freedom from Spain, they don't always have 502 00:29:27,560 --> 00:29:29,920 Speaker 1: like super clear maps of who's is what. So there's 503 00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:33,080 Speaker 1: like this long argument about like whether or not, you know, 504 00:29:33,120 --> 00:29:36,600 Speaker 1: this chunk of the Chaco should belong to Paraguay or Bolivia. 505 00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:39,200 Speaker 1: So they're all arming while this is going on, and 506 00:29:39,600 --> 00:29:42,480 Speaker 1: Paraguay puts this guy in command of their army in 507 00:29:42,520 --> 00:29:47,160 Speaker 1: the Chaco called Jose Estigarribia, and he is going to 508 00:29:47,200 --> 00:29:49,440 Speaker 1: be There are military scholars who will say this guy 509 00:29:49,680 --> 00:29:53,920 Speaker 1: is one of, if not the best field commanders in 510 00:29:53,960 --> 00:29:57,880 Speaker 1: the history of modern warfare in the Americas, because the 511 00:29:57,920 --> 00:30:00,000 Speaker 1: war that's about to result from this is a modern 512 00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:02,239 Speaker 1: in war. They have tanks, they have machine guns, they 513 00:30:02,240 --> 00:30:04,560 Speaker 1: have air power. This is going to occur in like 514 00:30:04,600 --> 00:30:09,120 Speaker 1: the early nineteen thirties. The Bolivians put an old German 515 00:30:09,120 --> 00:30:14,960 Speaker 1: Man in charge of their military. Now what time, guys, 516 00:30:15,160 --> 00:30:18,160 Speaker 1: you're you're not even ready, James, You're not even ready 517 00:30:18,160 --> 00:30:21,480 Speaker 1: because this guy's this guy is no shit. Real name 518 00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:33,360 Speaker 1: is General von kunt Li k you in DT. Look 519 00:30:33,440 --> 00:30:49,320 Speaker 1: this ship up now, I know on this episode always 520 00:30:49,360 --> 00:30:59,480 Speaker 1: called Hans cunt Yeah, so he I was going to say, yeah, 521 00:30:59,520 --> 00:31:05,200 Speaker 1: this guy from the day he was born, which look, 522 00:31:05,840 --> 00:31:08,360 Speaker 1: so this guy, first of all the Vaughan means that 523 00:31:08,400 --> 00:31:14,840 Speaker 1: he's German nobility. He is a German officer's count me. Well, 524 00:31:15,640 --> 00:31:17,880 Speaker 1: let me tell you the rest of the story. So 525 00:31:18,400 --> 00:31:21,800 Speaker 1: he is a German general officer throughout the First World 526 00:31:21,800 --> 00:31:25,560 Speaker 1: War in the Eastern Front, and he has a reputation 527 00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:29,400 Speaker 1: for two things. One he is a competent logistical commander 528 00:31:29,640 --> 00:31:33,560 Speaker 1: and two, whenever there's any kind of combat, his go 529 00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:36,160 Speaker 1: to tactic is to throw every man he has into 530 00:31:36,160 --> 00:31:39,240 Speaker 1: a suicidal headlong charge. He is a He is one 531 00:31:39,280 --> 00:31:42,840 Speaker 1: of the worst journal commanders. He is terrible at what 532 00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:46,640 Speaker 1: he's doing. Um, he gets a shitload of men killed, 533 00:31:47,000 --> 00:31:49,800 Speaker 1: but he's he's also he becomes after the war a 534 00:31:49,920 --> 00:31:57,800 Speaker 1: celebrity in Bolivia. Um. Now, this is very like like 535 00:31:57,840 --> 00:31:59,920 Speaker 1: the question of like why is this guy so beloved 536 00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:01,360 Speaker 1: by the Oblivians. A lot of it is that, like 537 00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:04,800 Speaker 1: he loves Bolivia, like he moves there. After World War One, 538 00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:09,680 Speaker 1: he gets a job kind of acting as an instructor 539 00:32:09,720 --> 00:32:12,160 Speaker 1: for the Bolivian military. This is very common at the 540 00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:14,240 Speaker 1: time too. I mean, you have to remember that while 541 00:32:14,280 --> 00:32:17,640 Speaker 1: von Kunt is very bad at what he does, I know, 542 00:32:17,800 --> 00:32:21,880 Speaker 1: I know, the German military has just almost won a 543 00:32:21,920 --> 00:32:24,800 Speaker 1: war against the world. So all of these little countries 544 00:32:24,800 --> 00:32:27,440 Speaker 1: and big countries in South America are like, oh, we 545 00:32:27,640 --> 00:32:30,280 Speaker 1: the best people we can get to help us reform 546 00:32:30,320 --> 00:32:33,840 Speaker 1: our militaries is some German guy, right, because like they 547 00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:37,400 Speaker 1: got they came pretty close to winning. So the Bolivians 548 00:32:37,440 --> 00:32:39,520 Speaker 1: fall in love with von Kunt because he's just kind 549 00:32:39,560 --> 00:32:42,960 Speaker 1: of this, despite the fact that he's shit eatingly incompetent, 550 00:32:43,240 --> 00:32:46,920 Speaker 1: he looks and talks like this, like archetypal image of 551 00:32:46,960 --> 00:32:50,560 Speaker 1: the Prussian military genius, and they just all kind of 552 00:32:50,600 --> 00:32:55,120 Speaker 1: buy it. Paraguays again, Paraguay's army is commanded by Estegarribia, 553 00:32:55,360 --> 00:32:58,320 Speaker 1: who's one of the best military leaders in the modern 554 00:32:58,400 --> 00:33:01,880 Speaker 1: history of the Americas. And so the Chaco War which 555 00:33:01,920 --> 00:33:05,560 Speaker 1: results when Bolivia invades, is a fascinating conflict. It is 556 00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:06,960 Speaker 1: going to be a testing ground for a lot of 557 00:33:07,040 --> 00:33:10,040 Speaker 1: tactics that are key in World War Two. This is 558 00:33:10,080 --> 00:33:12,080 Speaker 1: not a military history podcast, so we're not going to 559 00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:14,520 Speaker 1: labor long on the specifics. But there is one key 560 00:33:14,560 --> 00:33:16,800 Speaker 1: detail I think we need to talk about, which is 561 00:33:16,800 --> 00:33:19,320 Speaker 1: that when the Paraguayans start arming up in the late 562 00:33:19,360 --> 00:33:21,640 Speaker 1: twenties and early thirties, they have to make one of 563 00:33:21,680 --> 00:33:24,400 Speaker 1: those tough decisions that countries who don't spend a trillion 564 00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:26,280 Speaker 1: dollars a year on their army have to make, which 565 00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:29,160 Speaker 1: is like, what kind of artillery do we buy? Because 566 00:33:29,200 --> 00:33:31,080 Speaker 1: we can't afford a lot of it, and we can't 567 00:33:31,080 --> 00:33:33,760 Speaker 1: afford many different kinds, so we're either going to be 568 00:33:33,760 --> 00:33:37,240 Speaker 1: getting a few big guns or a lot of little ones. Now, 569 00:33:37,360 --> 00:33:39,800 Speaker 1: World War One had proven that modern wars can't really 570 00:33:39,800 --> 00:33:42,400 Speaker 1: be one without big guns. But big guns come with 571 00:33:42,440 --> 00:33:45,479 Speaker 1: all sorts of logistical hurdles, and Paraguay did not have 572 00:33:45,520 --> 00:33:48,120 Speaker 1: the industrial base to manufacture the kind of shells and 573 00:33:48,200 --> 00:33:51,760 Speaker 1: parts that larger field pieces needed. Artillery was also super 574 00:33:51,840 --> 00:33:54,160 Speaker 1: vulnerable to air power, and Bolivia had an air force 575 00:33:54,160 --> 00:33:56,840 Speaker 1: that outnumbered Paraguays more than two to one. So the 576 00:33:57,080 --> 00:34:01,240 Speaker 1: very savvy Bolivian military planners or a Paraguayan military planners decided, 577 00:34:01,720 --> 00:34:04,200 Speaker 1: instead of buying a bunch of big a few big 578 00:34:04,240 --> 00:34:06,640 Speaker 1: field guns that planes can bomb, why don't we just 579 00:34:06,680 --> 00:34:09,520 Speaker 1: get hundreds and hundreds of eighty one millimeter mortars. We'll 580 00:34:09,560 --> 00:34:12,319 Speaker 1: just get a shitload a little mortars. And these are 581 00:34:12,360 --> 00:34:16,080 Speaker 1: like man portable indirect fire weapons that you can camouflage easily. 