PARAGUAY

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

PARAGUAY. —

I. GEOGRAPHY

The smaller (407,000 sq. km.) of the two landlocked states of South America, enclosed by Brazil, Argentina, and Bolivia. The territory, almost entirely flat, lies within the Paraná-Paraguay river basin, which, together with their tributaries (Ipané, Jejuy, Tebicuray), forms an excellent network of navigable waterways.

The land is well suited both to agriculture and to livestock raising; it has substantial forest resources (29% of the surface area) and fair mineral potential (iron, manganese, copper), but its development is slowed by the constraints imposed by its international communications and, generally, by the inadequacy of its internal transport network. Because of climatic conditions, subtropical crops prevail (sugar cane, cotton, tobacco), as well as maize, cassava, and rice; among fruits, citrus (notable for the essential oil of petitgrain extracted from orange leaves); viticulture has been introduced only recently. Livestock raising has also made progress (3.4 million head of cattle). Timber and yerba mate account for substantial export quantities. Industry is modest and of local importance.

Of the 1.4 million inhabitants (3 per sq. km.), two-thirds are Amerindian, slightly less than one-third are mestizo, and fewer than one-tenth are white. The capital, Asunción (250,000 inhabitants), is the only significant inhabited center. Roman Catholicism is by far the dominant religion; pagans are, however, numerous. Paraguay is a unitary republic (comprising 17 departments), governed by a president, an elective chamber, and a State Council appointed by the president.

II. HISTORY

During the 17th century, the Consejo de las Indias became the true Paraguay, with Asunción as its capital, out of the provinces of the Río de la Plata. In accordance with precise Madrid directives, local government was entrusted to democratically constituted councils, in which, in addition to Spaniards, mestizos and natives participated. Animated by the desire and will to improve and prosper their cities, they were not disheartened by the difficulties they encountered and thus became the architects of the full development of their country (see RIDUZIONI).

The last “revolution of the communes,” the most complex, broke out in 1725 and ended in 1739; it was provoked by the clash of interests between the communes and the Missions organized as autonomous entities.

Replaced, by popular fury, Governor Diego de Reyes Balmaceda (protector of the Missions) with José Antequera y Castro, with the support of the juntas of the major centers, in 1725 the insurgents expelled the Jesuits from Asunción, where they had been in their colleges, initiating a veritable struggle against the Missions, reaching the point of clashes in the streets and countryside. The situation, always tense—especially on the part of Paraguayans who did not passively accept a series of vexatious measures imposed by the Viceroy of Lima—ended, from a military standpoint, in 1739, but found its true conclusion only in 1768 with the expulsion of the Jesuits from Paraguay.

At the beginning of the 19th century, as the insurrectional movement of the provinces of the Río de la Plata against Spain began and Buenos Aires declared itself independent (25 May 1810), the Paraguayans also sought full independence while maintaining good relations with neighboring Buenos Aires. Faced with this firm stance, the Argentine army under Manuel Belgrano invaded Paraguay in September 1810, but was obliged to leave the country at the beginning of 1811. Having achieved its objective, the General Governing Junta convened for the first time on 18 May. After securing complete independence from Spain and a policy of good neighborliness with Argentina—which Buenos Aires accepted with the Treaty of 12 October 1811—the Congress reconvened. Two years later, in 1813, it met again, decreeing the notification and ratification of independence, the adoption of the name “Republic of Paraguay,” the drafting of a government regulation, and the transfer of executive power to two consuls, namely, Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia and Fulgencio Yegros. In 1814, however, the dictatorship of Francia began and lasted until his death (1840). Always fearing a possible war with Argentina, Francia reorganized the army and removed from office employees who did not follow his directives. Despite his anticlerical and isolationist policies, he brought some benefits to the country.

Yet what Francia and his successor, Carlos Antonio López, had accomplished was gravely compromised by Francisco Solano López. During the period in which F. S. López held power (1862–70), war broke out between Paraguay and the Argentine-Brazilian-Uruguayan alliance. The war ended with the victory of the South American tripartite alliance, despite some Paraguayan successes. López, who had resorted to every kind of intimidation and continuous acts of cruelty against those who, understanding the futility of the struggle, sought to make peace in time, and who had especially persecuted the clergy—even executing Bishop Palacios de Bergas on the charge of participation in a conspiracy against him—fell at the head of his troops at Cerro Corá on 1 March 1870.

