Home > Andrés Rodríguez

He was closely linked to Stroessner, amassing a great deal of money from smuggling under that regime. He was also banned from the United States on suspicion of profiting from heroin trafficking.

On 2 February 1989, to the surprise of many, Rodríguez launched a coup, with the backing of much of the Catholic Church, and of the US Government, who no longer valued Stroessner as an ally against CommunismThis article is about communism as a form of society, as an ideology advocating that form of society, and as a popular movement. For issues regarding the organization of the communist movement, see the Communist party article. For issues regarding one-par and were keen to see some democracyA democracy is a form of government under which the power to alter the laws and structures of government lies with the voting citizenry (referred to as "the people", because in modern times it usually consists of all people over 18 years of age), and all in the country. With this support, the coup quickly succeeded, with Stroessner fleeing the country within days.

In order to satisfy his backers, Rodríguez abolished the death penalty, withdrew martial lawMartial law is the system of rules that takes effect (usually after a formal declaration) when a particular situation requires that a military authority take control of the normal administration of justice (and usually of the whole state). Martial law is and tried and imprisoned some leading members of the Stroessner government. He also instituted multi-party elections, the first of which he won, representing the Colorado PartyThe Colorado Party ( Spanish: Partido Colorado is a political party in Paraguay. Founded in 1887 by Bernardino Caballero, it is a conservative party and current president Nicanor Duarte Frutos is a member. See also: List of political parties in Paraguay,. Suffering from cancer, he stood down in 1993 and was succeeded by Juan Carlos Wasmosy.