582 00:34:16,160 --> 00:34:17,680 Speaker 1: You can like pick them up and run like a 583 00:34:17,760 --> 00:34:20,600 Speaker 1: motherfucker after shooting some stuff off, and they fire a 584 00:34:20,640 --> 00:34:23,600 Speaker 1: small enough shell that Paraguay could afford to make it indigenously. 585 00:34:24,239 --> 00:34:27,920 Speaker 1: This was a huge success. Paraguay becomes maybe the first 586 00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:31,640 Speaker 1: nation to use mortars effectively in a modern combined arms 587 00:34:31,719 --> 00:34:35,560 Speaker 1: sense in the twentieth century. They use mortars very similarly 588 00:34:35,600 --> 00:34:37,280 Speaker 1: to how you're going to see them used in Ukraine 589 00:34:37,280 --> 00:34:42,200 Speaker 1: and stuff during this conflict, and they just massacre the Bolivians. 590 00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:46,920 Speaker 1: This war goes terrible for Bolivia despite having by far 591 00:34:47,080 --> 00:34:50,080 Speaker 1: more men in tanks and stuff. And one of the 592 00:34:50,200 --> 00:34:52,520 Speaker 1: officers who is in command of a mortar of a 593 00:34:52,560 --> 00:34:54,520 Speaker 1: bunch of mortars during this war, I think he winds 594 00:34:54,560 --> 00:34:56,440 Speaker 1: up at the end in control of the mortar regiment 595 00:34:57,000 --> 00:34:59,359 Speaker 1: that helps to win the Chaco War is a guy 596 00:34:59,520 --> 00:35:03,600 Speaker 1: who aventially a general named Alfredo Stressner. Right, that's the 597 00:35:03,719 --> 00:35:05,920 Speaker 1: job that stress the big job Stressner does. He is, 598 00:35:05,960 --> 00:35:09,759 Speaker 1: he is a mortar commander. Now. Stressner's father, Hugo, had 599 00:35:09,760 --> 00:35:12,359 Speaker 1: been part of the massive German diaspha that had moved 600 00:35:12,360 --> 00:35:14,360 Speaker 1: to South America in the years leading up to the 601 00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:17,440 Speaker 1: First World War. Hugo was a Bavarian who'd worked as 602 00:35:17,440 --> 00:35:20,440 Speaker 1: an accountant for a brewery. His mother was the daughter 603 00:35:20,440 --> 00:35:23,200 Speaker 1: of a wealthy Paraguayan family of its She's actually a 604 00:35:23,560 --> 00:35:29,120 Speaker 1: mix of Basque and indigenous Paraguayan descent. Yeah, and so 605 00:35:29,280 --> 00:35:33,120 Speaker 1: Stressner fairly a lot of privilege, you know. But the 606 00:35:33,120 --> 00:35:34,799 Speaker 1: fact that his dad is German, they have a lot 607 00:35:34,840 --> 00:35:37,080 Speaker 1: more like money than most people, and his mom comes 608 00:35:37,080 --> 00:35:39,400 Speaker 1: from a family with money too. He enrolls in a 609 00:35:39,480 --> 00:35:42,000 Speaker 1: military school when he's sixteen, and by the time the 610 00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:44,839 Speaker 1: Chaco War breaks out, he's nineteen years old and had 611 00:35:44,920 --> 00:35:47,760 Speaker 1: established has established a reputation for himself as a competent 612 00:35:47,880 --> 00:35:51,120 Speaker 1: leader who has earned the respect of his men. Paraguayan 613 00:35:51,200 --> 00:35:54,640 Speaker 1: politics remains tumultuous in the years after the Chaco War, 614 00:35:54,960 --> 00:35:58,560 Speaker 1: but Stressner succeeded in sliding past most people's radar because 615 00:35:58,600 --> 00:36:01,439 Speaker 1: he's really fucking boring. We don't have a I don't 616 00:36:01,440 --> 00:36:03,040 Speaker 1: have all. I haven't found a lot on this guy's 617 00:36:03,040 --> 00:36:05,640 Speaker 1: early life, on his childhood and stuff, but he is. 618 00:36:05,680 --> 00:36:08,360 Speaker 1: It seems accurate to say, based on the stuff I 619 00:36:08,440 --> 00:36:10,640 Speaker 1: have read that goes into detail, that he is a quiet, 620 00:36:11,080 --> 00:36:14,120 Speaker 1: sober man whose main hobbies are chess, fishing, and a 621 00:36:14,160 --> 00:36:17,840 Speaker 1: weekly poker game. He gets married to a school teacher 622 00:36:17,840 --> 00:36:20,280 Speaker 1: who's a few years older than him in nineteen forty. 623 00:36:20,320 --> 00:36:24,040 Speaker 1: They have three children, and most people who knew Stressner 624 00:36:24,040 --> 00:36:25,319 Speaker 1: at this point in time would be like, hey, he's 625 00:36:25,320 --> 00:36:27,959 Speaker 1: a quiet family man. He plays a lot of chess. 626 00:36:28,080 --> 00:36:30,680 Speaker 1: You know, he's about as boring a guy as you're 627 00:36:30,719 --> 00:36:33,880 Speaker 1: going to get. In nineteen forty, he gets picked for 628 00:36:34,200 --> 00:36:37,520 Speaker 1: advanced training at a military college, and he returns home 629 00:36:37,560 --> 00:36:41,000 Speaker 1: a major whose superiors call him a complete officer who 630 00:36:41,080 --> 00:36:45,359 Speaker 1: was discreet and circumspect. Again, everyone, everything about this guy 631 00:36:45,440 --> 00:36:49,480 Speaker 1: is he is quiet and competent and not really worth 632 00:36:49,520 --> 00:36:53,720 Speaker 1: talking about in much detail outside of that, which is again, 633 00:36:53,800 --> 00:36:57,719 Speaker 1: we just finished our episodes on Romania and Chauchescu. You 634 00:36:57,760 --> 00:37:01,840 Speaker 1: always got to watch out for the quiet guys. So quiet. 635 00:37:02,400 --> 00:37:05,200 Speaker 1: If you ever meet someone who is quiet and competent, 636 00:37:05,719 --> 00:37:09,200 Speaker 1: bear mas them. That's the only thing to do. You know, somebody, 637 00:37:09,600 --> 00:37:12,840 Speaker 1: somebody you know, changes your your your car oil. You know, 638 00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:16,560 Speaker 1: quiet and competent mechanic Mason, do it to anybody who's 639 00:37:16,600 --> 00:37:19,880 Speaker 1: good at anything and humble. It's the only way we 640 00:37:19,920 --> 00:37:24,760 Speaker 1: can save ourselves from another Alfredo Stressner. So yeah, yeah, yeah, 641 00:37:24,800 --> 00:37:28,480 Speaker 1: that's that's that seems fair. Yeah. By the By the 642 00:37:28,600 --> 00:37:32,760 Speaker 1: early forties, Paraguay had taken a kind of rough stab 643 00:37:32,840 --> 00:37:36,560 Speaker 1: at democratic politics. This never goes great for them, and 644 00:37:36,640 --> 00:37:39,520 Speaker 1: the parties that they have are never very committed to 645 00:37:39,560 --> 00:37:41,680 Speaker 1: any scheme that might make them give up power if 646 00:37:41,680 --> 00:37:44,480 Speaker 1: they happen to take it. The largest conservative party in 647 00:37:44,520 --> 00:37:46,680 Speaker 1: the country is the Colorado Party, and it has both 648 00:37:46,680 --> 00:37:50,080 Speaker 1: a democratic wing, which means a wing that cares about democracy, 649 00:37:50,400 --> 00:37:53,120 Speaker 1: and a wing that doesn't so much care about democracy. 