The recovery of Paraguay was slow and arduous, and economic life benefited greatly from agreements with Argentina and Brazil. As the Republic began to recover, despite internal conflicts between the Colorado (conservative) and Liberal-Radical parties, the question of the Bolivian Chaco arose in confrontation with Bolivia (1880). Bolivia, claiming that the Chaco region had been part of its territory during the colonial era, laid claim to II. After all attempts at agreement failed, armed conflict between the two states began in the Chaco in December 1928. The Pan-American Congress first, and then the League of Nations, sought a peaceful solution but failed to prevent the resumption of hostilities in 1930, which continued with varying fortunes until the end of 1934. Finally, with the mediation of Argentina, Brazil, Peru, and Uruguay, an armistice was reached in June 1935, followed by the definitive peace treaty signed in Buenos Aires on 21 July 1938, which recognized most of the Chaco to Paraguay.

Following the Japanese-American War, the P. not only declared itself in solidarity with the U.S.A. but also severed relations with the Tripartite nations (1942), thereby managing to enjoy a period of calm internally (1942–44) thanks to North American aid and war orders placed with the Republic. After the war, conditions gradually returned to their former state, and until April 1948 a succession of uprisings, plots, and coups d'état occurred among the various parties (notable was the *juego rojo* = "red game," an offshoot of the Colorado party). The current president, for the period 1949–54, is Dr. Federico Chaves.

Nardo Naldoni

III. EVANGELIZATION

In 1585 the Jesuits arrived in the territory of La Plata, founding in 1606 the province of the P., which included, besides the present-day P., Argentina, Uruguay, southern Brazil, and at first even part of Chile. Their principal activity developed from 1610 among the Guaycurú and Guaraní Indians, establishing the P. at Buenos Aires (q.v.). Frs. Roque González, Alonso Rodríguez, and Juan del Castillo suffered martyrdom in 1628 (beatified in 1934 by Pius XI), yet the Jesuits continued their successful work among the various Indian tribes, gathering them into villages governed by missionaries. Raids by the Paulistas (1628–41) destroyed the *reducciones* of the Guaycurú and Tupi. Subsequently, the Indian villages were concentrated along the Paraná and Uruguay rivers (in the present-day P., the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, and the Argentine province of Misiones), forming a distinct geographical entity, often called the Jesuit State of the P. because of its isolation and special government. In the 18th century, the Jesuits extended their missionary and *reducción* activity to other tribes west of the Paraná, including the Chiquitos, Mocobíes, Tobas, and Abipones. In 1767 the Jesuits were expelled. Administration of the *reducciones* passed to the Spanish, and spiritual direction to the Franciscans. Many Indians, however, fled back into the forests, and by 1796 the former Jesuit State, which at its height in 1731 had numbered 141,242 souls, was reduced to 45,000.

Border wars between Spain and Portugal, the proclamation of Paraguayan independence in 1811, the dictatorship of José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia (1811–40), who in 1823 suppressed the convents, deposed the bishop, and arrogated to himself the appointment of all ecclesiastics, and the bloody war under Francisco Solano López (1862–70) caused immense damage to the Church life of the P. and completely destroyed missionary activity among unconverted Indians. The Constitution of 1870 declared Roman Catholicism the state religion.

IV. ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION

1. Metropolitan See: S. MARIA DE LA ASUNCIÓN (1547), also known as Paraguay; S. MARIA DE LA CONCEPCIÓN EN EL PARAGUAY (established 10 May 1929 as Concepción and Chaco, renamed 16 July 1949); VILLARICA (established 1 May 1929).

2. Apostolic Vicariates: CHACO PARAGUAYANO (established 11 March 1948), PILCOMAYO (established 14 July 1950).

Giovanni Rommerskirchen

V. THE BLESSED MARTYRS OF THE P

R. González, born of a family of old Spanish conquistadors in Asunción (P.) in 1576, studied at the Jesuit College in that city and, ordained priest in 1598 or 1599, was elected parish priest of the cathedral. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1609 and in 1611 succeeded Fr. M. Lorenzana in organizing and completing the first