650 00:37:53,520 --> 00:37:56,439 Speaker 1: And in the early forties, that second wing is run 651 00:37:56,440 --> 00:37:59,960 Speaker 1: by a man named Juan Natalisio Gonzalez. Now, he'd been 652 00:38:00,120 --> 00:38:02,840 Speaker 1: involved in a number of violent protests and one failed 653 00:38:02,840 --> 00:38:05,919 Speaker 1: revolution before, for which he'd been exiled and then sent 654 00:38:06,000 --> 00:38:09,440 Speaker 1: to a concentration camp from which he had escaped. So 655 00:38:09,560 --> 00:38:13,440 Speaker 1: Gonzales has quite a background, and he had prior to 656 00:38:13,480 --> 00:38:17,440 Speaker 1: getting like exiled the second time he has been, he'd 657 00:38:17,440 --> 00:38:20,680 Speaker 1: been kind of a rabbit, almost religious nationalist. And then 658 00:38:20,680 --> 00:38:22,600 Speaker 1: he gets exiled the second time, and he winds up 659 00:38:22,640 --> 00:38:26,440 Speaker 1: like most Paraguayans who get exiled, fleeing to Argentina and Willie's. 660 00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:29,120 Speaker 1: While he's in Argentina, he meets a bunch of socialists 661 00:38:29,160 --> 00:38:31,359 Speaker 1: who have also been exiled because they had tried to do, 662 00:38:31,520 --> 00:38:35,120 Speaker 1: you know, a revolution, and these socialists, you know, even 663 00:38:35,160 --> 00:38:38,360 Speaker 1: though they're pretty left wing guys, also happened to be nationalists. 664 00:38:38,680 --> 00:38:41,600 Speaker 1: And so Gonzalez becomes more and more convinced that the 665 00:38:41,760 --> 00:38:44,799 Speaker 1: right politics for Paraguay might be some kind of you'd 666 00:38:44,840 --> 00:38:50,760 Speaker 1: call it national socialism. Yeah, going, it's bad now, James, 667 00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:53,080 Speaker 1: I know what you're saying, But this is the mid thirties. 668 00:38:53,120 --> 00:38:55,600 Speaker 1: No one, no one else has thought of national socialism 669 00:38:55,600 --> 00:38:59,640 Speaker 1: in this period of time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Alam bells 670 00:38:59,640 --> 00:39:02,920 Speaker 1: and I'll be rung around the world. There's there's no 671 00:39:02,960 --> 00:39:05,200 Speaker 1: evidence of like how this could go badly in the 672 00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:12,640 Speaker 1: mid nineteen thirties. So Gonzalez is becomes yeah, he's we've 673 00:39:12,640 --> 00:39:16,279 Speaker 1: just been joking about this. Gonzalez does accurately identify one 674 00:39:16,360 --> 00:39:19,239 Speaker 1: of the biggest problems with Paraguay, which was the kind 675 00:39:19,239 --> 00:39:23,240 Speaker 1: of economic liberty, like the economic liberalism that has allowed 676 00:39:23,280 --> 00:39:25,520 Speaker 1: a tiny number of elites to buy all of the 677 00:39:25,640 --> 00:39:28,680 Speaker 1: land and natural resources in the country. Right, he recognizes 678 00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:32,000 Speaker 1: this is a huge problem that is just a justification 679 00:39:32,040 --> 00:39:34,839 Speaker 1: for the rich to take advantage of the poor. Now, 680 00:39:35,160 --> 00:39:37,240 Speaker 1: the leader of Paraguay at this point in the early 681 00:39:37,320 --> 00:39:41,160 Speaker 1: forties is a dictator named Maringo. In nineteen forty he 682 00:39:41,200 --> 00:39:44,600 Speaker 1: had suspended the constitution and banned political parties like you do. 683 00:39:44,920 --> 00:39:48,320 Speaker 1: But in nineteen forty six he legalized political activity again 684 00:39:48,400 --> 00:39:51,080 Speaker 1: and formed a cabinet with the Colorado Party and a 685 00:39:51,120 --> 00:39:54,560 Speaker 1: Democratic Socialist Party. Now Gonzalez is back in the country 686 00:39:54,560 --> 00:39:56,920 Speaker 1: by this point, and he does not like the idea 687 00:39:57,040 --> 00:40:00,560 Speaker 1: of the Colorado Party sharing power with a coalition government, 688 00:40:00,719 --> 00:40:03,200 Speaker 1: so he starts to build a street fighting movement for 689 00:40:03,239 --> 00:40:05,719 Speaker 1: the Colorados in order to like, you know, beat and 690 00:40:05,800 --> 00:40:08,160 Speaker 1: murder their opponents in the streets. Kind of themed after 691 00:40:08,200 --> 00:40:10,799 Speaker 1: the essay in Germany. Yeah, a little bit of good vibe, 692 00:40:10,800 --> 00:40:14,120 Speaker 1: I'm picking up. Yeah. Now, things come to a head 693 00:40:14,200 --> 00:40:16,920 Speaker 1: at the start of nineteen forty seven, which brings Paraguay 694 00:40:16,960 --> 00:40:20,279 Speaker 1: a fun new civil war called the Barefoot Revolution. The 695 00:40:20,400 --> 00:40:23,680 Speaker 1: side shook out roughly to every other political party and 696 00:40:23,760 --> 00:40:26,680 Speaker 1: most of the officers on one side and just the 697 00:40:26,680 --> 00:40:29,560 Speaker 1: Colorado Party, but a bunch of soldiers also on the 698 00:40:29,600 --> 00:40:33,560 Speaker 1: other side. And it's it's ugly, it's very short, but 699 00:40:33,719 --> 00:40:38,440 Speaker 1: extremely bloody. And one of the reasons why the Colorado 700 00:40:38,480 --> 00:40:41,719 Speaker 1: Party wins the civil war is that Alfredo Stressner is 701 00:40:41,719 --> 00:40:43,640 Speaker 1: a general by this point, and he is in command 702 00:40:43,719 --> 00:40:47,080 Speaker 1: of the country's largest artillery division. And when you kind 703 00:40:47,120 --> 00:40:50,280 Speaker 1: of just have one artillery division and the other side 704 00:40:50,600 --> 00:40:53,399 Speaker 1: doesn't have an artillery division, you know what, it's very 705 00:40:53,440 --> 00:41:00,680 Speaker 1: easy to do. Yeah, it's just kill everybody, that's yeah. Yeah. Now, 706 00:41:01,200 --> 00:41:03,880 Speaker 1: So Stressner is a big part of why his side 707 00:41:03,920 --> 00:41:07,200 Speaker 1: wins this civil war, and over the next two years 708 00:41:07,760 --> 00:41:09,919 Speaker 1: things do not calm down though. There are in two 709 00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:14,479 Speaker 1: years six coups and counter coups, and Stressner participates in four. 710 00:41:15,080 --> 00:41:20,360 Speaker 1: So he is by like nineteen the early fifties, he 711 00:41:20,480 --> 00:41:23,880 Speaker 1: is like one of the most experienced coopers on the planet. Like, 712 00:41:23,880 --> 00:41:27,480 Speaker 1: this guy could give notes to the CIA. Oh, you 713 00:41:27,520 --> 00:41:29,279 Speaker 1: guys are doing a coup. Now, I've been in a 714 00:41:29,280 --> 00:41:32,680 Speaker 1: bunch of those. Let me tell you, let me walk 715 00:41:32,719 --> 00:41:37,680 Speaker 1: you through the basics. Yeah. Now, it is a well 716 00:41:37,719 --> 00:41:40,800 Speaker 1: known fact that carrying out coups are it's like eating 717 00:41:40,800 --> 00:41:44,759 Speaker 1: potato chips. You never stop with one, right, And in 718 00:41:44,840 --> 00:41:48,160 Speaker 1: Stressner's case, he he does like five and in nineteen 719 00:41:48,200 --> 00:41:50,440 Speaker 1: fifty four he decides it is his turn to be 720 00:41:50,440 --> 00:41:53,720 Speaker 1: the man doing the cooping. He had succeeded in gaining 721 00:41:53,760 --> 00:41:56,719 Speaker 1: the support of the military by this point, and Gonzalez's 722 00:41:56,760 --> 00:41:59,000 Speaker 1: wing of the Colorado Party. And now I'm going to 723 00:41:59,080 --> 00:42:02,000 Speaker 1: quote from an article and Vanity Fair by Alex Schumatov. 724 00:42:02,680 --> 00:42:05,360 Speaker 1: The coup took place while all of a Suncon society 725 00:42:05,480 --> 00:42:08,200 Speaker 1: was at the Philharmonic. Legend has it that the shooting 726 00:42:08,239 --> 00:42:11,640 Speaker 1: started just at the thunderous beginning of Beethoven's fifth Da 727 00:42:11,680 --> 00:42:13,839 Speaker 1: Da Da Dam and everyone thought that it was part 728 00:42:13,880 --> 00:42:16,239 Speaker 1: of the show until soldiers burst onto the stage and 729 00:42:16,280 --> 00:42:18,959 Speaker 1: announced that a coup was under way. This is again 730 00:42:19,080 --> 00:42:22,000 Speaker 1: the struth. It's like, this is like a this is 731 00:42:22,160 --> 00:42:24,440 Speaker 1: not a thing that has not happened before either, like 732 00:42:24,520 --> 00:42:29,759 Speaker 1: this this is a way to do coups. Oh yeah, Look, 733 00:42:29,760 --> 00:42:35,080 Speaker 1: if you're not timing your coup with an orchestral presentation 734 00:42:35,320 --> 00:42:38,880 Speaker 1: like at the Philharmonic, what are you even cooing? Right? Yeah, 735 00:42:38,880 --> 00:42:41,040 Speaker 1: come on, it's a coup without culture, and it's that 736 00:42:41,360 --> 00:42:43,600 Speaker 1: coup at all. Have a little bit of art, you know. 737 00:42:44,360 --> 00:42:47,160 Speaker 1: That's That's all I'm saying about a good old fashioned coup. 738 00:42:47,960 --> 00:42:50,319 Speaker 1: It's it's you know, you could do it in a 739 00:42:50,719 --> 00:42:53,440 Speaker 1: in a Mala piece, because I don't know, have you 740 00:42:53,480 --> 00:43:00,680 Speaker 1: seen Mala's Hammer, No, Okay, it's worth googling. It's a 741 00:43:00,680 --> 00:43:04,920 Speaker 1: giant fucking hammer that, like I guess like every every 742 00:43:05,040 --> 00:43:07,520 Speaker 1: orchestra has to have one because it's just one piece 743 00:43:07,560 --> 00:43:10,279 Speaker 1: that he wrote that one of the instruments is just 744 00:43:10,520 --> 00:43:13,239 Speaker 1: a dude hitting a wooden box with it, like a 745 00:43:13,280 --> 00:43:16,359 Speaker 1: comedy sized hammer, And I feel like that would give 746 00:43:16,400 --> 00:43:18,680 Speaker 1: you some more cover for coups in Beethoven. So they 747 00:43:18,719 --> 00:43:22,879 Speaker 1: fucked up in that regard. Yeah, Yeah, there's a there's 748 00:43:22,880 --> 00:43:26,560 Speaker 1: a John Waters quote where he's like talking about today's 749 00:43:26,600 --> 00:43:29,359 Speaker 1: hackers and the thing that depresses him about the fact 750 00:43:29,400 --> 00:43:31,200 Speaker 1: that they all just kind of like wear hoodies and shit, 751 00:43:31,520 --> 00:43:33,799 Speaker 1: and he's like, look, I love what you're doing, but 752 00:43:33,840 --> 00:43:36,719 Speaker 1: if you're going to like hack into the Defense Department's 753 00:43:36,760 --> 00:43:39,680 Speaker 1: computers and like spread top secret information to try to 754 00:43:39,680 --> 00:43:42,040 Speaker 1: bring them down, you should have an outfit for that, right, 755 00:43:42,080 --> 00:43:44,359 Speaker 1: You've got to like a little pinash, you know. That's 756 00:43:44,360 --> 00:43:46,680 Speaker 1: what you gotta respect about Stressner. He's got a little 757 00:43:46,680 --> 00:43:49,400 Speaker 1: bit of pinash here. You know, this is this is 758 00:43:49,400 --> 00:43:51,759 Speaker 1: a this is a coup that's got some art to it. 759 00:43:52,239 --> 00:43:55,839 Speaker 1: Um gosh, darnett. So you know what else has art 760 00:43:55,840 --> 00:44:02,239 Speaker 1: to it? Is it? Gold? Gold is the only real 761 00:44:02,280 --> 00:44:06,719 Speaker 1: form of art, James, because gold never fades. It's eternal, 762 00:44:07,160 --> 00:44:10,800 Speaker 1: just like this podcast, which will continue from now until 763 00:44:10,840 --> 00:44:12,719 Speaker 1: the heat death of the universe and the end of 764 00:44:12,760 --> 00:44:23,359 Speaker 1: all things. Ah, what a what a great time. We're 765 00:44:23,360 --> 00:44:26,879 Speaker 1: all back. We're talking about the beginning of the Stressner era. 766 00:44:27,760 --> 00:44:29,560 Speaker 1: So the period of time that he's in power, his 767 00:44:29,640 --> 00:44:33,759 Speaker 1: regime is known as the Stronato, and it's one of 768 00:44:33,760 --> 00:44:36,840 Speaker 1: those things where, like a lot of the this is 769 00:44:36,880 --> 00:44:39,400 Speaker 1: sort of one of the there's this kind of concept 770 00:44:39,440 --> 00:44:42,879 Speaker 1: in Paraguayan politics that's evolved over the last hundred years 771 00:44:42,960 --> 00:44:45,440 Speaker 1: or so called I don't know how to pronounce this, 772 00:44:45,480 --> 00:44:49,600 Speaker 1: but mba r ete, which is an indigenous Guarani word 773 00:44:49,760 --> 00:44:52,759 Speaker 1: meaning like the law of the strongest right. This is 774 00:44:52,840 --> 00:44:57,120 Speaker 1: a like a strongly believed this. This is just kind 775 00:44:57,120 --> 00:44:59,440 Speaker 1: of like the I mean, we've gone through the history here, right, 776 00:44:59,440 --> 00:45:02,040 Speaker 1: this is the of the time, right, it's been nothing 777 00:45:02,080 --> 00:45:05,440 Speaker 1: but strong men dictators, And to be frank like you, 778 00:45:06,360 --> 00:45:08,759 Speaker 1: if you're one of these people who's living through these 779 00:45:08,760 --> 00:45:11,640 Speaker 1: periods where there's like seven coups in two years, you 780 00:45:11,719 --> 00:45:15,239 Speaker 1: might just find yourself wanting someone strong enough to stop it, right, 781 00:45:15,600 --> 00:45:18,440 Speaker 1: someone who could actually hold onto power so everyone can 782 00:45:18,480 --> 00:45:22,040 Speaker 1: get their fucking breath like it he comes to like 783 00:45:22,160 --> 00:45:24,279 Speaker 1: Stressner is it's not going to be easy for him 784 00:45:24,320 --> 00:45:29,080 Speaker 1: to solidify power because Paraguay's famously unstable. But also he 785 00:45:29,160 --> 00:45:32,920 Speaker 1: has this benefit that very few dictators get, where everything 786 00:45:33,040 --> 00:45:35,680 Speaker 1: has been so bad for so long that people are 787 00:45:35,680 --> 00:45:38,120 Speaker 1: willing to put up with a lot from a dictator 788 00:45:38,320 --> 00:45:41,520 Speaker 1: if he can actually hold things together. And like we 789 00:45:41,600 --> 00:45:44,560 Speaker 1: talk about how the instability of the Weimar years contributed 790 00:45:44,560 --> 00:45:47,160 Speaker 1: to the rise of the Nazis, that's not a long 791 00:45:47,320 --> 00:45:50,080 Speaker 1: period of time. This is like a hundred something years 792 00:45:50,120 --> 00:45:55,200 Speaker 1: of constant chaos and bullshit. So given the fact that 793 00:45:55,239 --> 00:45:58,480 Speaker 1: Paraguay goes through presidents like porn directors go through lube, 794 00:45:58,719 --> 00:46:01,400 Speaker 1: the fact that Stressner managed just to make himself dictator 795 00:46:01,560 --> 00:46:04,200 Speaker 1: is again not in and of itself impressive. Someone had 796 00:46:04,200 --> 00:46:07,120 Speaker 1: managed to do that about every year since eighteen seventy. 797 00:46:07,320 --> 00:46:09,680 Speaker 1: What's impressive is that he'd held onto that title. For 798 00:46:10,200 --> 00:46:13,160 Speaker 1: he holds onto this title, he's in power for thirty 799 00:46:13,200 --> 00:46:19,040 Speaker 1: five years. That is almost unprecedented in world history. Saddam 800 00:46:19,160 --> 00:46:22,160 Speaker 1: rules Iraq less than thirty years. Stolenis in power for 801 00:46:22,160 --> 00:46:24,480 Speaker 1: like twenty nine years. MAOIs in power for like twenty 802 00:46:24,520 --> 00:46:28,600 Speaker 1: seven years. It is extremely uncommon for a dictator or 803 00:46:28,640 --> 00:46:31,640 Speaker 1: a king at any point in history to reign for 804 00:46:31,760 --> 00:46:35,040 Speaker 1: more than thirty years, very very rare. The fact that 805 00:46:35,080 --> 00:46:38,200 Speaker 1: Stressner does this in a place as unstable as Paraguay 806 00:46:38,560 --> 00:46:42,520 Speaker 1: means that he's doing something. He's doing something competent from 807 00:46:42,560 --> 00:46:46,080 Speaker 1: like a consolidation of power standpoint, right, He's good at 808 00:46:46,120 --> 00:46:48,520 Speaker 1: what he's doing, not not in a moral sense, but 809 00:46:48,640 --> 00:46:56,440 Speaker 1: justin This is not an easy situation to handle, so obviously, Yeah, 810 00:46:56,480 --> 00:46:58,279 Speaker 1: one of the things that Stressner has to deal with 811 00:46:58,320 --> 00:47:00,080 Speaker 1: as soon as he takes power is the fact that 812 00:47:00,480 --> 00:47:02,359 Speaker 1: there's going to be a million other people who are 813 00:47:02,520 --> 00:47:05,080 Speaker 1: already planning to coop him out of power and take 814 00:47:05,080 --> 00:47:07,880 Speaker 1: power themselves. And I want to quote now from an 815 00:47:07,960 --> 00:47:11,480 Speaker 1: article or from that book by Peter Lambert. At the 816 00:47:11,520 --> 00:47:13,840 Speaker 1: time of the nineteen fifty four coup, the different factions 817 00:47:13,840 --> 00:47:16,360 Speaker 1: within the Colorado Party supported Stressner in the belief that 818 00:47:16,360 --> 00:47:17,799 Speaker 1: they would be able to use him for their own 819 00:47:17,840 --> 00:47:20,640 Speaker 1: political inns in the event. However, before nineteen fifty six 820 00:47:20,680 --> 00:47:24,360 Speaker 1: and nineteen sixty six, Stressner manipulated existing factional divisions to 821 00:47:24,360 --> 00:47:27,880 Speaker 1: consolidate his own control over the Colorado Party. Through skillful 822 00:47:27,880 --> 00:47:31,880 Speaker 1: political maneuvering, Stressner selectively purged real or perceived party opposition. 823 00:47:32,200 --> 00:47:36,120 Speaker 1: Epifanio Mendez Flitez, the major political rifle to Stressner, was 824 00:47:36,160 --> 00:47:39,879 Speaker 1: isolated and exiled in nineteen fifty six. In nineteen fifty nine, 825 00:47:39,920 --> 00:47:43,600 Speaker 1: Stressner responded to rebellion within the Colorado Party by dissolving Congress, 826 00:47:43,800 --> 00:47:46,840 Speaker 1: sending troops onto the streets, and exiling four hundred members 827 00:47:46,840 --> 00:47:50,120 Speaker 1: of the more reformist Colorado Activists. The expulsion of his 828 00:47:50,200 --> 00:47:55,600 Speaker 1: powerful Minister of the Interior, Edgar L. Yesfnin in nineteen 829 00:47:55,680 --> 00:47:59,439 Speaker 1: sixty six, represented the final move in eliminating internal party 830 00:47:59,480 --> 00:48:02,720 Speaker 1: opposition and in bringing the party firmly under his control. 831 00:48:03,600 --> 00:48:06,360 Speaker 1: And that's like a kind of good high level overview 832 00:48:06,400 --> 00:48:09,640 Speaker 1: of what Stressner does to consolidate power. But it doesn't 833 00:48:09,640 --> 00:48:11,160 Speaker 1: provide a lot of texture. It's just sort of a 834 00:48:11,160 --> 00:48:13,160 Speaker 1: list of people who get purged and kicked out. So 835 00:48:13,200 --> 00:48:15,800 Speaker 1: I want to read another quote from that Vanity Fair article, 836 00:48:16,800 --> 00:48:19,800 Speaker 1: which deals with the story of a single person Stressner 837 00:48:19,840 --> 00:48:24,200 Speaker 1: had to suppress. Take, for instance, the case of Napoleon 838 00:48:24,320 --> 00:48:28,239 Speaker 1: or Togoza, an attractive upperclass cavalry officer who ended up 839 00:48:28,280 --> 00:48:31,480 Speaker 1: being the longest held political prisoner in Latin America. The 840 00:48:31,480 --> 00:48:33,880 Speaker 1: theories about why he was arrested are many in baroque, 841 00:48:33,960 --> 00:48:36,760 Speaker 1: but some of them involve a sinister plot to overthrow Stressner. 842 00:48:37,000 --> 00:48:39,759 Speaker 1: When a young cadet, Alberto Benitez was killed, either by 843 00:48:39,760 --> 00:48:42,560 Speaker 1: other officers to cover up a homosexual clique or because 844 00:48:42,600 --> 00:48:45,160 Speaker 1: he was tortured by the police as encouragement to reveal 845 00:48:45,280 --> 00:48:48,000 Speaker 1: details of a coup plot. The Minister of the Interior, 846 00:48:48,440 --> 00:48:51,719 Speaker 1: Edgar Yussunfran or so. One theory goes hit upon the 847 00:48:51,760 --> 00:48:54,560 Speaker 1: brilliant idea of pinning the murder on Ortogoza, who was 848 00:48:54,560 --> 00:48:56,719 Speaker 1: not actually involved in any plot yet, but was just 849 00:48:56,760 --> 00:48:58,960 Speaker 1: the sort you had to watch out for. Putting him 850 00:48:58,960 --> 00:49:01,400 Speaker 1: away would be what is known as an acapette, a 851 00:49:01,480 --> 00:49:04,360 Speaker 1: warning slap to anyone who got ideas about moving against 852 00:49:04,360 --> 00:49:07,000 Speaker 1: the president. Where it goes A's insistence on his complete 853 00:49:07,000 --> 00:49:09,520 Speaker 1: innocence fell on deaf ears. He was not allowed to 854 00:49:09,520 --> 00:49:11,440 Speaker 1: be present at his trial, and one of his lawyers 855 00:49:11,480 --> 00:49:13,879 Speaker 1: was arrested and beaten. He was condemned to death, although 856 00:49:13,920 --> 00:49:16,920 Speaker 1: Stressner later commuted the sentence to life imprisonment after a 857 00:49:16,960 --> 00:49:19,279 Speaker 1: priest threatened to break the seal of confession and tell 858 00:49:19,280 --> 00:49:23,560 Speaker 1: who the real murderers were. Um, so yeah, that's a 859 00:49:24,000 --> 00:49:28,800 Speaker 1: that's that's Stressner. That's how this guy wields and consolidates power. 860 00:49:30,400 --> 00:49:32,840 Speaker 1: Sounds like a nice guy, Yeah, it's yeah, it's a 861 00:49:32,840 --> 00:49:36,120 Speaker 1: pretty normal thing to do. He is such a nice 862 00:49:36,160 --> 00:49:39,279 Speaker 1: guy that he is given. We've gone through all of 863 00:49:39,280 --> 00:49:43,040 Speaker 1: these other dictator nicknames, Stressner gets the best of them, um, 864 00:49:43,280 --> 00:49:49,480 Speaker 1: because people just start calling him the tarrannosaur. What the 865 00:49:49,520 --> 00:49:56,920 Speaker 1: fuck for? Look, ye sons, he sounds like reptile if 866 00:49:57,560 --> 00:49:59,560 Speaker 1: honestly though, like, this guy's a piece of shit. But 867 00:49:59,560 --> 00:50:03,239 Speaker 1: if that's the nickname that you get, it's hard. That's 868 00:50:03,239 --> 00:50:05,600 Speaker 1: hard to beat. That's about as hard a nickname as 869 00:50:05,640 --> 00:50:11,160 Speaker 1: anyone's ever gotten. That bold and they give him that 870 00:50:11,200 --> 00:50:14,920 Speaker 1: in part because he becomes he's there. He's in power 871 00:50:14,960 --> 00:50:21,400 Speaker 1: for so long, right, he's like this ancient, implacable, malevolent force. Now, legally, 872 00:50:21,560 --> 00:50:24,920 Speaker 1: Paraguay continues to maintain the trappings of a democracy, including 873 00:50:24,920 --> 00:50:27,239 Speaker 1: a Congress that occasionally gets to vote on stuff that 874 00:50:27,280 --> 00:50:30,600 Speaker 1: doesn't matter. For example, since nineteen twenty nine, the country 875 00:50:30,600 --> 00:50:33,719 Speaker 1: had been in a legal state of siege, which suspended 876 00:50:33,760 --> 00:50:37,760 Speaker 1: civil liberties, including habeas corpus. Stressner continued this, and Congress 877 00:50:37,800 --> 00:50:41,560 Speaker 1: renewed the state of siege every ninety days. His justification 878 00:50:41,680 --> 00:50:45,040 Speaker 1: was the threat of communism, which pleased the Americans. Many 879 00:50:45,040 --> 00:50:48,000 Speaker 1: of the changes Stressner brought were initially positive. The biggest 880 00:50:48,000 --> 00:50:50,759 Speaker 1: achievement of his reign was simply staying in power, which 881 00:50:50,800 --> 00:50:52,759 Speaker 1: put an end to the ceaseless stream of coups and 882 00:50:52,760 --> 00:50:56,240 Speaker 1: civil conflicts that had racked Paraguay for generations. This allowed 883 00:50:56,280 --> 00:50:59,680 Speaker 1: the state to actually focus on delivering services to regular people. 884 00:51:00,120 --> 00:51:03,080 Speaker 1: One example of this would be Stressner's stabilization of the guarani, 885 00:51:03,320 --> 00:51:07,600 Speaker 1: Paraguay's currency, which had been essentially worthless for decades. He 886 00:51:07,680 --> 00:51:10,080 Speaker 1: set a peg for the currency's value at one hundred 887 00:51:10,120 --> 00:51:12,959 Speaker 1: and twenty five guarrani to one US dollar, and while 888 00:51:12,960 --> 00:51:16,399 Speaker 1: every other currency inflated rapidly in South America during this 889 00:51:16,400 --> 00:51:18,600 Speaker 1: period of time, he was able to use the hammer 890 00:51:18,600 --> 00:51:21,880 Speaker 1: of state power to keep the guarani locked into place. However, 891 00:51:22,040 --> 00:51:24,960 Speaker 1: as Alex Shomatov notes, there was a price for all this. 892 00:51:25,280 --> 00:51:27,880 Speaker 1: When student and labor groups demonstrated in the Recession of 893 00:51:27,920 --> 00:51:30,799 Speaker 1: fifty nine, he crushed them. When the Congress objected, the 894 00:51:30,800 --> 00:51:34,040 Speaker 1: police brutality against students protesting a bus fare increase, he 895 00:51:34,120 --> 00:51:37,120 Speaker 1: dissolved it. The downside to order and progress. With Stressner 896 00:51:37,200 --> 00:51:39,480 Speaker 1: was one of the largest military and police to general 897 00:51:39,480 --> 00:51:42,640 Speaker 1: population ratios in the world and the highest proportion of 898 00:51:42,719 --> 00:51:46,120 Speaker 1: unsentenced prisoners in the Western hemisphere. He purged the old 899 00:51:46,200 --> 00:51:49,240 Speaker 1: generals and four hundred of the old democraticos and replaced 900 00:51:49,239 --> 00:51:51,640 Speaker 1: them with loyal members of the Bandwagon. Membership in the 901 00:51:51,640 --> 00:51:55,160 Speaker 1: party became compulsory for military officers and civil sergeants and 902 00:51:55,280 --> 00:51:57,880 Speaker 1: strongly advised for anyone else who wanted to get anywhere. 903 00:51:58,160 --> 00:52:00,520 Speaker 1: In the various sham elections, he received more votes in 904 00:52:00,600 --> 00:52:03,600 Speaker 1: some rural areas than there were registered voters. His heavy 905 00:52:03,680 --> 00:52:06,800 Speaker 1: leonine face was posted everywhere, and radio stations began the 906 00:52:06,920 --> 00:52:10,840 Speaker 1: day with the don Alfredo Polka polka, followed by the 907 00:52:10,840 --> 00:52:14,520 Speaker 1: message the Constitutional President of the Republic, General Alfredo Stressner, 908 00:52:14,640 --> 00:52:17,640 Speaker 1: salutes the Paraguayan people and wishes them a prosperous day. 909 00:52:18,440 --> 00:52:22,640 Speaker 1: So this is like one of the more effective police 910 00:52:22,640 --> 00:52:25,920 Speaker 1: states I've ever seen anyone institute. And he does it 911 00:52:25,960 --> 00:52:28,600 Speaker 1: in a He comes to power in a state where 912 00:52:28,640 --> 00:52:30,800 Speaker 1: like holding on for more than two years is almost 913 00:52:30,880 --> 00:52:34,040 Speaker 1: unheard of, and in a couple of years, he has 914 00:52:34,080 --> 00:52:39,319 Speaker 1: created like the most policed country in the Americas, which 915 00:52:39,360 --> 00:52:42,600 Speaker 1: is interesting to me. He's very he's a very fast 916 00:52:42,640 --> 00:52:46,880 Speaker 1: and efficient worker. Yeah that he's like he like builds 917 00:52:46,920 --> 00:52:51,880 Speaker 1: a state around himself, Yes, yeah, around himself and his 918 00:52:53,200 --> 00:52:56,000 Speaker 1: maintenance of power. But he also gives people a reason 919 00:52:56,120 --> 00:52:58,080 Speaker 1: for wanting him to stay in power, which is that, 920 00:52:58,440 --> 00:53:01,600 Speaker 1: for one thing, we're not dealing with these constant overthrows 921 00:53:01,640 --> 00:53:04,359 Speaker 1: of the government anymore. And as a result, while there's 922 00:53:04,400 --> 00:53:06,480 Speaker 1: all this chaos in a lot of other parts of 923 00:53:06,520 --> 00:53:10,160 Speaker 1: Latin America, that's not happening here, and our currency is 924 00:53:10,200 --> 00:53:13,000 Speaker 1: maintaining its value. It's kind of worth noting we're about 925 00:53:13,000 --> 00:53:15,960 Speaker 1: to talk about the US is very involved in Stressner's regime, 926 00:53:16,280 --> 00:53:18,839 Speaker 1: but this is the only country this is and they're 927 00:53:18,920 --> 00:53:24,080 Speaker 1: part of Operation Condor, right, um. But Paraguay is the 928 00:53:24,120 --> 00:53:27,600 Speaker 1: only country that's involved in Condor that the CIA doesn't 929 00:53:28,000 --> 00:53:31,319 Speaker 1: do any domestic like they don't have to fund any 930 00:53:31,400 --> 00:53:35,160 Speaker 1: right wing rebel groups. They don't need to. He has 931 00:53:35,280 --> 00:53:38,560 Speaker 1: such a hold on power, um. And you know, there's 932 00:53:38,560 --> 00:53:40,600 Speaker 1: other things that he does during the early period of 933 00:53:40,640 --> 00:53:44,080 Speaker 1: his reign, development projects that provide a lot of jobs 934 00:53:44,080 --> 00:53:47,080 Speaker 1: for Paraguayans. He builds a road to Brazil that brings 935 00:53:47,080 --> 00:53:50,560 Speaker 1: new options for trade while he has people build that road. Uh, 936 00:53:50,560 --> 00:53:53,480 Speaker 1: and he like when he comes to power, there's no 937 00:53:53,560 --> 00:53:56,480 Speaker 1: storm drains in the capital, there's no running water, really, 938 00:53:56,600 --> 00:53:59,880 Speaker 1: there's not regular electricity. All of those things come to 939 00:54:00,120 --> 00:54:03,319 Speaker 1: the capitol like once Stressner is in power. And a 940 00:54:03,320 --> 00:54:05,360 Speaker 1: part of that's just because like, well, we're not fighting 941 00:54:05,360 --> 00:54:07,600 Speaker 1: this endless series of coups anymore, so we can spend 942 00:54:07,680 --> 00:54:12,600 Speaker 1: some of our resources on making this place livable. A 943 00:54:12,640 --> 00:54:14,400 Speaker 1: lot of why he has the money to do this 944 00:54:14,840 --> 00:54:18,479 Speaker 1: is because he decides to bill himself as an anti communist. Now, 945 00:54:18,840 --> 00:54:22,280 Speaker 1: there's people who will argue that he was not really ideologically, 946 00:54:22,360 --> 00:54:24,080 Speaker 1: he didn't really care one way or the other. He 947 00:54:24,120 --> 00:54:25,759 Speaker 1: would have been a socialist if that had been the 948 00:54:25,800 --> 00:54:28,480 Speaker 1: way for Stressner to be in power. Right, that's a 949 00:54:28,520 --> 00:54:31,080 Speaker 1: thing that some people will argue. But he's he's wise 950 00:54:31,200 --> 00:54:33,719 Speaker 1: enough to see that, like, well, it's the nineteen fifties 951 00:54:33,719 --> 00:54:37,440 Speaker 1: and sixties. If I bill myself as an anti communist, 952 00:54:37,600 --> 00:54:40,480 Speaker 1: I can get a lot of that sweet ass America money. 953 00:54:40,640 --> 00:54:44,880 Speaker 1: And you know, that's that's kind of the best way 954 00:54:44,960 --> 00:54:49,480 Speaker 1: to improve your material base in Latin America at this 955 00:54:49,520 --> 00:54:52,920 Speaker 1: period of time is have like the CIA black budget, 956 00:54:52,960 --> 00:54:56,680 Speaker 1: shotgun money your way. So the month after he takes 957 00:54:56,719 --> 00:55:00,600 Speaker 1: power in fifty four, US development aid to Paraguay increases 958 00:55:00,600 --> 00:55:04,120 Speaker 1: by fifty percent. Between nineteen fifty four and nineteen sixty, 959 00:55:04,160 --> 00:55:06,880 Speaker 1: the country gets twenty four million dollars from US, and 960 00:55:06,960 --> 00:55:10,120 Speaker 1: we send advisors and CIA agents into Paraguay to train 961 00:55:10,200 --> 00:55:14,120 Speaker 1: the police in advanced torture techniques because he's like, we're 962 00:55:14,120 --> 00:55:17,480 Speaker 1: not good enough at torturing, and America is like, oh no, 963 00:55:17,600 --> 00:55:20,040 Speaker 1: we got guys who know to do that. We'll get 964 00:55:20,080 --> 00:55:22,759 Speaker 1: him right in there. And the reward for the US 965 00:55:22,840 --> 00:55:26,880 Speaker 1: here is eighteen In nineteen fifty eight, Nixon tries to 966 00:55:26,920 --> 00:55:29,120 Speaker 1: go to Venezuela. He goes to Venezuela and he gets 967 00:55:29,160 --> 00:55:33,000 Speaker 1: like pelted with rocks. But then he heads to Paraguay 968 00:55:33,040 --> 00:55:36,280 Speaker 1: afterwards and he's like met in the street with adoring crowd. 969 00:55:36,360 --> 00:55:39,520 Speaker 1: Stressner stage manages it. Nixon gets a great photo op 970 00:55:39,560 --> 00:55:42,920 Speaker 1: out of the situation, so you know, it's all worthwhile 971 00:55:43,000 --> 00:55:46,680 Speaker 1: for the US. We got Nixon got a nice photo. Yeah, 972 00:55:46,719 --> 00:55:48,919 Speaker 1: whether yeah that makes her styles today. Yeah, I've seen 973 00:55:48,960 --> 00:55:51,480 Speaker 1: the photo of Dixon getting pelted with rocks and I 974 00:55:51,520 --> 00:55:55,400 Speaker 1: used to live in Venezuela, and yeah, that's a proud moment. 975 00:55:55,400 --> 00:56:00,960 Speaker 1: Proud moment. Yeah, like I've been shamed of course, Like 976 00:56:01,080 --> 00:56:03,920 Speaker 1: that is what what what could be prouder than throwing 977 00:56:03,920 --> 00:56:06,440 Speaker 1: a rock at Richard Nixon? Not enough people in this 978 00:56:06,480 --> 00:56:09,200 Speaker 1: country through fucking rocks Richard Nixon. If we're being on it, 979 00:56:09,280 --> 00:56:12,440 Speaker 1: we should all have been throwing rocks at Richard Nixon. 980 00:56:12,480 --> 00:56:16,799 Speaker 1: That is beyond debate. That's really a bipartisan consensus on that. 981 00:56:16,840 --> 00:56:22,399 Speaker 1: I feel like we could end at the Cold War. Yeah, 982 00:56:22,480 --> 00:56:25,880 Speaker 1: but enough people throwing enough rocks at him. The old 983 00:56:25,920 --> 00:56:29,520 Speaker 1: people of Venezuela picked up where we left off. Yeah, tragically. 984 00:56:29,560 --> 00:56:32,400 Speaker 1: In Paraguay, stress is able to stop any rock throwing. 985 00:56:32,800 --> 00:56:35,680 Speaker 1: Now that same year, the same year Nixon visits, fifty eight, 986 00:56:35,719 --> 00:56:38,799 Speaker 1: a left wing guerrilla leader attempts to invade Paraguay. He 987 00:56:38,880 --> 00:56:41,440 Speaker 1: brings with him four hundred and fifty eight soldiers trained 988 00:56:41,440 --> 00:56:44,840 Speaker 1: in Argentina who attempted to infiltrate the country and start 989 00:56:44,880 --> 00:56:49,360 Speaker 1: recruiting for an insurgent war. Stressner's CIA backed security. Basically, 990 00:56:49,360 --> 00:56:52,240 Speaker 1: the CIA learns this is happening, and they warned Stressner, 991 00:56:52,520 --> 00:56:55,759 Speaker 1: and he sends six thousand soldiers to crack down. Most 992 00:56:55,800 --> 00:56:58,520 Speaker 1: of these guys are gunned down, but the survivors are 993 00:56:58,560 --> 00:57:01,680 Speaker 1: taken and put in to like helicopters and dropped into 994 00:57:01,680 --> 00:57:07,279 Speaker 1: Piranha filled waters. Yeah, it seemed to become Pitia ship 995 00:57:07,400 --> 00:57:10,880 Speaker 1: for proud boys. Yeah. That said, if you are the 996 00:57:10,960 --> 00:57:12,640 Speaker 1: kind of person who's willing to play ball with a 997 00:57:12,719 --> 00:57:16,640 Speaker 1: vicious authoritarian, Stressner's regime is not the worst time that 998 00:57:16,720 --> 00:57:19,280 Speaker 1: you will have had in your lifetime in Paraguay, right, 999 00:57:20,400 --> 00:57:23,400 Speaker 1: at least not in the early period of time. However, 1000 00:57:23,520 --> 00:57:26,360 Speaker 1: the fact that he has made his country a stable 1001 00:57:26,440 --> 00:57:29,959 Speaker 1: place that is very friendly for right wing authoritarians makes 1002 00:57:29,960 --> 00:57:33,040 Speaker 1: it an enticing getaway for a very specific group of 1003 00:57:33,080 --> 00:57:39,080 Speaker 1: people escaped Nazi war criminals. So this is good. We're 1004 00:57:39,080 --> 00:57:41,160 Speaker 1: getting to a real fun part of the story here. 1005 00:57:42,080 --> 00:57:44,960 Speaker 1: Paraguay's got this fascinating history with Germany. We've kind of 1006 00:57:44,960 --> 00:57:46,840 Speaker 1: talked about some bits of it, right, and this is 1007 00:57:46,840 --> 00:57:48,760 Speaker 1: the whole region. Right, You've got like you've got guys 1008 00:57:48,760 --> 00:57:52,280 Speaker 1: like von Kunt going over to Bolivia, Paraguay gets its 1009 00:57:52,280 --> 00:57:55,000 Speaker 1: own Germans like as we you know, as I noted, 1010 00:57:55,040 --> 00:57:59,880 Speaker 1: Stressner's dad is a Bavarian. In eighteen eighty six, Bernard Foster, 1011 00:58:00,360 --> 00:58:03,200 Speaker 1: who is the brother in law of Friedrich Nietzsche, had 1012 00:58:03,280 --> 00:58:07,680 Speaker 1: moved to Paraguay. He moves there because he's like number one. 1013 00:58:08,080 --> 00:58:10,880 Speaker 1: Eighteen eighty six when Forster moves to Paraguay is like 1014 00:58:10,960 --> 00:58:14,040 Speaker 1: the immediate wake of that horrible, devastating war. And so 1015 00:58:14,120 --> 00:58:18,480 Speaker 1: Paraguay is like, we will give Europeans money if they 1016 00:58:18,480 --> 00:58:24,880 Speaker 1: will immigrate here and help us have like make enough people, 1017 00:58:25,120 --> 00:58:28,520 Speaker 1: like we need your come right, we need we need 1018 00:58:28,560 --> 00:58:30,760 Speaker 1: a lot of We need all the seamen we can 1019 00:58:30,800 --> 00:58:35,880 Speaker 1: get right now, there are not many of us left. Um. 1020 00:58:36,120 --> 00:58:39,120 Speaker 1: So that's when Forster comes over. And Forster also has 1021 00:58:39,160 --> 00:58:41,920 Speaker 1: come related plans, but much more racist ones than the 1022 00:58:41,960 --> 00:58:46,280 Speaker 1: Paraguayan government, because he is a philosopher of anti Semitism. 1023 00:58:46,600 --> 00:58:50,520 Speaker 1: And to Forster, the primary appeal of Paraguay is that 1024 00:58:50,560 --> 00:58:53,240 Speaker 1: it doesn't have any Jewish people, right, it does, but 1025 00:58:53,280 --> 00:58:55,920 Speaker 1: it doesn't have a lot of them. Um. And he's like, well, 1026 00:58:56,160 --> 00:59:00,080 Speaker 1: since this country is basically free of Jewish influence, and 1027 00:59:00,200 --> 00:59:02,920 Speaker 1: use this country's policy to move a bunch of Arians 1028 00:59:02,960 --> 00:59:06,400 Speaker 1: in and create weather Germania. You know this, uh, this 1029 00:59:06,400 --> 00:59:12,960 Speaker 1: this German paradise in Paraguay. Um, Now this is obviously 1030 00:59:14,920 --> 00:59:18,160 Speaker 1: and it doesn't work for shit, Yeah, it is. It 1031 00:59:18,280 --> 00:59:20,000 Speaker 1: is not going to succeed. And I'm going to read 1032 00:59:20,240 --> 00:59:23,720 Speaker 1: quote from an article by Nick Farizos. Here. Forster, his 1033 00:59:23,760 --> 00:59:26,760 Speaker 1: wife Elizabeth, and fourteen families from Saxon, he crossed the 1034 00:59:26,800 --> 00:59:29,360 Speaker 1: Atlantic and the dead of winter and reached Paraguay in 1035 00:59:29,400 --> 00:59:31,880 Speaker 1: the swelter of summer. They carved a settlement out of 1036 00:59:31,880 --> 00:59:34,920 Speaker 1: the rainforest northeast of the capital of Suncion, but the 1037 00:59:34,960 --> 00:59:38,520 Speaker 1: isolated community was soon infested with bugs, burrowing into fingernails 1038 00:59:38,520 --> 00:59:44,800 Speaker 1: and toenails and laying eggs beneath the skin. Yes, fucking 1039 00:59:44,840 --> 00:59:49,200 Speaker 1: hates an anti semitis this next part, James, You're going 1040 00:59:49,240 --> 00:59:53,040 Speaker 1: to really like. Their indigenous neighbors knew the cure, but colonists. 1041 00:59:53,080 --> 00:59:58,680 Speaker 1: The colonists refused to consult an inferior race, sitting there like, yeah, man, 1042 00:59:58,720 --> 01:00:00,560 Speaker 1: we got like a plant. We just rub on us 1043 01:00:00,600 --> 01:00:06,480 Speaker 1: to deal with that. Oh you're dying. That's cool. Foisted 1044 01:00:06,520 --> 01:00:10,400 Speaker 1: on his own patime. He'd love to see it. The 1045 01:00:10,520 --> 01:00:13,600 Speaker 1: strict colonies. Young bucks pounded nails into the coffin of 1046 01:00:13,600 --> 01:00:16,400 Speaker 1: an unsullied aryan New Germany when they began betting and 1047 01:00:16,440 --> 01:00:19,880 Speaker 1: wedding local women. Plagued by sickness and unpaid bank loans, 1048 01:00:20,080 --> 01:00:22,520 Speaker 1: Forster retreated to the Hotel de Lago in the town 1049 01:00:22,560 --> 01:00:26,080 Speaker 1: of San Bernardino in eighteen ninety nine and committed suicide 1050 01:00:26,080 --> 01:00:29,480 Speaker 1: by shooting up with morphine and strychnine nine in room nineteen. 1051 01:00:30,040 --> 01:00:35,480 Speaker 1: So hey, good to this episode. Frederick Nazer's shitty ass 1052 01:00:35,560 --> 01:00:40,360 Speaker 1: brother in law kills himself. That's nights. Nietzsche really inspired 1053 01:00:40,360 --> 01:00:44,320 Speaker 1: some great suicide. Boy. We're going to talk more about 1054 01:00:44,320 --> 01:00:48,600 Speaker 1: Bernard Forrester next episode, and a lot more about the Nazis. James, 1055 01:00:48,640 --> 01:00:52,479 Speaker 1: We're not nearly done with the Nazi portion of this episode. O. Good, great, good. 1056 01:00:52,720 --> 01:00:57,280 Speaker 1: But speaking of Nazis, I know that's not a good 1057 01:00:57,280 --> 01:01:01,680 Speaker 1: way to lead into plugs. Not speaking of Natz Yeah, yeah, 1058 01:01:03,080 --> 01:01:07,040 Speaker 1: how how where do you get to plug? James? Oh yeah, 1059 01:01:07,120 --> 01:01:10,440 Speaker 1: definitely not any Naties. Actually, I've returned to Twitter after 1060 01:01:10,520 --> 01:01:15,120 Speaker 1: my band so people for now now, yeah, until until 1061 01:01:15,160 --> 01:01:17,680 Speaker 1: I post another picture of Mussolini hanging out with his friends, 1062 01:01:17,760 --> 01:01:21,720 Speaker 1: and then I'll be that that is that is James 1063 01:01:21,720 --> 01:01:25,720 Speaker 1: stout Um. And yeah, I also do a podcast with 1064 01:01:25,800 --> 01:01:28,920 Speaker 1: you and Sophie and several of our other friends and colleagues. 1065 01:01:29,040 --> 01:01:32,080 Speaker 1: It's called It Could Happen here. People should listen to it. 1066 01:01:32,080 --> 01:01:41,360 Speaker 1: It's got some banging episodes. Yeah, all right, enough legendary, 1067 01:01:41,400 --> 01:01:47,680 Speaker 1: All right, all right, legendary. Okay, everybody, that's the end 1068 01:01:47,720 --> 01:01:55,840 Speaker 1: of the episode. Go. You know. Yeah, bugs anti Semites 1069 01:01:55,880 --> 01:01:59,560 Speaker 1: wants to eat. Yeah yeah. My advice would be, if 1070 01:02:00,040 --> 01:02:03,400 Speaker 1: you're too racist to stop the bugs from eating your fingers, 1071 01:02:03,880 --> 01:02:08,920 Speaker 1: maybe you rethink your politics. Or take a ship ton 1072 01:02:09,000 --> 01:02:12,360 Speaker 1: of morphine. I don't care. Yeah, yeah, honestly, the morphine 1073 01:02:12,400 --> 01:02:14,400 Speaker 1: in stryct nine works fine too. If you're a Nazi, 1074 01:02:14,560 --> 01:02:17,760 Speaker 1: I'm fine either way. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, you won't 1075 01:02:17,800 --> 01:02:21,520 Speaker 1: find me crying Behind the Bastards is a production of 1076 01:02:21,640 --> 01:02:24,640 Speaker 1: cool Zone Media. For more from cool Zone Media, visit 1077 01:02:24,680 --> 01:02:28,240 Speaker 1: our website cool zonemedia dot com, or check us out 1078 01:02:28,320 --> 01:02:31,240 Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get 1079 01:02:31,320 --> 01:02:31,920 Speaker 1: your podcasts.